St. Bernard of Clairvaux

The Virgin feeds St. Bernard from her breast.

Today is the Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the political and theological heavy-hitters of the Middle Ages, who counseled popes and kings and whose preaching and writing earned him the title of The Mellifluous Doctor. It is hard to know what to say of a saint so gifted and complex as St. Bernard, so I'll leave it to the older edition of the Cistercian Menology, where several other great saints of his era weigh in:

The feast of our very glorious Father St. Bernard, first Abbot of Clairvaux. Of noble birth, at the age of twenty-two, he succeeded in bringing to follow Christ thirty associates whom he led to Citeaux. In the Cloister his fasts, vigils and prayers were marvellous, and his life therein all heavenly. Soon, in spite of his youth, he was sent to Clairvaux. While assiduous about his own perfection, he labored zealously and successfully for the sanctification of those committed to his care. But circumstances compelled him to leave his solitude. He advises Popes, pacifices kings, converts the people, puts and end to the schism, crushes heresy, preaches the Crusades, refuses Bishoprics, works countless miracles, writes inestimable works, and when he dies at the age of 63, 160