Sieve (abbey)

Foundation

In 1098 , with the permission of the Archbishop of Lyon, Molemole with 20 brothers left St. Molem, dissatisfied with the decline of severity and piety in the Molema Monastery, with the permission of the Lyon archbishop to establish a new abode where the priestly spirit of Western monasticism reigned, based on strict observance of the statute of St. Benedict . The viscount of the city of Bon bestowed upon Saint Robert a valley belonging to him in a deep forest south of Dijon , where the natives of Molem and founded the monastery of Sito. By tradition, it is believed that the monastery was founded on March 21 . The sieve became the first of the monasteries of the new order, which then received the name of the Cistercians in this monastery. Saint Robert became the first abbot of Sito; the second and third abbots - St. Alberich and St. Stephen Harding were among the twenty people who left Mole with Robert.

Flourishing

Until 1113, the Sieve remained the only Cistercian monastery. Two events that contributed to the rapid growth of the order were the appointment of Stephen Harding, the senior head of the Sito, and the introduction of St. Bernard into the Cistercians in 1112 . In 1113 and 1114, the first two daughter monasteries were founded - Laferte and Pontigny , and a year later Klervo and Morimon . The constitution of the Order of Carta Caritatis, written by Stefan Harding, defined the special role of the five oldest Cistercian monasteries, and their superiors constituted the college that administered the affairs of the order. The construction of the monastery church Sito was begun in 1140 and completed in 1193. A number of the dukes of Burgundy were buried in the church, including Ed I.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Cistercian Order experienced rapid growth, a significant contribution to which was made by St. Bernard Klervosky. At the beginning of the XIII century, about 300 monasteries belonged to the Cistercians ^[1] , at the end of the same century there were already about 500 ^[2] . The sieve became an important center of Christianity in Europe, and its abbot became a powerful figure. Abbot Sito headed the order and presided over the General Chapter , which was held once a year in Sito; the abbots of the nearest monasteries were to take part in it annually, the abbots of the more distant ones — at longer intervals. The role of the Sito monastery for the Order of the Cistercians is emphasized by their slogan - “Cistercium Mater Nostra” (Sieve is our mother). Among the prominent personalities of that period is the philosopher and theologian Alan of Lille , who was a monk of Sito. In 1244, Sito was visited by the king of France Louis IX the Holy and his mother Blanca of Castile . In the XIII century, great work was carried out on the construction of new buildings of the monastery, which already included several hundred monks and conversions . The abbey had a script and a large library. In 1480 it consisted of about 1,200 manuscripts , of which just over 300 reached our time.

Decline and closure

During the Hundred Years War, the monastery fell into decay, it was raided and plundered four times, in 1360, 1365, 1434 and 1438, but after the end of the war it restored its influence.

At the beginning of the XVI century, the abbey numbered about 200 monastics. In 1509 the construction of the monastery library was completed. During the religious wars in France at the end of the 16th century, Sito was repeatedly devastated. His economy was undermined. To ensure the functioning of the monastery, Sito was forced to sell off his land. In the 17th century, the Sito, like the Cistercian Order itself, gradually tended to decline. The response to the weakening of morals and the general decline in Cistercian monasteries was the movement for Cistercian reform, which resulted in the appearance in the middle of the seventeenth century of the “Order of Cistercian Strict Observance,” later known as Trappist . A large part of the Cistercian monasteries of France passed over to the trappist, but the cradle of the order abstained from reform. In 1698, there were only 72 monks in Sito.

Despite the decline of the Order, the last abbot of the Sito before the French Revolution, François Truve conceived a number of ambitious construction projects in the abbey, but only one managed to finish - the construction of a large residential building, which was completed in 1772 (architect Lenoir) and has survived to this day. Other projects prevented the revolution. In 1791, the abbey was closed, and the buildings were auctioned off. Some of the buildings of the abbey were destroyed, and the stones were used to build other buildings. What remained was successively a sugar refinery, phalanstery and a juvenile colony.

Revival

In 1898, the remains of the abbey were redeemed, after which the monastery was restored there. The sieve was revived, as the abode of the Trappists - “Cistercians of strict observance”, in this capacity the abbey functions to the present.

From the historic buildings of Sito Abbey there are preserved: a library (XV century), a capitol building (XVII century), a large residential building (1772), where the abbey's monks now live. According to the beginning of the XXI century, the Brotherhood Sito numbered 35 monastics ^[3] .

• Frère Marcel Lebeau, Chronologie de l'Histoire de Cîteaux Center Régional de Documentation Education de Bourgogne, 1997.
• John-Henry Newman, Raymond Oursel, Léo Moulin, L'Europe des monasteres , 1985.

• The official site of Sito Abbey (Fr.)
• The History of Sito Abbey (Fr.)
• Sieve // ​​Catholic Encyclopedia (English)
• Dr. D. Vess. Brief Introduction to the Cistercians (Eng.)