Early in the year 1098, Robert, Abbot
of Molesme, age seventy, set out on a high
adventure. As a seeker for the roots of a contemplative life his curiosity had led him to
one monastery after another. He had led the monks of Collan to Molesme and into the
"hard and rough" ways of St Benedict. There they began "to run in the way with
indescribable sweetness," and the fame of the abbey they developed at Molesme rapidly
spread. The monastery was then blessed not only with an abundance of good
candidates but also with many rich benefactions. The new-found wealth, or rather the
care of it, soon softened the way the monks of Molesme lived the Rule of Benedict.
Once again Robert longed for something
purer, poorer, more simple. He was not alone
in this. The better formed of his disciples, his prior Alberic, his subprior the Englishman
Stephen Harding, and about twenty other devoted disciples were with him. Without
counting the cost led these monks into the wilderness of Citeaux.
Citeaux, even though they called it an eremo,
was not a desert in the sense we would
usually give that word. It was not a particularly attractive place, and it was far enough
from the ordinary byways of the world. The pioneers knew poverty and hardship as they
struggled to begin the New Monastery, the name they gave their foundation.
There was no intention on Robert's part
to start a new order or even a new monastic
observance as such. He and his followers only wanted to live the Rule of Saint Benedict
with a certain fullness. By practicing a greater poverty they hoped to keep themselves
from many of the entanglements with the secular society that land holding and benefices
created.
