Cîteaux (Cistercium), Abbey of. — Also called New Monastery, perhaps in contrast to Molesme, it was founded by St. Robert (q.v.), abbot of Molesme. Desirous of a life more in conformity with the strictness of the Rule of St. Benedict, on 21 March 1098 he went with twenty monks to the solitude of Cîteaux in the Côte-d'Or not far from Dijon, a damp and wooded place, property of the viscount Reginald, where he built a wooden house and a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin. But, due to the scarcity of water, the monks withdrew a few years later near the river Vouge not far away, where they built the Archicenobium, which perhaps took its name from the millraces (Lat. cisternae) formed by the Vouge, the Sans-Fond, and the Coindon, or also from "Cistels," a French name (Lat. palustres iunci), 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 nascent Cistercian Order (q.v.), which spread with astonishing rapidity throughout Europe, so much so that, at the end of the 12th century, it was said with some exaggeration, “the whole world is Cîteaux.”
But after the golden period of more than two centuries, the decline of the Order and therefore of the very monastery began, which was sacked several times between the 14th and 17th centuries. The last abbot, Fr. Trouvé, was forced to abandon his office due to the suppression of 13 February 1791, after having built a large wing of the monastery. The monastic 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 then it was used as a house of correction. In 1898 the monastery was redeemed by the Cistercians of the Strict Observance or Trappists and is under the jurisdiction 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 October 1193. Notable is its quadrangular apse, which became typical in Cistercian architecture. The archive and library are dispersed.