Ailred, St (or St Aelred or St Ethelred) (1109–1167)

Ruins of the Cistercian Abbey of Rievaulx in North Yorkshire, England.

British religious mystic and historian, an influential advisor to Henry II of England, Louis VII of France, and David I of Scotland. His works include ‘Vita et Miracula S. Edwardi Regis et Confessoris/Life and Miracles of St Edward the Confessor’, ‘De Spirituali Amicitia/On Spiritual Friendship’ (translated 1942), and ‘De Anima/On the Soul’ (translated 1952). His feast day is 12 January.

He was born in Hexham, Northumberland, and entered the household of David I of Scotland at an early age. He refused a bishopric and entered the Cistercian order at Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire around 1134, and was abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire 1143–47, when he was called to be abbot of Rievaulx. On a mission to the Picts of Galloway in 1164 he persuaded the chief to become a monk.