St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Aelred of Rievaulx has the warmth of a man who knew both the court and the cloister, and chose the cloister without losing the human richness the court had first sharpened. He first appears at the Scottish court, gifted, successful, and well loved, yet inwardly unsatisfied. The break toward Rievaulx is therefore not a rejection of humanity, but the discovery of where his humanity could finally be healed and enlarged. He embraced Cistercian austerity seriously, yet his sanctity did not become hard.

As abbot first of Revesby and then of Rievaulx, he governed with tenderness, patience, and an unusual gift for spiritual friendship. His writings helped make that gift permanent, especially where he speaks about charity, affection rightly ordered, and the way friendship can be purified in Christ. The life has a quiet beauty because Aelred never feels like a man who became holy by narrowing. He became holy by letting grace deepen what was already generous in him.