Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, is a Christiansaint of noble descent who was born in Hexham, England, in 1110. His father, a (married) priest, sent Aelred to spend several years at the court of King David I of Scotland to ensure his future as a nobleman. Aelred rose to Master of the Household of the King before leaving the court to enter a Cistercian monastery at Rievaulx, in Yorkshire, in about 1134.
Aelred became Abbot of Rievaulx in 1147 and spent the remainder of his life in the monastery. At the request of his lifelong friend, Bernard of Clairvaux, the abbot wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them The Mirror of Charity, and his most famous work, Spiritual Friendship.
Aelred was an Anglo-Saxon, born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110.
Aelred rose to be Master of the Household before leaving the court to enter a Cistercian monastery at Rievaulx Abbey, in Yorkshire, around the year 1134.
Aelred is the patron saint of Integrity, an organization in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America composed of gays and lesbians and their friends.
Aelred was much edified with the very looks of a holy monk, called Simon, who had rejected his high birth, an ample fortune and all the advantages of mind and body, to serve God in that penitential state.
Aelred himself was held in high esteem at Rievaulx and was chosen, in 1142, to travel to Rome as an envoy in the disputed election of William FitzHerbert to the Archiepiscopate of York.
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