St. The appearance of Bernard of Clairvaux near the end of Dante's Commedia, which occurs in book XXXI of the Paradaiso, is not something a reader could predict. Bernard was taken away from Dante at the age of over 160 years. Bernard was a monk and contemplative while Dante was a poet and active official in the Florentine government. While Dante poeta might have wished for a holy person to lead Dante personaggio into the holiest realms of Paradise, he might have chosen a Christian saint closer to his age and geography, e.g. Francis of Assisi, Thomas of 'Aquin or Bonaventure. However, Dante entrusted the task to Bernard. The purpose of this essay is to examine the possible reasons for Dante's choice of Bernard as Dante's final guide in his ascent from Hell to Purgatory to Paradaiso. Scholars do not have conclusive evidence that Dante read Bernard's corpus. Therefore, retracing the path between Bernard and Dante will be more circuitous. Although I am unable to provide a direct cause-and-effect relationship between Bernard and Dante, I can discuss the conditions of possibility that led Dante to choose Bernard. In order to construct these possibilities, I will examine five factors that may have led Dante to Bernard and they are listed in order of importance. They include Cistercian charisms focused on individual compunction and collective unity, Bernard and Dante's concern with Church governance, Bernard's hagiography, medieval preaching on the Meditations on the Life of Christ, and Mariology of Bernard as interpreted by Dante. I believe what makes my analysis unique is my emphasis on the Cistercian charisms and the parallel interests of Bernard and Dante in Church governance. I differ from other scholars who see Bernard's Mario...... middle of paper ......m la Vita prima. The fourth factor to be discussed is Bernard's text contained in another intermediate manuscript entitled Meditations on the Life of Christ. The Meditations were written by Giovanni de Caulibus in the mid-13th century. Throughout medieval Europe, preachers used this manuscript to evangelize the laity. The Meditations contained passages from Bernard's works, notably his homilies on the Song of Songs, and Bernard's name was often mentioned in the preaching. The fifth factor is Bernard's Mariology or what was perceived in Dante's time as Bernard's Mariology. I want to show that Bernard was not the mariologist that many attributed to him. Finally, I will do a careful reading of the last three songs of the Commedia (XXXI-XXXIII) in which Bernard appears. In this reading, I hope to show how these Cantos reflect the factors presented above..