On the Apocalypse

A bright and capable student of Peter Abelard, Geoffrey of Auxerre surprisingly abandoned student life in Paris without hesitation after hearing Bernard of Clairvaux preach on conversion. Five years later, he was the abbot's secretary and close companion, and was collecting notes on Bernard's life with a view to canonization. Successively, sometimes stormily, abbot of three cistercian monasteries, Geoffrey retired to Clairvaux in 1188.

Geoffrey's intelligence, like his literary and philosophical training is reflected in this series of twenty sermons on the final book of the Bible. Originally delivered on various liturgical occasions to cistercian audiences, Geoffrey collected and reworked these sermons toward the end of his life. He infused them with a uniform literary and thematic continuity, while adding the occasional doctrinal elaboration. They come to us today almost in the form of a biblical commentary and they demonstrate Geoffrey's wide acquaintance with biblical and theological sources.