Bernard of Thiron

Bernard of Tiron or Bernard d' Abbeville (* around 1046 in Abbeville, † April 25, 1116 in Thiron at Chartres ) was abbot in Poitiers, hermit and monastic founder. His feast day is April 14. He is the patron saint of prisoners and Drechsler.

Life

After his Vita he was born as a child of penniless but devout parents in Abbeville around the year 1046. By 1066 Bernard was a monk at Saint- Cyprien in Poitiers. There he distinguished himself by his strict piety, so it prior of St- Savin -sur -Gartempe was already 1076. In 1096 he retired as a hermit in the forest at Craon back and later on the Chaussey Islands off Granville in Normandy. 1100 he returned to Saint- Cyprien and was there elected abbot, as his predecessor, Abbot Renaud, had died. There, however, he could not enforce his desired reforms. He was from about 1104 - probably with the permission of Pope Paschal II - on the road again as an itinerant preacher and hermit to come close to his ideal of strict, founded on handmade lifestyle modeled after the Egyptian monks in the tradition of Anthony. So he undertook example apostolic journey with Robert of Arbrissel. When the Pope antrug him a cardinal, he refused.

1109 he got Thiron a piece of land by the Count of Perche and Mortagne, Rotrou III. , Paid and founded a Benedictine Congregation with the monastery Ste- Trinité, which soon experienced a major boom and became famous. The Congregation of the same grew by 23 abbeys and 80 priories, who joined in the 17th century Maurinerkongregation.

His life was narrated by the Chancellor Gaufredus Grossus in the Vita beati Bernardi, which originated about 1147.