CISTERCIANS
786
CISTERCIANS
Belgium. He has for assistants the viears-general of
the five congregations.
The Order of Citeaux has produced a great number of saints and has given two popes to the Church, Eugene III, a disciple of St. Bernard, and Benedict XII. It has also given the Church forty cardinals, five of whom were taken from Citeaux, and a consid- erable number of archbishops and bishops. The Cistercians of all observances have no less enlight- ened the Church by their teachings and writings, than edified it by the sanctity of their lives. Among great teachers may be cited St. Bernard, the Mel- lifluous Doctor and the last of the Fathers of the Church, St. Stephen Harding, author of the "Ex- ordium Cisterciensis Coenobii", of the "Charter of Charity", etc. Then follow Conrad of Eberbach (Exordium Magnum Ordinis Cisterciensis) ; ^Elred, Abbot of Rieval (Sermons) ; Serlon, Abbot of Sav- igny (Sermons); Thomas of Citeaux (Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles) ; Caramuel, the Universal Doctor, author of a Moral Theology very much es- teemed, whom St. Alphonsus Liguori calls "the prince of Laxists"; Caesarius of Heisterbach (Homilies, " Dialogus Miraculorum", etc.); Manrique (Cistercian Annals in 4 vols, folio) ; Henriquez (Menologium Cisterciense) ; Charles de Visch (Bibliotheca Scrip- torum Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis); the Abbot de Ranee (" De la saintete et des devoirs de la vie mon- astique", "Eelaircissements sur le meme traite", " Meditations sur la regie de Saint-Benoit ' ', etc.) ; Dom Julien Paris ("Nomasticon Cisterciense" in fol., Paris, 1664), Dom Pierre le Nain, sub-prior of La Trappe ("Vie de l'Abbe' de La Trappe", "Essai de l'histoire de Citeaux", 9 vols., Paris, 1690-97); Sartorius ("Cis- tercium bis-tertium", Prague, 1700), and others. In the nineteenth century it suffices to mention among a great many writers belonging to both Ob- servances Dr. Leopold Janauscheck (Originum Cis- terciensium torn. I. Vienna, 1877 — the author died before he was able to commence the second volume), Dom Hugues Sejalon, monk of Aiguebelle (Annates d' Aiguebelle, 2 vols, and a new edition of the " Nomas- ticon Cisterciense" of Dom Paris, Solesmes, 1892).
Exardes de Citeaux (Grande Trappe, 1SS4); D'Arbois de JubAINVILLE, Interieur des abbaues citterciennes au Xll € et au XIIl c siecle; Gaillardin, Histoire He La Trappe; Sejalon, Les annates £ Aiguebelle (Valence, 1S63); Janauscheck, Origi- num Cisterciensium etc. (Vienna, 1877), I; Gallia Christiana, IV; Helyot, Dictionnaire des ordres religieux; Ordinis Cister- ciensis Jurium etc. (Rome, 1902); Abrege de I' histoire de I'ordre de Citeaux par un moine de Thymadeuc (St. Brieuc, 1897).
Cistercians ix America. — The establishment of the Cistercians in America is due to the initiative of Dom Augustin de Lestrange. He was born in 1754, in the castle of Colombier-le-Vieux, Ardeche, France, the son of Louis-Cesar de Lestrange, an officer of the household of Louis XV, and of Jeanne-Pierrette de I.alor, daughter of an Irish gentleman who had fol- lowed in 16SS James II in his exile. Dom Augustin was master of novices at La Trappe when t lie Revo- lution burst forth, and upon the suppression of the religious orders he sought refuge at Val-Sainte in Switzerland, with t wenty-fourof his brethren. Driven from Val-Sainte by the French troops, these religious wandered over the whole of Europe, going even into Russia. (See above under III. Tin: DECLINE.)
Dom Augustin at length resolved to send a colony of Cistercian Trappists to America, where he saw much good to be done. Already in 179:1, seeing novices Hocking to Val-Sainte, he had directed to Canada a part of his religious under the guidance of
I atherJonn Baptist. I'm at Amsterdam this colony
found itself prevented by political troubles front de- parting, and divided into two bands, one (if which
1 1 led al West malic in Belgium, while the other went to England mid established itself at Lulworth in Dorsetshire, in the very place where ronnerly there had existed a Cistercian abbey which was destroyed
by Henry VIII. Dom Augustin, however, had not
given up the idea of an American foundation. In
1S02 he charged Dom Urbain Guillet to carry out
his intentions in this regard. Dom Urbain, born
at Nantes, in 1766, the son of Ambroise Augus-
tin Guillet, Knight of Malta, and of Marie-Anne
Le Quellec, entered La Trappe in 1785, and was
the last to pronounce his vows in that monastery
when the Revolution burst forth. He assembled
24 religious, lay brothers, and members of the
third order (an institution of Dom Augustin de
Lestrange), and sailed from Amsterdam, 24 May,
1802, on board of the Sally, a Dutch vessel Hying the
American flag to avoid the risks of war — for Holland
was at the time an ally of France, and a conflict was
imminent between that country* and England.
The Sally entered the port of Baltimore, on the 25th of September, after a voyage of four months, having been hindered by contrary winds, and having gone out of her course to avoid English cruisers. Dom Urbain and his companions were received at St. Mary's Seminary, which was under the direction of the Sulpicians, to whose superior, the venerable M. Nagot, then eighty-five years of age, the Cistercian immigrants had letters. At that time St. Mary's College possessed several eminent professors, and among these was M. Flaget, who later became Bishop of Bardstown, and then of Louisville, and who, in 1848, was to receive in Kentucky the religious who left Melleray to found Gethsemane.
About fifty miles from Baltimore, between the little towns of Hanover and Heberston was a planta- tion known as Pigeon Hill, which belonged to a friend of the Sulpicians. Being absent for some years, he left them the power of disposing of it as they should deem proper. This large and beautiful residence was well provided with provisions by the goodness of the Sulpicians. In the woods near by were found all kinds of wild fruits. The TrappistS installed them- selves at Pigeon Hill. M. de Morainvilliers, a French emigrant, a native of Amiens and pastor of St. Pat- rick's church, Baltimore, used his influence with his parishioners to procure for the newly-arrived com- munity the aid necessary for their establishment. But everything was dear in the count ry. and the money which Father Urbain had destined for the purchase of land did not even suffice for the support of his community. Eighteen months had already passed since the arrival of the colony at Pigeon Hill, and the true foundation had not yet been begun. Dom Urbain had not accepted anj- of the land which had been offered to him. Moreover, the proximity of Baltimore was a frequent source of desertions among the young people of the third order.
About the beginning of 1805 Dom Urbain heard Kentucky spoken of. Its climate was represented to him as more temperate, and its soil more fertile. He left immediately to visit that country, and found there a devoted friend in the only ( iatholic priest then resident, Fat Iter Stephen Badin (q. v.). Father Badin took upon himself t lie c ihligat ion of finding for theTrap- pists a suitable establishment. Having left Pigeon Hill in July. 1S05. Father Urbain and his companions arrived at Louisville in the beginning of September. The inhabitants received them with great kindness and provided for their first wants. They occupied for the tittie being a plantation which a pious woman offered them, at some distance from Louisville, and this gave them time to acquire, about sixty miles south of Louisville, in the neighbourhood of Rohan's Knob,
a property called Casey ( 'reek, or Potinger's Creek.
[n the meantime a new band had been sent ,mt by Dom Augustin Lestrange, under the conduct of Father Mary Joseph, a native of Chapelle-les-Rennes, in Jura (b. 22 April, 1774), who had been a grenadier in the French arm v. One day lie had been ordered to shoot a priest . but had refused to obey; he left thearmy
