Saint Aelred of Rievaulx

(c. 1110 - 1167)

The son of a prominent priest, Saint Aelred of Rievaulx was born in northern England around 1109 and spent much of his youth in the Scottish court as a companion to the sons of David I. He entered the Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx, in North Yorkshire, around 1135 and was named its abbot in 1147. Most of the details about his life are known today because of a biography written shortly after his death by Walter Daniel, one of his monks. Aelred wrote a guide for novices, The Mirror of Chastity, that summed up the life of a monastery: little sleep, not much food, but also “everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvelous freedom from the tumult of the world.”