After its birth the Cistercian Order flourished to such an astonishing degree that within a century it included a very large number of monasteries, in all parts of Europe. But inevitably it began to experience the normal alternations between periods of greater fervor and fidelity to the original charism, and on the other hand periods of reduced vitality. This made it necessary to institute vigorous reforms to revitalize the original spirit of the Order.  The General Chapter met annually to review the progress of the communities, and to assure the integrity of Cistercian life and the uniformity of fundamental observances.

Pope Benedict XII

Several Popes also interested themselves in the Order’s spiritual progress, two of them going so far as to issue papal bulls which enforced reforms...

1832: The monastery was founded on 30 May 1832 at Scrahan, Cappoquin, by a colony of Irish and English monks, expelled from the abbey of Melleray after the French Revolution of 1830, and who had come to Ireland under the leadership of Fr. Vincent de Paul Ryan. It was called Mount Melleray in memory of the motherhouse. On the feast of St. Bernard, 1833, the foundation stone of the new monastery was blessed by the Most Rev. Wm. Abraham, bishop of Waterford and Lismore.

1835: Mount St. Bernard's Abbey, established in England in 1835 by monks, partly from France and partly from Ireland, has always been regarded as the senior daughter-house of Mount Melleray.

1835: 17 May: Dom Vincent Ryan was blessed abbot of Mount Melleray, recently raised to the dignity of an abbey by a decree of the...