Saint Aelred of Rievaulx

Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (born c. 1110, Hexham, Northumberland, Eng.—died Jan. 12, 1167, Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire) was a writer, historian, and outstanding Cistercian abbot who influenced monasticism in medieval England, Scotland, and France. His feast day is celebrated by the Cistercians on February 3.

Of noble birth, Aelred was reared at the court of King David I of Scotland, whose life story he later wrote and for whom he was royal steward. He entered the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx about 1134, and from 1143 to 1147 he was abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire. In late 1147 he became abbot of Rievaulx.

An adviser to kings as well as to ecclesiastics, Aelred in 1162 persuaded King Henry II of England to ally with King Louis VII of France in support of Pope Alexander III against the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Despite poor health, Aelred led a severely ascetic life and made numerous visits to Cistercian houses in England, Scotland, and France. His spirituality, his Christocentric doctrine, and, in particular, his writings—considered among the finest produced in England during the Middle Ages—highly influenced the Cistercians and earned him the title of “the Bernard of the north” (after the celebrated reformer Bernard of Clairvaux). By 1166 illness halted his missions.

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Aelred’s surviving works deal with either devotion or history. De spirituali amicitia (Spiritual Friendship), considered to be his greatest work, is a Christian counterpart of Cicero’s De amicitia and designates Christ as the source and ultimate impetus of spiritual friendship. Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity), which Aelred wrote at Bernard’s insistence, is a treatise on monastic life. His historical works include the incomplete Genealogia regum Anglorum (“Genealogy of the English Kings”) and Vita S. Eduardi Confessoris (The Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor), written in honour of the translation of St. Edward the Confessor’s body in 1163, which he witnessed. His last work is De anima (“On the Soul”). De spirituali amicitia was translated in 1942 by Hugh Talbot, and in 1952 Talbot translated Aelred’s De anima and various sermons.