St Bernard de Clairveau

Bernard was born into a very important and rich family. He and his 6 brothers and sisters all had a very good education and learned about God from their mom and dad and at school. His mom died when he was only 17 years old and this made Bernard very sad. His brothers and sisters helped him to get over his sadness and helped him to enjoy life again. Afraid that he might let the sin of the world take him away from God, Bernard decided to join the Cistercian Order and become a monk. He also convinced his brother and lots of his friends to go with him into the monastery. So Bernard and 30 other young men joined the monastery on the same day! The leaders of the monastery saw how great Bernard was and they sent him to go start another monastery and to lead the monks there. After that Bernard built a few more monasteries and he also helped the Pope when he was asked. He loved Mary very much and he wrote lots of books about her to help people grow closer to her and her Son, Jesus.