STATUTE on FOUNDATI ONS
Updated and approved by the General Chapter of 2011 vote 27 and 27 bis
and with revisions regarding the single chapter by the Law Commission.
Updated again after the General Chapter of 2022.
1. Divine Providence can, by means of different signs, invite a community to spread the Cistercian way of life. Since, according to the Order’s tradition, a foundation is always one community’s act of transmitting Cistercian life through the creation of another, a personal project can never be a foundation unless it is taken on by the community. It is the Abbot/Abbess who first discerns these signs of Divine Providence and, when he or she believes it is opportune to begin a discernment in the community, the matter is brought to his/her council.