Nine centuries ago, at a time when Benedictines from the Order of Cluny glorified God in splendid divine offices and magnificent churches, an unknown monk called Robert de Molesme sugested that they revert to the strict rule of Benoit de Nurcie: in prayer, seclusion and living by manual labor. The "New Monastery" in Citeaux thus became a model for a cohort of "Cistercians," choir monks and lay brothers from some seven hundred abbeys across Europe, not to mention the nunneries linked to them.

Thanks to Bernard de Clairvaux, the most famous of the "White Monks," the new Order soon evolved into the leading conscience of Christendom by both controlling political power and by rallying the entire feudal system in pursuit of the greatest glory of God.