Encyclopaedia Cisterciensis
A Cistercian Encyclopedia
A joint project of the Cistercian family
When Cîteaux was founded in 1098, nobody would have thought that
this was the beginning of an order which would rapidly grow and
eventually spread globally. In more than 900 years, a vast family
has developed from this initial foundation in Cîteaux, a monastic
family with a rich historical, legislative and liturgical heritage.
Almost 3,000 monasteries were founded; many of them have disappeared
in the course of time.
We seek to provide documentation for all these Cistercian sites in
a database easily accessible on the internet. The information
published (photos, texts, and bibliographies) will progressively be
appended by internet-links which are meant to help with research and
bibliographic reference on our official websites,
www.ocso.org
and
www.ocist.org.
Pope Leo XIII coined the term Familia Cisterciensis for the
different branches of the “Cistercian family”. Since the
Reformation, a large number of monasteries in Germany have been
turned into Protestant churches and communities. Their “Community of
Protestant Cistercian Heritage in Germany” (Gemeinschaft der
Evangelischen Zisterziensererben in Deutschland) stands as a witness
for their major interest in the Cistercians.
Our database wants to present every single monastery of the entire
“family”, which means that comprehensive information is made
available on the internet. This ambitious project needs
collaboration of as many people as possible all over the world. We
are delighted that CISTOPEDIA has already become a shared project:
Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians are involved,
Cistercian monks and nuns from many countries and different
observances, lay people and religious.
We warmly invite you to also support and participate in the
project, so that as our collection of data and photographs grows,
our Cistercian community may grow as well.
Rome, April 2008
Dom Timothy Kelly, Procurator
General OCSO
P. Meinrad J. Tomann,
Procurator
General OCist