Death of Bernard of Clairvaux
August 20, 1153
The ascetic preacher who had shaped Cistercian monasticism, launched two crusades, mentored a pope, and argued with Abelard died in his abbey at sixty-three. Gaunt from lifelong fasting and ulcerated from cilice-wearing, he was canonized within twenty years, becoming the last of the Latin Fathers. Bernard left behind a monastic empire of over three hundred Cistercian houses and a rhetorical legacy that would influence Christian devotional writing for centuries.
In context
Also in 1153 (4 other events on record)
- Treaty of Wallingford · Europe · Politics
- Baldwin III takes Ascalon · Middle East · War
- Eugenius III dies weeks after Bernard · Europe · Religion
- Malcolm IV becomes King of Scots · Europe · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Religion
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.