The Christian monk and theologian Isaac of Stella (1100 – ca. 1175 CE) was born in England, and studied in Paris, after which he joined the Cistercian Order. In 1147 he became the abbot of a small monastery in Stella, near Poitiers. The exact date of his death is not known, but in one of his sermons he refers to meeting ‘Saint Bernard,’ who was only canonised in 1174.

Incited by something external
Is like a small lamp
Whose flame is fed with oil,
Or like a stream fed by rains,
Where flows stop when the rains cease.
But love whose object is God is like
A fountain gushing forth
From the earth.
Its flow never ceases,
For He Himself is the source of this love
And also its food,
Which never grows scarce.