16th century painting of Saint Bernard

16th century oil on board depicting Saint Bernard sitting at a table holding a crucifix. Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and a major leader in the reform of Benedictine monasticism that caused the formation of the Cistercian order. He was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 kilometres southeast of Bar-sur-Aube.