Cîteaux (Cistercium), Abbey of

CÎTEAUX (Cistercium), Abbey of. - Also called New Monastery, perhaps in relation to Molesme, it was founded by St. Robert (v.), abbot of Molesme. The latter, desirous of a life more in conformity with the rigor of the Benedictine Rule, on 21 March 1898, betook himself with twenty monks to the solitude of Cîteaux in the Côte-d'Or not far from Dijon, a damp and wooded place, the property of Viscount Renaud, where he built a wooden house and a rough chapel dedicated to the Virgin. But, due to the scarcity of water, the religious withdrew a few years later to the nearby river Vouge, where they built the archicenobium, which perhaps took its name from the pools (Latin cisterna) formed by the Vouge, the Sans-Fond and the Coindon, or also from "Cistels," a French name (Latin palustres iunii), whence the Italian name Cistella.

The strong organizational will of the third abbot of C., St. Stephen Harding (1109-34), who admitted to the religious life the young Bernard of Fontaines and his thirty companions (1112), made the new abbey the driving center of the incipient Cistercian Order (v.), which spread with surprising rapidity throughout all of Europe, so much so that, toward the end of the 12th century, it was customary to say with a touch of emphasis "totus mundus Cistercium est."

But after the golden period of more than two centuries, the decline of the Order began and therefore of the Monastery itself, which was plundered several times between the 14th and 17th centuries. The last abbot, Fr. Trouvé, was forced to abandon his office because of the suppression of 13 Feb. 1791, after having built a large wing of the monastery. The abbey complex was sold for the sum of 862,000 francs (4 May 1791). In 1864 a penal colony directed by the Brothers of St. Joseph was established there until 1888, and it was then used as a house of correction. In 1898 the monastery was redeemed by the Reformed Cistercians or Trappists and is by right that of the Abbot General, who however resides in Rome. Of the ancient monastery and the ancient church nothing now remains. The church of grandiose proportions was consecrated on 17 Oct. 1193. Notable is its quadrangular apse, which became typical in Cistercian architecture. The archive and the library are dispersed.

Goffredo Venuta