Saint Robert of Molesme

He was born about 1029 in Champagne, according to Marie Gildas in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, to noble parents named Thierry and Ermengarde. ¹ Aleteia's profile puts his birth at Troyes in 1027. ⁴ At fifteen he began his novitiate in the abbey of Montier-la-Celle, near Troyes, and he later became its prior. ¹ Aleteia dates his entry as a Benedictine monk to 1044. ⁴

In 1068 he became abbot of Saint Michael of Tonnerre, in the diocese of Langres. ¹ At about that time seven hermits living in the forest of Collan asked to have him as their leader, but the monks of Tonnerre would not let him go, even though they resisted his authority at every turn. ¹ Their intrigues, Gildas says, made him resign in 1071 and go back to Montier-la-Celle, and that same year he was put in charge of its priory of Saint Ayoul at Provins. ¹

The hermits did not give up. Two of them went to Rome and asked Pope Gregory VII for the prior of Provins, and the pope agreed. ¹ In 1074 Robert began to train them in the monastic life, and when Collan proved unsuitable he founded a new monastery at Molesme, in the valley of Langres, at the end of 1075. ¹

At first, Gildas writes, "the primitive discipline was still in its full vigour, and the religious lived by the labour of their hands." ¹ Molesme drew others looking for that life. Bruno of Reims came there before he founded the Carthusians: Mougel's article on Bruno says his first idea was to put himself and his companions under the direction of "an eminent solitary, St. Robert," though he soon found it was not his vocation. ⁷ Stephen Harding, coming back from Rome, stopped at Molesme and joined the community, Huddleston says, because he was "much impressed by the holiness of St. Robert." ⁸

Then the gifts came. Donations made the monastery wealthy, and with wealth, "despite the vigilance of the abbot, came laxity of discipline." ¹ Aleteia says the income led to strife inside the house. ⁴ Robert tried to restore the old strictness, met so much resistance that he stepped down, and left the community to his prior, Alberic, who himself withdrew in 1093. ¹ The next year the two came back to Molesme together, and in 1095 Urban II confirmed the institute. ¹

In 1098, still unable to reform the house, he obtained from Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons and legate of the Holy See, authority to found something new. ¹ Twenty-one monks, Alberic and Stephen among them, "set out joyfully for a desert called Cîteaux" in the diocese of Châlons. ¹² Aleteia counts Robert, Stephen, Alberic and eighteen others. ⁴

Gildas's article on the abbey describes the place: a marsh overgrown with rushes, called in the local tongue cistels, which gave Cîteaux its name, a spot "hitherto inhabited only by wild beasts." ³ The land belonged to Raynald, Viscount of Beaune, who gave it with his wife Hodierna. ³ Robert built the first monastery of the order and called it the New Monastery, to set it apart from Molesme. ³ Building began on the feast of Saint Benedict, March 21, 1098, which fell that year on Palm Sunday, and Gildas calls that day the birthday of the order. ²

What the founders wanted was a reaction against the laxity of Cluny, Gildas says: to take up manual labor again, to live more severely, and to bring back the gravity and simplicity proper to monks. ² The Dallas abbey describes the same ideals as a balance of prayer and serious work, evangelical poverty, detachment from worldly affairs, and community life modeled on the apostles. ⁵

The monks left at Molesme appealed to Pope Urban II to have their abbot back, and the pope agreed. ¹² Gildas says Robert governed Cîteaux for one year; Huddleston dates the recall 1099, and Aleteia says 1100. ²⁴⁸ Alberic succeeded him as abbot of Cîteaux, and after Alberic, Stephen Harding. ²⁵

The Dallas abbey says tension had arisen between the new monastery and the house its monks had left, and that Robert went back "in order to preserve peace." ⁵ Some monks went with him, and those who stayed made their vow of stability to Cîteaux. ⁵ For this reason, it adds, Cistercian art often shows him in the black habit of a Benedictine rather than the white of the order he founded. ⁵

At Molesme it worked. After his return, Gildas says, the abbey "became an ardent centre of monastic life," and Aleteia says he carried out a successful series of reforms there. ¹⁴ Molesme lasted until the French Revolution. ¹

He died at Molesme on April 17, 1111, by Gildas's account, and was buried with great pomp in the abbey church. ¹ Aleteia gives the date as March 21, 1110. ⁴ Gildas says Pope Honorius III authorized his veneration in the church of Molesme by letters apostolic in 1222, and that a later pontifical decree extended it to the whole Church; Aleteia says he was canonized in 1122. ¹⁴ His remains, Gildas wrote in 1912, were preserved in the parish church of Molesme. ¹

None of the sources consulted for this page names Saint Robert of Molesme as patron of anything, and the page does not supply one. ¹⁴ The Cistercians honor him as the first of their founders, and the Constitutions of the Strict Observance name him first among "the holy abbots" who built the New Monastery. ⁵⁶

Aleteia keeps Saint Robert's feast on April 17. ⁴ Gildas says the feast was fixed at first on April 17 and later transferred to April 29. ¹ The Cistercians keep one solemnity for the three founders of Cîteaux, Robert, Alberic and Stephen, on January 26, and Aleteia notes that the Benedictines join them in that common memorial. ⁴⁵⁶

His life was one attempt after another to live the Rule as it was written, among people who did not always want it. ¹ Monks resisted him at Tonnerre; Molesme grew rich and slack around him; he stepped down, came back, and finally walked out with the ones who wanted what he wanted. ¹⁴

Then, after about a year in the new place, he was asked to go back. ¹² The Dallas abbey says he went to keep the peace. ⁵ He spent the rest of his life at the house he had left, reforming it, while others built the order on what he had begun. ¹⁴⁵

He is not remembered alone. The Cistercians keep his feast with Alberic and Stephen, the two who went with him into the marsh and stayed. ²⁵⁶ Aleteia sets beside his life a line from the Rule he spent it trying to keep: an abbot "should always remember what he is called, and live up the name of Superior." ⁴