The Cistercian Order was established in France near Dijon in 1098 by a group of Benedictine monks who wanted to live Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries in its fullness. This means a life marked by separation from worldly affairs and a quietness that allows the monks or nuns to give themselves more freely to lectio and prayer, praise and worship, and contemplation of our God of love. This means a life of fraternal support where the members of the community fully share a life together, work together to support themselves by the labor of their own hands, and support each other in fidelity to pursuing their high ideal.

Saint Benedict had written his Rule early in the sixth century, bringing together the wisdom that had come from the early monastic foundations in eastern Christendom as well as that which had grown up in the West. Under the inspiration of leaders like Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, in the 1100’s  the Cistercian Order grew rapidly and soon had monasteries in every part of Christendom. Through the centuries, like other religious orders and the Church as a whole, the Order had its ups and downs. In the seventeenth century a renewal took place, stemming from the monastery of Notre Dame de la Grande Trappe. Thus arose the Trappist order in the Cistercian family. It was monks from this monastery who first came to America in the beginning of the nineteenth century.