St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Updated: Oct 3
Feast day: August 20 (Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church)
Patron of: Beekeepers and the Cistercian Order.
About St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Bernard was born in 1090 into a noble family in Burgundy, France. At about twenty-two he entered the struggling monastery of Cîteaux, the first house of the strict reformed Benedictines later called Cistercians, and he brought about thirty relatives and friends with him, including several of his brothers. In 1115 he was sent to found a new monastery at Clairvaux, which he led as abbot for the rest of his life and which founded dozens of other monasteries.
Although he longed for the silence of the cloister, Bernard became the most influential churchman of his age. He advised popes and kings, healed a schism in the Church, preached across Europe, and wrote deeply on the love of God, on humility, and on the Song of Songs. His devotion to the Blessed Virgin was tender and strong, and his homilies on Mary are still read in the Liturgy of the Hours. He was called the "Mellifluous Doctor," the doctor sweet as honey, which is why beekeepers claim him. He died in 1153, was canonized in 1174, and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1830.
Prayers to St. Bernard of Clairvaux on Daily Catholic Prayers
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