Lactation of St. Bernard

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was the luminary of the monastic reform of the Cistercian rule. He was commonly depicted mediating on the sufferings of Christ, even embracing Christ hanging on the Cross. Here he focuses on the infant Christ in the arms of the Virgin in an image called the “lactation.” The image makes clear the human nature of Christ and his dependence on his mother. In response to Bernard's prayer, Monstra te esse matrem (Show yourself a mother) the saint is blessed with a stream of the Virgin's milk. These lines begin the fourth stanza of the widely-known hymn Ave Maris Stella. Often attributed to Bernard, the hymn probably originated in the 9th century.