Bernard of Clairvaux and the Shape of Monastic Thought: Broken Dreams

The work of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) consists of mystical highlights and traditional exegetical discourse. This text does not limit itself to the historical and devotional side of Bernard, but brings to the fore his stylistic originality. Bernard emerges as a flexible thinker, a great dramatist and an adroit master of language who combines the fixed pattern of monastic life with the vicissitudes of extra mural events. Bernard’s writings are composed according to the rhythm of the uninterrupted ritual of prayer and singing inside the walls of the monastery. That ritual is interspersed with notions of love and death. This study describes the literary devices through which Bernard shapes the monastic existence as a subtle blend of liturgical routine and uncontrollable events and emotions.