Stephen Harding - Life

Life

Stephen Harding was born in Dorset, England. He was placed in Sherborne Abbey at a young age, but eventually put aside the cowl and became a travelling scholar. He eventually moved to Molesme Abbey in Burgundy, under the abbot Saint Robert of Molesme (c. 1027-1111).

When Robert left Molesme to avoid its corruption and laxity, Stephen and Saint Alberic of Cîteaux went with him. Unlike Alberic, Stephen was not ordered to return, and he remained in solitude with Robert. When twenty-one monks deserted Molesme to join Robert, Harding and Alberic, the three leaders formed a new monastery at Cîteaux.

Robert was initially abbot of Cîteaux Abbey, returning to Molesme after a year. Alberic then took over, serving as abbot until his death in 1108. Stephen Harding, the youngest of the three men, became the third abbot of Cîteaux. As abbot, Stephen Harding guided the new monastery over a period of great growth. Bernard of Clairvaux came to visit in 1112 and brought with him his followers. Between 1112 and 1119, a dozen new Cistercian houses were founded to contain the monks coming to the new movement. In 1119, Stephen wrote the Carta Caritatis ("Charter of Charity"), an important document for the Cistercian Order, establishing its unifying principles.

Stephen served Cîteaux Abbey for twenty-five years. While no single person is considered the founder of the Cistercian Order, the shape of Cistercian belief and its rapid growth in the 12th century was due to the leadership of Stephen Harding. In 1133, he resigned as head of the order, because of age and infirmity. He died the following year.

His feast day in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints is 17 April. The north aisle of the church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in London was formerly a chapel dedicated to him (it became the Musicians' Chapel in the 20th century).

In Hungary, in the village Apátistvánfalva there is a Catholic Baroque church, established by 1785, the patron saint of which is Stephen Harding. The village and the vicinity around Vendvidék was at one time under Cistercian lordship.