Bernard of Tiron, St

Bernard Of Tiron, St.

founder of a new congregation of Benedictines (q.v.), viz. the Tironensians (q.v.), was born at Ponthieu about A.D. 1046. He was at first abbot of St. Cyprian's, but in 1109 founded the abbey of Tiron and the new congregation named from the place. The monks gave themselves to silence, manual labor, prayer, and psalmody, and their dress was of the commonest material. Bernard, before long, found himself surrounded by more than five hundred disciples of both sexes. Each one was set to perform whatever art he best excelled in, and thus were found carpenters, smiths, goldsmiths, painters, vine-dressers, agriculturists, writers, men of all callings, glad to exercise their talents in obedience to their superior. A noble monastery soon arose in the solitude. Congregations were soon established in France, Britain, and elsewhere; eleven abbeys were founded, subject to the chief of the order at Tiron; of these eight were in France, one in Wales, in the diocese of St. David's, called the abbey of St. Mary de Cameis, and one in Scotland, at Roxburgh. Bernard died on the 14th of April, 1116. He has not been canonized by the Church, but the Martyrologies of the Benedictines and of France mention him on the 14th of April. His life is given in the Acta Sanctorum, April, t. 2. Baillet, Vies des Saints, 14 Aprilis; Helyot, Ordres Religieux, 3, 674.