WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
(1070/90–1148). Born in Liège, William of Saint-Thierry studied at the schools of Reims
and perhaps at Laon under Anselm of Laon, where he may have met Peter Abélard. For
unknown reasons, he renounced his studies and in 1113 became a monk in the
Benedictine monastery of Saint-Nicasius in Reims. In 1118, he became abbot of Saint-
Thierry, near Reims. As a close friend and admirer of Bernard of Clairvaux, he wished to
change orders and become a Cistercian. However, Bernard dissuaded him until 1135,
when William became a monk in the newly founded Cistercian monastery of Signy,
where he died in 1148.
On several occasions, William encouraged Bernard’s literary activities. Bernard’s
early work, the Apologia, a fierce attack on the traditional Benedictine monastic lifestyle,
was written at William’s request and dedicated to him. About 1138, William, shocked by
the theological audacity of Abélard, persuaded Bernard to oppose him, adding to his
request a list of Abélard’s errors, published as the Disputatio adversus Abaelardum.
Bernard’s intervention resulted in Abélard’s condemnation at the Council of Sens in
- William was also instrumental in bringing about Bernard’s famous series of
sermons on the Song of Songs. When both were ill, they spent some time together in the
infirmary of Clairvaux, talking about the Canticle. William also intended to write a life of
Bernard but completed only the first book, the so-called Sancti Bernardi vita prima.
William published many works on devotional and exegetical themes, among which are
the Expositio in epistolam ad Romanos (in reaction to Abélard’s commentary on Paul’s
Epistle to the Romans), the Expositio super Cantica canticorum (a commentary on the
Song of Songs), as well as two compilations on the Song of Songs from the works of
Ambrose and Gregory the Great and a treatise on the relation between body and soul (De
natura corporis et animae). Author of De natura et dignitate amoris and De
contemplando Deo, William is also considered to be the author of the famous Epistola ad
fratres de Monte Dei, about the solitary and contemplative life.
For William, the act of faith is part of and subsumed under mystical knowledge and
contemplation. Faith is a pretaste of the vision of the divine. Reason helps faith in the
process of understanding itself, raising it to the level of full mystical knowledge
characterized by love. William supports his reflections on mystical knowledge with
quotations from many sources, mainly patristic, while also frequently referring to
profane, classical authors. He, like the “monastic theology” he helped to create, can thus
be seen as part of the so-called 12th-century renaissance.
Burcht Pranger
[See also: ABÉLARD, PETER; BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX; CISTERCIAN
ORDER; MYSTICISM; THEOLOGY]
William of Saint-Thierry. Opera. PL 180, 184, 185.
——. On Contemplating God, trans. Sister Penelope. Kala-mazoo: Cistercian, 1977.
——. The Nature and Dignity of Love, trans. Thomas X. Davis. Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1981.
——. On Contemplating God; Prayer; Méditations, trans. Sister Penelope. Kalamazoo: Cistercian,
——. On the Nature of the Body and the Soul, trans. B.Clark. In Three Treatises on Man: A
Cistercian Anthropology, ed. Bernard McGinn. Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1977.
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