Cistercian nuns

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A nun of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Rieunette, near Carcassonne, France (2006)

Cistercian nuns are female members of the

Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church
.

History

The first Cistercian monastery for women,

Humbeline, the sister of Bernard of Clairvaux
, lived and died.

The Cistercian nuns of Le Tart founded successively

Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas near Burgos, founded in 1187 by Alfonso VIII of Castile
.

The observance was established there by Cistercian nuns who came from Tulebras, under the guidance of

Misol, who became its first abbess. The second abbess was Constance, daughter of the founder, who believed she had the power of preaching in her church and hearing confessions of her religious. In the following year, 1190, the eighteen abbesses of France held their first general chapter at Tart. The abbesses of France and Spain themselves made the regular visits to their houses of filiation. The Council of Trent
, by its decrees regarding the cloister of nuns, put an end to the chapter and the visits.

In Italy, in 1171, were founded the monasteries of Santa Lucia at Syracuse, San Michele at Ivrea, and that of Conversano, the only one in the peninsula in which the abbesses carry a

crosier. A century later the Cistercian nuns had established houses in Switzerland, Germany (St. Marienthal Abbey
in 1234), and Flanders.

The decline which manifested itself in the communities of monks of the Cistercian Order towards the middle of the fourteenth century was felt also in the monasteries of nuns.

At this time, the Conceptionist Order was founded in Toledo, Spain, by Beatrice of Silva. Her nuns were quick to abandon the Cistercian Rule for that of the Poor Clares. In France Jeanne de Courcelles de Pourlan, having been elected Abbess of Tart in 1617, restored the regular discipline in her community, which was transferred to Dijon in 1625. Owing to the hostility of the Abbot of Cîteaux to the reform Abbess de Pourlan had the Holy See withdraw her abbey from the jurisdiction of the Order of Cîteaux.

In 1602, another reform was effected at

Blessed Sacrament
.

However, the vicinity of the

Abbé de Saint-Cyran became dangerous for them, and they saw the suppression and destruction of Port-Royal des Champs by order of the Louis XIV in 1710, while they themselves were dispersed. The property and abbatial titles were annexed to Port-Royal de Paris, which subsisted up to the time of the French Revolution
, before being transformed first into a prison, and then into a maternity hospital.

After the French Revolution another reform took place. Augustin de Lestrange gathered the scattered Cistercian nuns of France, with members of other orders that had been equally dispersed, and reconstructed the Cistercian Sisterhood.

In 1795, he gave them a monastery which he called the Holy Will of God (La Sainte-Volonté de Dieu), situated in the

Trappist monks in their travels over Europe, returned to Switzerland in 1803, and remained there until 1816, when at length they were able to return to France and take up their abode at Forges, near La Trappe
. Two years later they occupied an old monastery of the Augustinians at Les Gardes, in the Diocese of Angers.

The Trappistines spread over France, and into other countries of Europe. Since the reunion of the three congregations of La Trappe, in 1892, they have been officially entitled

Reformed Cistercians of the Strict Observance
.

In North America

A Cistercian novice who came from Europe at the same time as the Trappists, and who was joined by seventeen women from the United States, tried to establish a community, but circumstances prevented its success.

Vincent de Paul (born Jacques Merle; 1769–1853), at Tracadie, Nova Scotia, having asked the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal for three sisters to help him with his mission in Nova Scotia, established them there and, after probation, admitted them to the profession of simple vows of the Third Order of La Trappe. However, the community never in reality formed a part of the Order of Cîteaux nor wore the Cistercian habit.

The Monastery of Our Lady of Good Counsel, at Saint-Romuald near Quebec City, the first genuine community of Cistercian nuns in America, was established in 1902 by Hémery Lutgarde, Prioress of Bonneval, France, when on 21 November 1902, she brought a small colony of religious women.

On 29 July of the following year, Cyrille Alfred Marois, as delegate of the

Nouvelle-Arcadie, New Brunswick, where there were already some Cistercian monks, was established by the sisters expelled by the French Government from their Monastery of Vaise, at Lyon
.

Monasteries of Cistercian nuns of the Strict Observance

Africa

Asia

Europe

There are numerous monasteries scattered throughout Europe, with France having the largest number.

  • Belgium: Bocholt, Bouillon, Brecht, Chimay, Fleurus and Tilff
  • Czech Republic: Neveklov, Porta coeli Convent in Předklášteří
  • France: Anduze, Arcis-le-Ponsart, Auros, Bernardvillé, Blauvac, Campénéac, Charmes, Échourgnac, Laval, Le Cayrol, Meymac, Roybon, St-Georges-des-Gardes and Troisvaux
  • Germany: Dahlem, Donnersberg, St. Marienthal Abbey in Ostritz
  • Hungary: Érd, Kismaros[1]
  • Ireland: Lismore
  • Italy: Pisa, Rome and Vitorchiano
  • Netherlands: Arnhem
  • Norway: Tautra Abbey
  • Portugal: Monastery of São Bento da Porta Aberta
  • Spain: Alloz-Estella, Arévalo, Armenteira, Arnedo, Avila, Benaguasil, Burgos (Las Huelgas), Cañas, Carrizo de La Ribera, Cartagena, San Andrés de Arroyo and Tulebras
  • Switzerland: Romont and Sierre
  • United Kingdom: Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland[2] in Wales

Latin America

North America

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Our History - Ciszterci Nővérek - Kismaros". www.cisztercimonostor.hu. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  2. ^ "Roman Catholic Monastery of Cistercian Nuns - Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland". Holy Cross Abbey, Whitland. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Cistercian Sisters". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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