CISTERCIAN NUN FRANCE

Cistercian Nun –  Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, O. Cist.

Founders:  Saint Robert of Molesme                                                                                                                             Saint Alberic of Ultrecht                                                                                                                             Saint Stephen Harding                                                                                                                               Saint Bernard of Clairvaux  (“The Harpist of Mary”)

Place:  Cîteaux, France

Year:  1098 A.D.

Her Charism:  A Cistercian nun lives the Rule of St. Benedict in a more pure form – a return to strict poverty, simplicity, and austerity.  Her hidden monastic life is “dead to the world.”  She believes that the immaculate law of God is charity.  Silence is the note of the Order.  With humility, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit, manual labor, fasting, prayer, solitude, truth, and above all, charity, she encounters God within.  She strives to live with one mind and one heart              centered on Christ.  With Him, she takes up her cross daily and follows in His way of humble    obedience to the Father.  A Cistercian nun does not truly “own” a charism; she is its steward.