The order was founded in France by St. Robert, tbe Abbott of Molesme in 1098. He was the leader of a group of monks who founded a new order at Citeaux near Dijon in the province of Burgundy.
The group felt that influences from the outside world were having a negative impact on the life of monasteries as a whole and they did not wish to succumb to this. Their chosen settlement of Citeaux means Cistercium in Latin and thus the group chose to be known as Cistercians.
A rapid growth for the order took place in the 12th century, when leadership of the order was under St. Bernard, a nobleman who was the Abbott of Clairvaux. Upon his death in 1153, 68 new monasteries had sprung up all over Europe. Two were in Wales, Tintern and Little Triffgarne.
By the 16th century, the order had 13 monasteries in Wales, mostly found in remote areas. The monks were ingenious farmers and agriculture technologists, curators of extensive libraries and keepers of hand-copied and ornate manuscripts.
After King Henry VII instigated the suppression of the order and ultimately leading to the Reformation, the monasteries were pillared and plundered of their contents, left for ruin and their occupants scattered.
Over the next few hundred years, reform movements bean to take hold in earnest. But the monks became extreme in their views, sometimes even harsh. This led to a period when the Cistercians became know as Trappists, named for the movement that began at the Abbey of La Trappe in Normandy.
Pope Leo XIII later divided the order into the Cistercians of the Common Order and the Reformed Cistercians (who were Trappists) and it is this group the Caldey Island monks belong.
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