Cistercian order

Roman Catholic monastic order established at Cîteaux in 1098 by St Robert de Champagne, abbot of Molesmes, as a stricter form of the Benedictine order. Living mainly by agricultural labour, the Cistercians made many advances in farming methods in the Middle Ages. The Trappists, so called after the original house at La Trappe in Normandy (founded by Dominique de Rancé in 1664), followed a particularly strict version of the rule.