Bernard founds Clairvaux

June 25, 1115

Bernard of Citeaux led twelve monks to a marshy valley the locals called the Valley of Wormwood, renamed it the Clear Valley, and started a monastery that within a generation would be the most famous religious house in Europe and its abbot Christendom's most feared preacher. From Clairvaux, Bernard would launch theological controversies, recruit crusaders, mentor a pope, and shape the religious imagination of the twelfth century.