Stephan Harding

Stephan Harding , also Stephen Harding , (* around 1059 in Dorset , England ; † March 28, 1134 in the Cîteaux monastery ) was an abbot of the Cistercian order and is a Catholic saint .

Life

Harding came from Dorset on the south west coast of England and became known as the third abbot of Cîteaux, the mother monastery of the Cistercians. During Stephen's reign, the order grew in leaps and bounds, not least because of the entry of Bernhard von Clairvaux , whose charisma made the order famous throughout Europe. Relatively little is known about Stephen's career before the monastery. Several sections in the Gesta Regum Anglorum by William of Malmesbury are dedicated to Stephen. Stephan suggested the creation of the famous Cistercian constitutional document, the Carta Caritatis , but cannot be considered the only author.

Surname

His birth name was Harding. He only took the name Stephan after the biblical arch-martyr Stephanus after he had left England. In medieval texts he is only called Stephan. The double name only came up in the early modern period.

Benedictine monk

Harding came to the Benedictine monastery of Sherborne as an oblate as a child , where he took his monastic vows . However, he left this monastery and perhaps stayed first in Scotland and then safely in France. During this time he also made a pilgrimage to Rome with his friend Peter . Perhaps he made his living as a scribe, copyist, and book illustrator.

The pilgrimage route most likely led through the Tuscan reform monasteries Vallombrosa and Camaldoli . After their return from Rome, Peter and Stephan entered Molesme around 1085 . In 1098 they belonged to the group of monks from which the foundation of Cîteaux emerged . Stephan probably worked there as the scribe of the first abbot Robert von Molesme . After Robert returned to Molesme to reform this monastery in accordance with the original Benedictine rule, Stephan led the Cîteaux monastery as prior together with the new abbot Alberich von Cîteaux.

Abbot in Cîteaux

After Alberich's death in 1109, Stephan was the third abbot of the Cîteaux Abbey. During this time, a flourishing scriptorium was created in the mother monastery of the Cistercians , in which Abbot Stephan probably worked himself. The Cistercians owe a hymnarium and a revision of the Bible to Stephan Harding . Around 1113, Stephan Harding accepted the young Bernard of Clairvaux into the novitiate of Cîteaux and only two years later sent him to found a new monastery in Clairvaux .

Stephan contributed to the Cistercian reform through his research; he devoted himself to a revision of the hymn through compositions that he requested from Milan because the Rule of Benedict expressly mentions the Ambrosian hymns . The Stephanus Breviary and a Bible translation also go back to him.

When Stephan Harding died in 1134, Cîteaux had numerous daughter monasteries, which in turn had become mother monasteries according to the Cistercian filiation principle . Unified by the Carta Caritatis in a monastery association, the first order in the sense of Catholic canon law was created.

Adoration

Stephen's admiration came relatively late; It was not until 1623 that the General Chapter established a liturgical framework for this. From 1623 to 1683 his feast day was celebrated on April 17th, then until the reorganization of the Cistercian calendar it was July 16th. Today the Cistercian order celebrates the three founding abbots of Cîteaux ( Robert , Alberich and Stephan) together on January 26th.

In the fine arts he is often depicted with the Virgin Mary , who hands him a piece of zingulum , or with a church model.

literature

• Jörg Oberste : The Cistercians. (Urban-Taschenbücher 744) Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-17-022142-0 .
• Chrysogonus Waddell : The Primitive Cistercian Breviary. (Spicilegium Friburgense 44, Friborg 2007). ISBN 978-3-7278-1561-4 .
• Carta Caritatis. In: Hildegard Brem and Alberich Martin Altermatt (eds.), Einmütig in der Liebe: the earliest source texts by Cîteaux. Latin-German ( sources and studies on Cistercian literature 1, Langwaden 1998). ISBN 978-3-910082-58-8 .
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Harding, Stephan. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 532-533.
• Michael Ernst: St. Abbot Stephan Harding von Cîteaux and his Bible in the context of the Vulgate texts and Vulgate revisions up to the 13th century , in: Alkuin Volker Schachenmayr (ed.), Current Paths of Cistercian Research (EUCist Studies 1, Heiligenkreuz 2008) 55–87 . ISBN 978-3-9519898-2-2

Web links

Commons : Stephan Harding  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Stephan Harding , in: Biographia Cisterciensis (Cistercian Biography) , version from January 5, 2011 (accessed March 11, 2019)

• Stephan Harding in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HEJ Cowdrey: Stephen Harding . In: Oxford Dictonary
2. ↑ Pius Maurer , Today's General Calendar of the Cistercian Order, in: ACi 68 (2018), pp. 339-359, 345
3. ↑ Chrysostomus Henriquez , Menologium Cistertiense, Antwerp 1630, vol. 2, p. 253: Sancto Stephano, eiusdem loci tertio antistiti, cingulum laeneum, quo scapulare stringeret, ei visibiliter apparens, obtulit . This handover should not be confused with the white cup that, according to tradition, was given to Abbot Alberich .