Internal life under Aelred

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That is the supreme glory of the house of Rievaulx, that it
teaches tolerance of the infirm and compassion with others
in their necessities … this house is a holy place for it
generates for its God sons who are peacemakers…
[Aelred of Rievaulx (5)]

...those wanderers in the world to whom no house of religion gave entrance came to Rievaulx, the mother of mercy, and found the gate open.
[Walter Daniel, Life of Aelred, p. 37]

Rievaulx’s reputation heightened during Aelred’s abbacy, attracting a number of men who wished to live the Cistercian life as either monks or lay-brothers of the abbey. In fact, the community seems to have doubled in his time, numbering some 500 lay-brothers and 140 monks. This swell in numbers meant that on feast days, when the entire community assembled to celebrate the services, the abbey church was crowded with brethren, ‘like bees in a hive.’
[Read more about the church at Rievaulx]

Model of the abbey church at Rievaulx
© Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
<click to enlarge>

Rievaulx’s lofty reputation also attracted a number of patrons and benefactors. Men and women from the locality and further afield, who wished in some way to be affiliated with this highly-renowned community, hoped that by making gifts to the monks they would receive spiritual benefits (prayers, masses, perhaps the right to become a monk of Rievaulx or to be buried there) and thereby secure their salvation. Many who became benefactors of the abbey were local and of middling rank, which meant that during the first half of the twelfth century Rievaulx’s holdings were concentrated in the locality. The community did, however, have several prominent patrons, most notably, the Mowbrays, who also encouraged a number of their tenants to become patrons of the abbey.

A Durham connection
Aelred had long-standing links with Durham where his great grandfather had been a canon and his grandfather a treasurer. As an hereditary priest of Hexham Aelred’s father was a tenant and benefactor of Durham where he later took the habit. Aelred was schooled here and had an especial devotion to St Cuthbert.

A number of those who became benefactors of Rivaulx were directly influenced by Aelred. These included men such as Hugh du Puiset, bishop of Durham (1153-95), who stated that his grant of Cowton in the 1150s was made ‘for the special love’ he had for Aelred. Bishop Hugh became a patron of Rievaulx at a crucial point in the abbey’s history, for it was at this time that the community lost its friend and founder, Walter Espec, and was in need of a strong voice, a supporter and a protector. Hugh was received into the fraternity of Rievaulx as a special advocate, receiving prayers as for an abbot of the house; in return he promised to defend and protect the abbey.(6)