BERNARD OF TIRON. — Benedictine abbot and reformer, born in the territory of Abbeville (hence also called BERNARD OF ABBEVILLE) c. 1046, died at Tiron on 14 or 25 April 1117. After attaining a high degree of learning while still young, at the age of twenty he embraced the monastic life in the abbey of Saint-Cyprien in Poitiers. Bernard had been a monk for only a short time when he became prior of Saint-Savin. In that office he displayed particular zeal for strict observance of the Rule and even succeeded in turning his abbot, Gervasius, away from his lax and simoniacal sympathies. Upon the death of that abbot, to avoid being elected abbot himself, he fled into the forests of the Maine, where he joined others already leading an eremitical life; but obedience called him back to the abbey of Saint-Cyprien, of which he was shortly afterwards elected abbot.
During his abbacy Bernard had much to suffer for his monastery, which he had to defend first against the Duke of Aquitaine and then against the Cluniacs, who claimed ancient rights over Saint-Cyprien. The latter dispute reached particularly painful moments, and Bernard was compelled to leave the abbey by order of Pope Paschal II. He thus returned to the eremitical life, but remained there only briefly, as he was persuaded by his monks to plead the monastery’s cause in Rome. Having obtained justice, he was reinstated in his office. A new trial, however, came from the monks of Saint-Cyprien themselves, who found the discipline established by their abbot too rigorous. On a second journey to Rome Bernard won his case; indeed, the Pope offered him the cardinalate, which Bernard refused in order to return to the monastic life, but not again to Saint-Cyprien. After a few more attempts to introduce his reform into existing monasteries, encountering further hostility from the Cluniac environment, in
1141 BERNARD OF TIRON — BERNARDUS LOMBARDI
1144 he founded the abbey of the Holy Trinity at Tiron (Eure-et-Loir). There he impressed upon monastic observance the primitive austerity; many came to place themselves under his guidance. The growing number of disciples required new foundations in France and England, while lords and princes made generous donations. The schools of Tiron were long renowned and frequented, surviving until the French Revolution.
For the impetus given to monastic life, recalled to the best traditions of observance and discipline, the movement begun by Bernard is linked to the currents of the time that sought a return to the ancient spirit of solitude and recollection, renouncing participation in political and ecclesiastical controversies, which had been a cause of much distraction in the life of Cluniac monasteries. Bernard’s experiment succeeded; hence he earned the title of “reformer” of the Order of Saint Benedict.
Bernard was distinguished not only for his activity but also for his holy life, marked by a desire for solitude and austerity combined with great charity toward his disciples. In his abbey he welcomed not only zealous monks from other monasteries but also persons of a most wretched past, and to all he knew how to point the way to conversion. The Benedictine martyrology commemorates him on 14 April.