So far as I am aware, this is the first attempt on the part of a Catholic to render St. Bernard's famous Discourses on the Canticle of Canticles available for English readers. It is passing strange that it should be so; passing strange that the most important work, perhaps, of him who has been called by excellence the Doctor of Love and the Prince of Mystics, should be so neglected. But the Sermons on the Canticle are not singular in this respect. The same neglect has been extended to practically all the writings of the Mellifluous Doctor, with great loss to spirituality. The cause of this is not easy to determine. Want of appreciation it can hardly be. Surely no one could read those grandest of prose-poems, those sweetest of love-songs, which have been for ages the delight of religious souls and have nourished the piety of saints unnumbered, without feeling his heart touched and his mind illumined. But, whatever the explanation, the fact remains, and it does not speak well for Catholic scholarship. For it is only by those of the household that St. Bernard has been so forgotten. Non-Catholic writers have shown themselves, if not more appreciative, at any rate, more zealous and enterprising. One cannot help feeling a sense of shame at beholding the elegant translations of some of the Saint's more celebrated treatises, published even in our own times, by such Protestant scholars as Drs. Eales and Gardner. It looks as if, by a strange irony of fate, heresy had obtained a monopoly of the very man who, in his day, was its most formidable opponent.

It would not be easy to exaggerate the influence, direct and indirect, of St. Bernard's writings on the religious history of the last eight centuries. According to Horstius, who wrote about 1679, they were more universally read, and republished more frequently, than the works of any other of the Fathers. Not alone have they served the Church as a powerful means of edification, but even many of the most beautiful devotions which adorn her liturgy and strengthen her hold on the hearts of her children, owe to them their inspiration or their popularity — such as the devotion to the Sacred Heart, to the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, to St. Joseph, to the Holy Angels, and the Guardian Angels in particular. Mystical and ascetical writers of every age, since their first publication, have found in them an inexhaustible mine of spiritual treasures, wherewith they have not hesitated to enrich their own compositions. Thus many of the brilliant epigrams and beautiful images which adorn the pages of popular authors are but borrowed plumes, derived from the works of St. Bernard. Sir Francis Cruise has shown how enormously the author of the Imitation is indebted to our Saint. His influence is also clearly discernible in the two other works which, in their various ways, had perhaps the largest share in moulding medieval thought, viz., St. Thomas's Summa Theologica and Dante's Divina Commedia. The same is true of the works of St. John of the Cross and St. Francis of Sales, the two great masters of the spiritual life most in favour with modern mystics. The highest honour which can be rendered to any writer is the adoption of his words into the dogmatic system of Christ's infallible Church, which are thus, in some sense, put on a level with the inspired oracles of Holy Writ. According to the Abbé Ratisbon, such honour was paid to the writings of St. Bernard by the great Council of Trent, for in its authentic exposition of the doctrine of justification it "reproduces his teaching almost word for word."

As to the intrinsic excellence of those writings, it would, of course, be the height of presumption on my part to venture an opinion. But I think the reader will thank me if I present him with a few appreciations from the pens of competent judges. They have been selected with a view to the greatest variety as regards age, nationality, and religious persuasion.

Catholic Testimonies.

I call to mind his holy and wonderful life, how he was endowed with a singular prerogative of grace, and not only did he possess in himself in an extraordinary degree the gifts of devotion and sanctity, but he also illustrated the universal Church of God with the light of his faith and his learning. — Pope Alexander III.

By the acuteness of his genius, the sanctity of his life, and his knowledge of Sacred Scripture, he rendered most important service to the Universal Church.... With voice and pen he attacked and confounded the heretics of his time, and by his learning defended the Roman See against its assailants. — Pope Pius VIII.

The works of St. Bernard have a flavour of admirable sweetness so that he is always read with a holy delight. — Cardinal Valerius.

He was gifted with a sublime eloquence, and so rich in saintly wisdom and eminent in holiness, that while we garner his teaching we should make his life our model. Bernard, the great contemplative (altissimus contemplator), tasted all the sweetness of prayer; if you, too, would find a relish in prayer, ruminate his words. Not only are they spiritual and heart-penetrating, but they are also exquisite in style and calculated to impel you to the service of God. — St. Bonaventure.

In him we see gleaming the nine precious stones of which the Prophet Ezechiel speaks, by which are signified the nine choirs of angels, for Bernard possessed the virtues and exercised the offices of all the angelic orders. His mouth was a chalice of purest gold, all studded with jewels, making the whole world drunk with the wine of its sweetness. — St. Thomas Aquinas.

Blessed art thou, O honey-tongued Bernard, amongst all the Doctors of the Church, whose soul was marvellously enlightened by the eternal splendours of the Word, who from the abundance of thy heart spoke so sweetly and so touchingly of the Saviour's Passion... No wonder thy tongue should distil such sweetness, since thy heart was filled with the honey that flows from meditation on the sufferings of Christ. — B. Henry Suso.

He lived most holily and taught most excellently.... As the face of Moses shone so brightly from the divine communications vouchsafed him that it dazzled the eyes of the people, so did Bernard radiate throughout the Church the light of heavenly knowledge with which his soul was flooded. — William of Paris.

St. Bernard was truly an apostolic man. Rather he was a true apostle sent by God, mighty in word and work, everywhere confirming his mission by his miracles, so that in no respect does he come short of the great apostles. — Cardinal Baronius.

St. Bernard was truly an apostle, not less illustrious, for his miracles than for the splendour of his wisdom. He has more miracles to his credit than any other saint whose life has been written. — Cardinal Bellarmin.

Bernard is sweet, pious, penetrating, elegant, eloquent, inflaming. — Ribera.

His discourse is every way sweet and ardent. It so delights and fervently inflames, that, from his most sweet tongue, honey and milk seem to flow in his words, and out of his most ardent breast a fire of burning affections breaks out. — Sixtus Sinensis.

Where can any one find for himself a more excellent teacher of divine love than this Saint, whose words are but so many sparks shot forth from the furnace of charity? — Gerson.

Of all the Greek Fathers I am most pleased with Chrysostom, who excels in fluency, variety, and every kind of ornament. Amongst the Latins I prefer Bernard, whose ardour and piquancy arouse the emotions, whilst his acuteness and wisdom inform the mind. — Lipsius.

No monk ever either wrote better or lived more holily.... Bernard's language is unusually limpid and prudent. Hence he is often highly praised, even by the enemies of the Church, not only for his great learning, but also for his skill and moderation as a teacher. — B. Peter Canisius.

Bernard enkindles in the hearts of his readers the same sweet flame of love which consumes his own. His lips distil milk and honey, especially when he speaks of the Incarnate Word or His Virgin Mother. — Cornelius a Lapide.

Bernard is Christianly learned, holily eloquent, devoutly cheerful and pleasant, powerful in moving the passions. — Erasmus.

Read that most beautiful book De Consideratione, and from its most noble style you will understand that the author was more eloquent than Demosthenes, more subtle than Aristotle, wiser than Plato, more prudent than Socrates. — Helinandus.

His works are the most useful for piety amongst all the writings of the Fathers. — Valois.

The elect of God amongst the elect, the most excellent teacher of religious, the light and glory of monks, the model and example of the devout, who was presented from on high with such graces, adorned with such qualities, distinguished by such privileges, that no mind is powerful enough to conceive his greatness, no tongue eloquent enough to speak his praises. — Denis the Carthusian.

Next to the Sacred Scriptures, no works should be more prized by the religious-minded, for none are more profitable, than those of St. Bernard. In them are found united all the perfections dispersed through the works of others: solidity of doctrine, grace of style, variety of matter, elegance of diction, conciseness, fervour, force of expression. — Mabillon.

It is impossible to find a more sublime personification of the Catholic Church, combating against the heretics of his time, than the illustrious Abbot of Clairvaux, who speaks, as it were, in the name of the Christian faith. No one could more worthily represent the ideas and sentiments which the Church endeavoured to diffuse amongst mankind, or more faithfully delineate the course through which Catholicism would have led the human intellect. Let us pause in the presence of this gigantic mind, which attained to an eminence far beyond any of its contemporaries. This extraordinary man fills the world with his name, upheaves it with his word, sways it by his influence. In the midst of darkness he is its light.... His exposition of a point of doctrine is remarkable for ease and lucidity; his demonstrations are vigorous and conclusive; his reasoning is conducted with a force of logic that presses hard upon his adversary and leaves him no means of escape; in defence his quickness and address are surprising. In his answers he is clear and precise; in repartee ready and penetrating; and without dealing in the subtleties of the schools, he displays wonderful tact in disengaging truth from error, sound reason from artifice and fraud. Here is a man formed entirely and exclusively under the influence of Catholicism, a man who never dreamed of setting his intellect free from the yoke of authority; and yet he rises like a mighty pyramid above all the men of his time. — Balmez.

St. Bernard in his writings is equally tender, sweet, and vigorous. His style is lively, sublime, and pleasant.... He treats theological subjects after the manner of the ancients, on which account, and because of the great excellence of his writings he is reckoned amongst the Fathers. And though the youngest of them in time, he is one of the most useful to those who desire to study and to improve their hearts in sincere piety. — Alban Butler.

There seems to have been in this one mind an inexhaustible abundance, variety, and versatility of gifts. Without ever ceasing to be the holy and mortified religious, St. Bernard appears to be the ruling will of his time. He stands forth as pastor, preacher, mystical writer, controversialist, reformer, pacificator, mediator, arbiter, diplomatist, and statesman. Of all the writers of the first thousand years of the Church, none is more full of fervent, adoring, tender love for our Divine Lord, and none is more conspicuous for ardent affection and veneration for the Mother of God. — Cardinal Manning.

Nature's favourite, grace enriched him with her choicest gifts.... A prodigy of eloquence, speaking to all the stern language of duty and yet ever winning the enthusiastic love of all, he was a living miracle of the power of religion and of the heavenly charm of grace. As an orator and a writer he stands foremost in his day.... His style is spirited and flowery, his thoughts ingenious; his imagination brilliant and rich in allegories; his assiduous meditation on and study of the Sacred Text had so interwoven it with his thoughts that their every utterance naturally reproduced its ideas and expression. — Darras.

We know a man who, though living in solitude, could sway the world and direct the Church by the charm of his words and the power of his genius. Though the mildest of men, he was at the same time the most resolute.... We speak of St. Bernard, whose mental and moral greatness his contemporaries in the twelfth century knew so well how to prize. — Rohrbacher.

Thou art he, O mellifluous Bernard, who dost continue still, as heretofore, to irrigate the world with the dew of thy heavenly doctrine and most sweetly to refresh it with thy writings, flowing with milk and honey. Whilst perusing these, we seem to enjoy the pleasures of the promised land, even in this place of horror and desolation, and the bitter waters of the desert appear to be sweetened with a foretaste of our future bliss. — Horst.

What can so enliven our devotion, excite our contrition, or inflame our love as the life and teaching of the blessed Father St. Bernard? Where shall we find one more efficacious in exhorting to virtue, in dissuading from vice, in lifting our affections from earth to heaven? — De Hassia.

Non-Catholic Testimonies.

Bernard surpasses all the other Doctors of the Church. — Luther.

The Abbot Bernard, in his books De Consideratione, speaks in the language of truth itself. — Calvin.

Who can write more sweetly than Bernard? His meditations I call a river of Paradise, spiritual nectar, the food of angels, the very soul of piety. — Hein.

A few of Bernard's pages contain more spirit and life and doctrine and faith than all the writings of Jerome. — Neander.

In speech, in writing, in action, Bernard stood high above his rivals and contemporaries.... He became the oracle of Europe. — Gibbon.

Never has there been a religious better able to reconcile engrossment in the tumult of affairs with the austerity of his state of life. He, beyond all others, acquired an influence springing from purely personal merits and surpassing in efficacy official authority. — Voltaire.

St. Bernard was the most eloquent, the most influential, the most piously disinterested of the Christians of his age. — Guizot.

We are used to speak of St. John as the Apostle of Love. The title "Doctor of Love" will sufficiently define St. Bernard's place among the theologians of the Church. — Gardner.

One would hardly know where to find a brighter example of the power which is imparted to the preacher by this always noble, if sometimes dangerous and misleading, faculty (of imagination). It is perpetually apparent in Bernard. Whatever else he is or is not, he is never commonplace. His mind is fruitful in large suggestions, and the text is often hardly more than a nest from which, like the eagle, he lifts himself on eager wing, to touch, if he may, the stars of light. — Storrs.

With respect to the Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles in particular, I cannot refrain from quoting a few additional witnesses, even at the risk of wearying the reader: —

They contain whatever the holy Doctor has said in his other works appertaining to morals and piety; in fact, all that he ever wrote on the virtues and vices and the spiritual life. All this he repeats in these Discourses, but with greater solidity and elevation of style, whilst he removes the veils and obscurities from the mystical and allegorical senses of the Sacred Text, and brings forth to the light all the secrets of perfection, in a manner no less delightful than sublime. — Mabillon.

He spoke to men in the language of angels and they were scarcely able to understand it. — Fleury.

The questions so beautifully treated here are precisely those which appear in St. Thomas's Summa. — Dalgairns.

In this immortal code of divine love, he celebrates the nuptials of the soul with God, and depicts in lines of light that Bride who loves only for the sake of loving and being loved.... Human tenderness, no matter how eloquent, has never inspired accents more passionate or more profound. — Montalembert.

The Sermons are tremulous with the incessant immer of allegories.... so rich in their spiritual suggestiveness that they strike upon the mind like rays straight from heaven, and belonging to that "light that never was on sea or shore." — Eales.

The Sermons were begun in the Advent of 1135, after the Saint's return from his second mission to Aquitaine, which had resulted happily in the conversion of Duke William. The first suggestion of them came from the Carthusian, Bernard de Portis. So much is clear from two extant letters on the subject, addressed by the holy Abbot to this religious. In the earlier of these, he gently remonstrates with his friend, who, as he says, was imposing on him a task for which he had neither time nor talent. "The more insistent you have been in asking," he writes, "the more resolute have I been in refusing, not out of disregard for you but through compassion for myself.... My reluctance has been proportionate to your eagerness. Do you ask why? I will tell you. It is because of my fears lest such great expectations should be disappointed by the birth of nothing better than the 'ridiculous mouse.'" However, he yields to his friend's importunity and promises to send on immediately a few of the Sermons on the Canticle, already composed, in order to cure him of the desire for any more. Still, should these meet with his correspondent's approval, he engages to go forward with the work according to his opportunities. In the second letter, after apologising for not having kept an appointment to visit the Carthusian community, he says: "The Sermons on the Canticles which you asked and which I promised you, I am forwarding herewith. When you have gone through them, write and tell me whether I am to proceed or to desist." Some have supposed that this Bernard de Portis is the Friend to whom the Saint refers in his first Discourse.

During the eighteen years that intervened between this commencement and his death, in 1153, St. Bernard continued his lectures, preaching sometimes every day, as we learn from Sermon XXII; sometimes only on festivals, according as his health and preoccupations permitted. But interruptions were frequent and long, for the Preacher was often called away to bring to an end a dangerous schism, or to make peace between princes, or to put a stop to scandals, or to marshal the forces of Europe for another mighty effort against the powers of the Saracen. Although many passages occur, which were evidently spoken extempore, the Saint, as a rule, took pains with the preparation of his Discourses. One of his biographers gives us a pleasing picture of him reposing from his external labours in the seclusion of a garden bower, formed of a trellis covered over with sweet-pea; it was there, whilst absorbed in divine contemplation, that his soul was filled with these songs of love, these spiritual epithalamiums. There is evidence in the Sermons themselves that, sometimes at any rate, they were only written down after being delivered to the brethren in the monastic auditorium. On such occasions, only the choir religious, including the novices, attended, the lay-brothers not being supposed to understand Latin. Mabillon, however, states that the Saint himself, for their benefit, preached the same Discourses in the French language, and that he had himself examined some of these translations in manuscript. Such charity would not surprise us in St. Bernard. The hour for these love-feasts varied. Sometimes it was in the morning, as we gather from Sermons I and XLVII; sometimes in the evening, as is implied in Sermon LXXI.

The reader may feel disappointed if he fails to bear in mind that the holy Abbot is here not commenting, but preaching, on the "Song of Solomon," and is, therefore, entitled to the liberties of a preacher. As a matter of fact, the text serves him but as a frame whereon to weave the wondrously beautiful fabrics of an extraordinarily fertile fancy, as a point of departure whence to wing his luminous way around the wide-extended realms of thought, or as a watch-tower, from which to contemplate all things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Thus these Sermons, instead of being dry-as-dust homilies, are as varied and many-coloured as is the spiritual life, every aspect of which they discuss with equal solidity and elegance. They exhibit the same independence of thought and treatment which characterise all the other works of their Author. Saints Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great are almost the only human authorities whom St. Bernard ever makes use of, and even on these his dependence is very slight. On the other hand, no other writer is so full of Holy Scripture, from which he borrows something in nearly every sentence. Even when he is not actually quoting from it, his speech is unconsciously attuned to the music of its cadences.

The saintly Preacher had purposed to go over the whole of the Canticle. But death overtook him whilst engaged on the first verse of the third chapter, that is, when he had completed a fourth of his task, in eighty-six Sermons. In some editions we find the number eighty-seven, but this is because the two readings of XXIV are given as distinct Sermons, or because one of the longer Discourses has been divided. Only eighty-six Sermons in eighteen years! Yes, but if you consider the multitudinous cares, the "solicitudes for all the Churches," and for all the States as well, that pressed upon the Saint, you will rather wonder how he found time to accomplish so much. Nevertheless, supremely important as were his services to religion and society in his capacities as churchman and statesman, canonist, propagandist, and peace-maker, we cannot but lament, as he himself lamented, the necessities that called him away from this more congenial occupation. One Gilbert of Hoiland took up the work where St. Bernard left off, and advanced as far as verse 10 of chapter v. in forty-eight Sermons, which, in the judgment of Mabillon, are almost worthy of the Saint himself. According to the same eminent authority, this Gilbert was an Irishman, and Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin. Horst supposed him to have been Abbot of another Cistercian house of the same name in Lincoln. But as the evidence in favour of this view was fully known to Mabillon yet failed to influence him, we are justified in regarding it as negligible.

The only merit claimed for this Translation is that of fidelity to the original. I have endeavoured to represent the author's thought simply and clearly without any effort after ornament or eloquence. The undertaking has been far from easy. An eminent prelate, now no more, used to declare that St. Bernard was untranslatable. That is certainly an exaggeration. But so much at least is true, that hardly is there another writer whose thought is so difficult to detach from his language, because there is hardly another whose language is so closely wedded to his thought. Logicians tell us that words are only conventional signs of ideas, but one feels inclined to make an exception in the case of St. Bernard. With him the ideas seemed to have blossomed into expression naturally and spontaneously, so wonderful is the felicitousness and aptness of the latter. All this, of course, as well as the unnumbered inimitable graces of style and diction which make the Latin so delightful to read, has been lost in the translation. Hence it appears how inadequately these pages represent the original. But it is enough for me if I have succeeded, as I hope I have, in rendering accessible to those for whom the Latin is a sealed fountain the authoritative teaching of so great a Master of the interior life. The dissemination of such doctrines can hardly fail to be fruitful of good, especially in these days of spiritual renaissance, when so many souls are looking for light, when so many questions are being asked concerning the relation between modern mysticism and the medieval, when mysticism itself is attracting so much attention, both within and without the Church, and so many religious "specialists" are loudly advertising their own misty varieties of the thing, or their nebulous theories thereon.

It has been thought advisable to publish the present Translation of the Sermons on the Canticle in two volumes, each containing forty-three Discourses. A third volume, uniform with these, shall include, with selected treatises, the Saint's twenty-seven Homilies on Psalm xc. These have never before appeared in English, and are in quite the same style and of equal merit with those on the Song of Solomon.

Feast of St. Bernard, 1919.