Cîteaux The Abbey of Cîteaux

In 1098 Robert of Molesme and a group of monks settled in the marshes of Cîteaux, south of Dijon, to live the Rule of Saint Benedict more strictly. Under Abbot Stephen Harding, and after Bernard and his companions arrived in 1113, the New Monastery gave its name to the Cistercian order, which had hundreds of abbeys across Europe within a century.

Trappist monks returned in 1898. They make a cheese that supports the abbey, and part of the buildings can be visited with a guide. For groups, a meeting with a monk of the community is requested in advance.

About thirty-five brothers of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance live at Cîteaux under the Rule of Saint Benedict. Visitors may join them for the Liturgy of the Hours and for Sunday Mass, which is in French. On January 26, the solemnity of the three founders, Saints Robert, Alberic and Stephen, and on August 20, the feast of Saint Bernard, the abbey follows its Sunday timetable. A year after the monks returned in 1898, the community gained the right to elect its own abbot, and Cîteaux was restored as the mother house of the order and the seat of its abbot general. The abbey served as a military hospital during the First World War. Its church was renovated and consecrated in 1971, and in 2009 four brothers left to found a monastery in Norway.

Men and women may make a retreat of two to seven days in the guest house, which was renovated in 2006. Retreats are not guided. Guests are asked to attend at least two Offices a day and to keep silence, and the abbey does not take in tourists or pilgrims who only need a night’s lodging. Besides the library, the old abbey keeps the Définitoire, a building about 80 meters long, begun under Dom Jean Petit and finished before 1699. The abbey shop sells the monks’ cheese, with books and other monastic products.

Further reading: Gregorian Chant in France: Monasteries Open to Pilgrims.

• The libraryFinished around 1509, one of the few old buildings left.
• The Office with the monksOpen to visitors, with Sunday Mass in French.
• The DéfinitoireAbout 80 meters long, finished before 1699, one of the old buildings still standing.
• The abbey shopCîteaux cheese, books and monastic products.

• August 20Feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

• Saint Bernard of ClairvauxAbbot of Clairvaux and Doctor of the Church

• Via BenedictiThe Way of Saint Benedict, seven daysDay VI, Fontenay and Cîteaux

About thirty minutes by road from Dijon or from Beaune.

• AutunThe Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, about 39 miles as the crow flies
• TournusThe Abbey of Saint-Philibert, about 40 miles as the crow flies
• FontenayThe Abbey of Fontenay, about 48 miles as the crow flies
• ClunyThe Abbey of Cluny, about 52 miles as the crow flies