Gilbert of Hoyland

Gilbert of Hoyland (11??–1172?) was a twelfth-century abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Swineshead, Lincolnshire. Swineshead had been a member of the monastic order of Savigny, which joined the Cistercian Order in 1147. Gilbert apparently went to Swineshead to help the community adopt Cistercian usages.

Sometime after Bernard of Clairvaux died in 1153, Gilbert was asked to continue Bernard's incomplete series of 86 sermons on the biblical Song of Songs. Gilbert wrote 47 sermons before he died in 1172, probably at the French Cistercian monastery of Larrivour. Fifteen other short works by Gilbert survive.

Gilbert's 47 sermons ended in Chapter 5 of the Song of Songs; another English Cistercian abbot, John of Ford, wrote another 120 sermons on the Song of Songs, so completing the Cistercian sermon-commentary on the book.

Gilbert's works have been translated into English by Lawrence Braceland, S.J. and published in four volumes by Cistercian Publications. They have also been translated into French by Fr. Pierre-Yves Emery. Marsha L. Dutton is completing the critical edition of Gilbert's works, to be published by Brepols Publishers in the Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis series.