St Stephen Harding

Stephen’s parents had lots of money and were able to send him to good schools. Stephen loved to learn; his favorite subject was literature (the study of books). He went to schools in Scotland, Paris and Rome. When he was finished studying and was on his way home, he stopped at the monastery of Molesme in France. The head of the monastery was St. Robert. St. Robert was very holy and Stephen liked him so much that he decided to stay and join the monastery. After being at the monastery for a number of years, Stephen joined St. Robert and several other monks who felt they were being called to start a new monastery in France, which they called Citeaux. Here, the monks worked very hard and lived a poor life in strict silence. They were known as the Cistercians; Stephen was the leader of this monastery. There came a time when there were not very many monks left in the monastery and Stephen thought they would have to close the Citeaux. He prayed that God would send men to join the community and once he started praying 30 other monks (including St. Bernard) came to join the monastery. Stephen ended up opening 12 other monasteries during his life. He faithfully served the monks in these monasteries until he died, surrounded by his Brothers in Christ.