Stephen Harding

St. Stephen Harding, O.Cist.
Saint Stephen Harding, portrayed in Apátistvánfalva, Hungary
Monk, priest and co-founder of the Cistercian Order
Born	ca. 1050 Sherborne, Dorset, Kingdom of England
Died	28 March 1134 Citeaux Abbey, Duchy of Burgundy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church (Cistercian Order)
Feast	17 April
Attributes	Dressed in the Cistercian habit, abbot's crozier, holding the Carta caritatis ("Charter of Charity"), a founding document for the Cistercian Order

Stephen Harding, O.Cist. (French: Étienne Harding, died 28 March 1134), was an English-born monk and abbot, who was one of the founders of the Cistercian Order. He is honoured as a saint in the Catholic Church.

Harding was born in Sherborne, Dorset, in the Kingdom of England, and spoke English, Norman, French and Latin. He was placed in Sherborne Abbey at a young age, but eventually left the monastery and became a travelling scholar, journeying with one devout companion, into Scotland and afterwards to Paris and then to Rome. He eventually moved to Molesme Abbey in Burgundy, under the Abbot Robert of Molesme (c. 1027-1111).

When Robert left Molesme to avoid what he perceived to be the abbey's increasing wealth and overly strong connections to the aristocracy, Harding and Alberic of Cîteaux went with him. Seeing no hope of a sufficient reformation in Molemse, Robert appointed another abbot for the abbey and then, with Alberic, Harding and twenty-one other monks, received permission from Hugh, the Archbishop of Lyons and legate of the Holy See, to found a new monastery in Citeaux, a marshy wilderness five leagues from Dijon. There, they formed a new, more austere, monastery. Eudes, afterwards Duke of Burgundy, built them a little church, which was placed under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin, as all the churches of the Cistercians from that time have been.