AELRED (Aelred, Alred, Alred, Ealred, Ethelred) of Hexham, Saint. - English writer, Cistercian abbot of Rievaulx, b. in 1110 at Hexham (Yorkshire) of a noble family, d. 12 Jan. 1167 at Rievaulx.
He spent his youth (1124-33) as a page at the court of David I, king of Scotland, yet always remained profoundly English. Sent (1133) by King David on a mission to Rievaulx (Yorkshire), he immediately embraced the monastic life in the abbey of Rievaulx, the second Cistercian foundation in England (1131), brought about by Walter Espec with the cooperation of St. Bernard. His preferred readings became the Fourth Gospel and the Confessions of Augustine. In 1141, on his return from Rome, where he had accompanied Abbot William, he was master of novices. But already in 1142, at the age of 32, he was chosen as the first abbot of Revesby (Lincolnshire), a daughter house of Rievaulx.
In 1146 he was placed over the mother house of Rievaulx, which he governed until his death. In 1164 he went to Scotland to convert the barbarous populations of Galloway.
He succeeded in attracting to the monastic ideal the very chief of the Picts. He suffered from gout during the last 10 years of his life. Canonized in 1191, he is commemorated on 12 Jan. (Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, Antwerp 1643, pp. 748-51).
Writings (PL 195, coll. 195-798):
A) Historical-biographical: 1) De bello Stansfordi, an account of the battle of Cutton Moor (22 Aug. 1138) between the army of David, defeated, and the English barons of the North; 2) Genealogia Regum Anglorum, with particulars on the royal family of the Malcolms of Scotland; 3) Vita Sancti Edwardi regis, dedicated to the king of England Henry II (Acta SS. Ianuarii, I, ed. cit., pp. 293-302); 4) Vita s. Niniam, of little value; 5) De sanctimoniali de Witton; 6) De fundatione monasteriorum S. Mariae Eborac. et de Fontibus, ms. in the library of Christ-Church College (Cambridge); 7) The pamphlet De Sanctis Ecclesiae Hangustaldensis et eorum miraculis, published anonymously by Mabillon (Acta SS. O.S.B., t. III, 1, Paris 1672, p. 228 ff.), also seems to be his.
B) More interesting are the theological-ascetical works, which earned him, in the Cistercian tradition, the praise: Bernardo prope par Aelredus noster.
1) Speculum charitatis, his principal spiritual work, a practical treatise on Christian perfection, judged by his contemporaries the best of its kind. The Compendium speculi charitatis would be, according to some, an earlier draft of it; but Wilmart holds that it is an extract from it. 2) De spirituali amicitia, in dialogue form, one of the most expressive of A.'s pamphlets, which completes in a Christian way the analogous treatise of Cicero. 3) Regula sive Institutu Inclusarum or De Vita eremitica ad sororem, for his sister who was a religious, published in the appendix to the works of St. Augustine (PL 32, 1451-74) and in part inserted among the Meditationes of St. Anselm (15-17: PL 138, 784-98): chapters 47-65 propose meditating on the mysteries of the Lord with the method later developed in the Meditationes Vitae Christi (14th cent.) of the pseudo-Bonaventure; 4) De Iesu puero duodenni, a short ascetical treatise inspired by Lk. 2, 42-52, formerly attributed to St. Bernard (PL 184, 849-70); 5) Sermones de Oneribus, 32 sermons on Is. 13-16, forming a treatise on the various obstacles (onus, id est pondus) to Christian perfection; 6) Sermones de Tempore et de Sanctis, addressed to his religious; only 25 of them are published in PL; 7) The Oratio pastoralis (O boné Pastor Iesu), full of biblical quotations in the manner of St. Bernard, a synthesis of pastoral duties; 8) De natura animos, a psychological pamphlet, left unfinished and unpublished (ms. 32 of the Bodleian Library of Oxford).
Other works, such as the Epistolario, are lost.
A. is the principal representative of the medieval Cistercian school in England. A student of St. Augustine and a contemporary of St. Bernard, he was a worthy disciple of theirs. Le Bail lists as follows the characteristics of his spiritual doctrine: the Christian life must reproduce the mysteries of Christ; Jesus Christ communicates himself to the soul through the Church; the mediation of Mary is necessary (St. Benedict exercises, toward his monks, an analogous mission); ascetics must take into account the immediate action of God or "visits of the Lord" in the soul; the crowning of charity is in contemplation or the "sabbath" of the soul; divine friendship must be the principle and the end of human friendship.
Bibliography10 works
Igino Cecchetti