They are also known as Bernardines , after Saint Bernard , or as White Monks , in reference to the colour of their cowl , as opposed to the black cowl worn by Benedictines. Bernard helped launch a new era when he entered the monastery in the early s with 30 companions. By the end of the 12th century, the order had spread throughout most of Europe. The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to literal observance of the Benedictine Rule. The reform-minded monks tried to live monastic life as they thought it had been in Benedict 's time; at various points they went beyond it in austerity.
They returned to manual labour, especially agricultural work in the fields. The Cistercians made major contributions to culture and technology: Cistercian architecture has been recognized as a notable form of medieval architecture , and the Cistercians were the main force of technological diffusion in fields such as agriculture and hydraulic engineering.
Over the centuries, education and scholarship came to dominate the life of many monasteries. A reform movement seeking a simpler lifestyle began in 17th-century France at La Trappe Abbey , and became known as the Trappists. The abbot general is the leader of the "administrative machinery" of a Cistercian order. The burial practices for Cistercian monks involve complex rituals, and monks may be buried with or without shrouds.
Cistercian monks and nuns have a reputation of cultivating solitude and silence; the great monastics have explained silence as "the language of liberation, enlightenment, or union with God. Benedict and never required a vow of silence.
In , a Benedictine abbot , Robert of Molesme , left Molesme Abbey in Burgundy with around 20 supporters, who felt that the Cluniac communities had abandoned the rigours and simplicity of the Rule of St. Chief among Robert's followers included Alberic , a former hermit from the nearby forest of Colan, and Stephen Harding , a young monk from England. Cisteaux means reeds in Old French , given to them expressly for the purpose of founding their Novum Monasterium.
