Skip to main content
There's a Saint for That! Search

St. Stephen Harding

Feast 01-26

Patron of

About

Stephen Harding was born in England in the mid-eleventh century and entered monastic life at Sherborne Abbey before departing for the continent in search of stricter observance. After a pilgrimage to Rome and a period at Molesme, he joined St. Robert and St. Alberic in founding a new monastery at Cîteaux in 1098, a place of solitary woods dedicated to renewed fidelity to the Rule of St. Benedict.

As third abbot of Cîteaux, Stephen governed with wisdom, writing the Carta Caritatis, the charter binding the Cistercian houses in mutual love rather than legal coercion. He welcomed the young Bernard of Clairvaux and his companions in 1113, ensuring the Order's remarkable expansion.

abbot, abbots, monastery superior, monastic head, abbacy, cloister leader, monastery abbot, religious superior, monks, monk, monastic, monasticism, monastic life, monasteries, religious brothers, cloistered monks, monastic orders, monks life, brothers, church reform, reforming the church, church renewal, ecclesiastical reform, renewing the church, church changes, church improvement, church revitalization, england, english, britain, english catholics, uk, british, england catholics, great britain, united kingdom, english christians, anglican convert

Suggested prayer

O God, who raised up St. Stephen Harding to renew the monastic life at Cîteaux and bind Your servants in bonds of charity, grant through his intercession that we may seek reform with gentle hearts and pursue holiness in faithful community. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sources

Other saints to pray to

For abbot

For monks