a. and sb. [ad. L. type Cisterciānus, in F. Cistercien, f. Cistercium, now Cîteaux, the site of an abbey near Dijon.]
1. adj. Of or belonging to the monastic order founded at Cistercium or Cîteaux in 1098 by Robert, abbot of Molesme.
The order was an offshoot of the Benedictines, and aimed at a stricter observance of the Benedictine rules. From the patronage of St. Bernard (abbot of Clairvaux in 1200) it acquired the name of BERNARDINE.
1602. Bernard de Brito (title), Chronicall of the Cistercian Order.
[a. 1619. Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng. (1626), 104. The King required … all the Wooll that yeare of the Monkes Cisteaux.]
1657–. Phillips, Cistercian monks.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, i. The Cistercian Convent.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 213/1. The third abbot of Citeaux was Etienne or Stephen Harding, an Englishman … who may be regarded as the real founder of the Cistercian order.
2. sb. A monk of this order.
1626. Bullokar, Cistercians.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ii. 91. Noble and churl welcomed the austere Cistercians.
