Often summer is the time for induction (or vesting) ceremonies, that is: young men entering the novitiate. The Rule of St. Benedict (RB) is very minimalistic when describing the ceremony, but the Rule of the Master (RM) goes into more detail, even dramatic detail. RM preceded RB.
George Klawitter explains in his 1981 article that after the chapter had been informed and assented to the candidate's wish to begin monastic life, the next day after prime a type of playlet took place in the choir stalls or in the chapter house. The candidate interrupts the exit procession and asks the monks to pray for him and then grabs the abbot's habit and asks to be admitted. Of course, every one knows how the dialogue will end; the candidate receives the habit. The play is the induction ceremony.  
Klawitter shows that early monastic rituals could be very emotional. A melodramatic tone is documented in Gallican prayers. It might seem exaggerated to some. The Rule of St. Benedict, by contrast, is much more austere and discreet. Benedict's version of induction has endured more or less intact to the present day in Benedictine and Cistercian communities.
The RM ceremony is to be found in Adalbert de Vogüé, La Règle du Maitre (Paris 1964) vol. 2, pp. 372-377, qtd. in George Klawitter, Dramatic Elements in Early Monastic Induction Ceremonies. Comparative Drama 15.3 (1981) 213-230.

Claude de Vert: "The clergy, however, and the monks retained the old fashion, cutting the hair short, and even shaving the back of the neck, as far as the ears. When to this fashion of wearing the hair was added the Tonsure at the Crown of the head, the hair left was in modum coronae, as ritualists speak" (qtd. in Pugin's Glossary of ecclesiastical ornament and costume, 233).
Carlo Andreini's manual of 1779 explains why the form of a crown was used: 1. as a reminder of Christ's crown of thorns and 2., a slightly more provocative simile: the crown signifies clerical perfection, because it is an unbroken circle. Notice, however, that most men after a certain amount of hair loss do not have the means for an unbroken circle.

Baroque hagiography counts Galgano Giudotti as a Cistercian – there is even an abbey named after him (see above) – but his connection to the order came after his death.  
Guidotti converted from a dissolute life at 32, became a hermit, and died at 33 around 1180, Cistercian monks founded an abbey at the site of his hermitage, but it soon became too cramped and the Abbazia di San Galgano was built in the valley a few hundred meters away.
The abbey of San Galgano was the first (and only) new foundation of the Cistercians in Tuscany, since they mostly took over existing Benedictine monasteries.
The following baroque rendering shows Galgano's conversion and referst to him, in the caption, as a Cistercian hermit.

Notice the conversion scene rendered beautifully in the background. The caption also claims that Cistercians cultivated his hermitage and made it into a claustral paradise. 
This is one of several hagiographical examples in the new English-language publication by Andrzej Koziel, Art and Mysticism in Silesia in the Baroque Period (originally published in Polish in 2006).

Am 24. Juli 2025 hält Abt Dr. Pius Maurer eine Spezialführung über die Habsburger und ihre Kontakte zum Stift Lilienfeld. In diesem altehrwürdigen niederösterreichischen Stift ist eine Stammmutter der Habsburger bestattet, Cimburgis von Masowien. Ihr Grab wird während der Führung ebenso besucht wie der Kaisersaal, der Prälatursaal und die Gemäldegalerie, wo mehrere Gemälde der Habsburger aufbewahrt werden. Auch der Hirtenstab, den der sel. Kaiser Karl I. von Österreich (1887–1922) dem letzten Hofbischof Ernst Seydl (1872–1952, oben abgebildet) schenkte, ist durch besondere Umstände in das Stift Lilienfeld gekommen und wird bei dieser Spezialführung gezeigt.

Cistercian abbots were permitted to ordain their confreres to the diaconate in the 15th century, but not to the priesthood. The practice began in 1400 (Pope Boniface IX allowed it) and was confirmed in 1427 (Gerentes ad vos, Pope Martin V). The Abbot of Cîteaux and the four primary abbots were given this privilege, usually restricted to bishops. Abbots ordained, albeit sparingly, until the seventeenth century. In a recent article, the best treatment of the topic to date, Troupeau lists less than 15 documented incidents and includes facts about who ordained, where, and when. This privilege was also given to other powerful monastic and canonical prelates.
​It is to be understood, so argues Troupeau, in the context of "the Great Western Schism." Popes sought to bind influential orders more strongly to the Apostolic See, and also to keep aspirants to Holy Orders close to their abbey and away from decadent university towns. Finally, there is an argument in the theology of the sacraments concerning the difference between priestly ordination (which the prelates had) and episcopal ordination (which some consider only a marginal increase in gradation). Therefore, what might seem at first like a decadent practice actually sprang from the will to reform.
Jean Troupeau, Le privilège des abbés cisterciens d'ordonner aux ordres majeurs: son origine, sa mise en oeuvre et son extinction. Cîteaux 74 (2023) 277-320.

More details are available here.

Anlässlich des 150. Todestages von Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805–1875) findet ein Kolloquium über Leben und Werk des Erneuerers der Abtei Saint-Pierre de Solesmes statt. Guéranger hat mit Solesmes die Hochburg der monastischen Liturgie- und Choralpflege ins Leben gerufen und eine ganze Epoche international beeinflusst. Obwohl sein theologisches Wirken bekannt ist, blieben Persönlichkeit und Charisma bislang unterbeleuchtet. Sein religiöser, intellektueller und politischer Werdegang soll nun besser dargestellt und kontextualisiert werden.
Die Tagung in der Abtei Solesmes findet am 22./23. Mai 2025 statt. Mehr Infos bei: [email protected] 

On Monday in Holy Week, a youth group told the story of the events of Jesus Christ's last hours before his crucifixion and death. 

Jesus preparing to wash his disciples' feet.

Pontius Pilate with his henchmen.

Jesus before Pontius Pilate.

Jesus meets his mother on the way to Calvary.

Christ ascends Calvary. Note Pontius Pilate's misery.

Above: Jesus among the crucified. Below: "Quod scripsi, scripsi!"

Mediävist Karl Brunner hat nach zehnjähriger Arbeit eine Edition des Klosterneuburger Traditionskodex herausgebracht. Während der feierlichen Buchpräsentation, in der Brunner mit dem Leopoldskreuz in Silber von Propst Anton Haslinger ausgezeichnet wurde, erklärte der ehem. Direktor des Institutes für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung die Bedeutung des von ihm so intensiv bearbeiteten Traditionsbuches.
Tradition hat in diesem Fall nichts mit abstraktem Kulturerbe oder ritueller Vergangenheit zu tun, sondern bedeutet einfach "Geschenk". Das Traditionsbuch ist also ein monumentales Verzeichnis der frühesten Zuwendungen an das Stift Klosterneuburg.
Tausende Personen kommen darin vor, und Hunderte Orte. Man vergleiche es zu einem Telefonbuch, so Brunner, in seiner Schlüsselfunktion um die Personen einer Zeit zu identifizieren.
Brunner machte einige wenige Hinweise auf die unerwarteten Aussagen der Edition: Ein Drittel der handelnden Personen waren Frauen. So stark kann die Benachteiligung der Frau im Mittelalter nicht gewesen sein. Und: Das Stift hat in gewisser Funktion als Kreditinstitut gehandelt, etwa in der Finanzierung von Einzelpersonen, die auf Kreuzzug gehen wollten und dafür Geld brauchten. Auch bestätigte er die oft dokumentierte fürsorgliche Beziehung des Klerus zum Klosterpersonal; viele Geschenke sind von Geistlichen zugunsten von Angestellten gemacht worden.
Die letzte Edition dieser kostbaren Quellen (damals von Klosterneuburger Stiftsarchivar Maximilian Fischer gefertigt) wurde 1851 gedruckt. Es war höchste Zeit!

Using modern technology, researchers publishing in the journal “Royal Society Open Science” reported that bindings of medieval manuscripts from Clairvaux were in several cases made from the fur of seals. Methods such as electrostatic zooarchaeology and ancient DNA testing made this analysis possible. Historians may be sceptical of such empirical methods, but at the very least they open up new avenues of inquiry. The traces of seals suggest a strong connection to the English abbeys. This is nothing completely new, but valuable nonetheless.