1. Rise

The history of the Cistercian order begins in 1098 with the founding of a tiny monastic community at Cîteaux (Lat. Cistercium) in Burgundy by Robert of Molesme (ca. 1027–1111). The second abbot of Cîteaux, Stephen Harding (ca. 1060–1134), published Charta caritatis (Charter of love) in 1118, the basic order of the Cistercians, which makes Cîteaux the normal cloister of the Cistercians. The abbots of the firs…