Blessed William of St-Thierry

William of Saint-Thierry, O. Cist was a twelfth-century Benedictine, theologian and mystic from Liège who became abbot of Saint-Thierry in France, and later joined the Cistercian Order. William was born at Liège (in present-day Belgium) of a noble family around 1085 and died at Signy-l'Abbaye in 1148. He probably studied at the cathedral school in Reims, though some have argued it was at Laon, prior to his profession as a Benedictine monk. He became a monk with his brother Simon at the monastery of St. Nicaise in Reims in 1113. From here both eventually became abbots of other Benedictine abbeys: Simon at the abbey of Saint-Nicolas-au-Bois, in the Diocese of Laon, and William at Saint-Thierry, on a hill overlooking Reims, in 1119. In the years 1116-1118 William met St. Bernard, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux, where they formed an intimate friendship that lasted for life. His greatest desire was to move to Clairvaux and take vows as a Cistercian monk, but Bernard disapproved of the plan and imposed on him the responsibility of remaining abbot at the Benedictine abbey of St. Thierry. William was instrumental in the first General Chapter meeting of the Benedictine abbots in the Diocese of Reims, in 1131, and it is possible that he hosted the chapter meeting at Saint-Thierry. After the second General Chapter of the Benedictines, held at Soissons in 1132, where many Cistercian reforms were adopted by the Black Monks, William submitted his Responsio abbatum ("Response of the Abbots") to Cardinal Matthew – papal legate in the diocese and critic of the abbots' reforms – successfully defending their efforts at reform. On account of long infirmities and a lifelong desire for a life of contemplation, William resigned his abbacy in 1135 and entered the newly established Cistercian Signy Abbey, also in the diocese of Reims. According to a contemporary, William died in 1148, about the time of the council held at Reims under Pope Eugenius.