St. Bernard of Clairvaux, (c.1090 – 1153) was canonized January 18, 1174.  A Cistercian monk and mystic, founder and abbot of the Abbey of Clairvaux,  he was one of the most influential churchmen of his time.  Mediator and counselor for several civil and ecclesiastical councils and for theological debates during seven years of papal disunity,  he nevertheless found time to produce an extensive number of sermons on the Song of Solomon. His greatest literary endeavour,  Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles,  revealed his teaching,  often described as “sweet as honey,”  as in his later title doctor mellifluus.