Salve caput cruentatum

Author (attributed to): Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, saint, abbot, and doctor, fills one of the most conspicuous positions in the history of the middle ages. His father, Tecelin, or Tesselin, a knight of great bravery, was the friend and vassal of the Duke of Burgundy. Bernard was born at his father's castle on the eminence of Les Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy, in 1091. He was educated at Chatillon, where he was distinguished for his studious and meditative habits. The world, it would be thought, would have had overpowering attractions for a youth who, like Bernard, had all the advantages that high birth, great personal beauty, graceful manners, and irresistible influence could give, but, strengthened in the resolve by night visions of his mother (who had died in 1… Go to person page >

For many years, this hymn was attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, but modern scholarship leans toward Arnulf, Abbot of Villers-la-Ville. This hymn is not found in the earliest editions of Bernard's works. This is the seventh part of a series of hymns (or one multi-part hymn) known as "Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima."

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