Saint Robert the Rebel, Saint Alberic The Radical, Saint Stephen Harding the Rationalist. Three Religious Rebels brings the facts about the founders of the monastery at Citeaux to life by using known facts and incorporating them in novel form. Rev. M. Raymond manages to write a compelling story of the men who founded the Cistercian Monastic Order. Rejecting the sterile style of a biography, he chooses to address the subject the way a novelist might. He recreates and imagines scenes as they might have been lived out. Being that the author was in fact a Cistercian Monk (specifically a Trappist) he probably understands what motivates monks better than most of us. This book certainly provides some insight into that world, particularly as it might have existed in the 11th and 12th centuries.