Gerhard of Clairvaux (Abbot)

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Gerhard von Clairvaux in Cistercian habit, with abbot's staff, martyr's palm and martyr's wreath , icon, 18th century

Gerhard von Clairvaux , Gerardus de Clara Valle , (* around 1120 in Italy , † probably in 1177 in Igny Monastery , France ) was the sixth abbot of Clairvaux . He was murdered by a rebel monk and is considered the first martyr of the Cistercian order .

Life

Gerhard came from the Lombardy and entered as a young man in the Benedictine - Abbey Fossanova south of Rome a. There he became the first abbot around 1135 after the monastery was incorporated into the young Cistercian order, initially for about five years, then again from 1158. In 1170/1171 Gerhard was elected Abbot of Clairvaux . During a visitation to the monastery in Igny , which was under Clairvaux's supervision, Gerhard was murdered by a monk named Hugo de Bazoches, whom he had threatened with a disciplinary punishment.

Adoration

The most important source for Gerhard's work and his death is the Exordium magnum Ordinis Cisterciensis Konrad von Eberbach , which was created a few decades after the events in Clairvaux. There Gerhard is already portrayed as a martyr: Petrus Monoculus , Abbot of Igny at the time of the murder and from 1179 second successor of Gerhard in Clairvaux, looks at the murdered man for him during the funeral mass together with St. Bernhard in heavenly light. His liturgical veneration as blessed in the Cistercian order, however, only allowed Pope Clement XI. 1702.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Den salige Gerald av Clairvaux (Norwegian)
  2. ↑ Abbazia di Fossanova ( Memento of the original dated February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Italian) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abbaziadifossanova.it
  3. ↑ Thomas Füser: Monks in Conflict , Münster 2000, p. 136 ( digitized version )
  4. ↑ The vision is quoted in Italian on trappistevitorchiano.it .
personal data
SURNAME Gerhard of Clairvaux
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerardus de Clara Valle
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Cistercian abbot and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH around 1120
PLACE OF BIRTH Lombardy
DATE OF DEATH 1177
Place of death Igny Monastery , France