William of St-Thierry

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William of St-Thierry (c.1085–1148). Christian theologian and mystical writer. Born at Liège and probably educated at Laon, he became a Benedictine and c.1120 was appointed Abbot of St-Thierry, near Reims. He had long been a friend of St Bernard of Clairvaux, whose life he wrote, but did not join the Cistercians until 1135, owing to Bernard's resistance. In his writings he shows wide reading of the Fathers, Greek as well as Latin, and (especially in his Golden Letter) develops an understanding of the soul's knowledge of God through love which lays bare and fosters a kind of kinship with God.

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William of St-Thierry

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