Cistercian draws inspiration and wisdom from several traditions. Most ancient is the Catholic Christian Tradition expressed in the Old and New Testaments and in the living doctrine of the Church. This Tradition, the only one spelled with a capital T, is the foundation for Cistercian.

We also draw on the tradition of Western monasticism, a way of life that found its classic formulation some 1500 years ago in the Rule of St. Benedict, who organized his monastery as "a school for the Lord's service." The monastery's main function, St. Benedict wrote, is to teach the Christian way of life. The monk is to be a lifelong learner and teacher.

The Cistercian tradition itself dates back 900 years to the foundation of the monastery of Citeaux (Cistercium in Latin) in France. The first Cistercians sought to follow St. Benedict's Rule more "authentically" by living a life of simplicity, by "being poor with the poor Christ," by balancing prayer and work, and by recovering in their own day the fervor of the earliest Christian community which gathered around the apostles.

Our school's motto is Ardere et Lucere, to be enkindled and to enlighten. At its best, Cistercian Preparatory School is a community in which every boy's natural capacity to know and to work for the good of others is enkindled so that he can then go forth and enlighten the world in which he will live.