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Aelred was born in Hexham, Northumbria , in 1110 . His father, a married priest, sent him to spend several years at the court of King David I Of Scotland . Aelred rose to be Master Of The Household before leaving the court to enter a Cistercian monastery at Rievaulx Abbey , in Yorkshire , around the year 1134 . Aelred became Abbot of Rievaulx in 1147 and spent the remainder of his life in the monastery. He wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them The Mirror Of Charity (perhaps at the request of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux) and Spiritual Friendship . He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to Henry II Of England , advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendent of Anglo-Saxon kings. Until the twentieth century Aelred was generally known as a historian rather than a spiritual writer; for many centuries his most famous work was his ''Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor." Aelred died on January 12 , 1167 , at Rievaulx. He is listed for January 12 in Lesser Feasts And Fasts , the Episcopal Church's register of Christians worthy of particular veneration. Aelred's works and his Life by Walter Daniel, another twelfth-century monk of Rievaulx, give no indication of Aelred's sexual orientation or experience. Some scholars in the mid-twentieth century, however, inferred from his spiritual works' discussion of friendship and love that he was gay. In fact his works encourage virginity among the unmarried and chastity (not necessarily abstinence) in marriage and widowhood and warn against any sexual activity outside of marriage; in all his works he treats same-sex and opposite-sex attraction as equally likely and equally dangerous to anyone sworn to celibacy. At the same time, though, he could be compassionate about human failings, and criticised the absence of pastoral care for the Nun Of Watton and her case of pregnancy while within a Gilbertine convent. Aelred is the Patron Saint of Integrity , an organization in the Episcopal Church In The United States Of America composed of Gays and Lesbians and their friends. He is also patron saint of the ''Order of St. Aelred'', a gay-friendly organization in the Philippines . There is a high school named after St. Aelred in Newton-le-Willows , Lancashire (UK). Most of Aelred's works have appeared in translation from Cistercian Publications, including Mirror Of Charity , Spiritual Friendship , Rule Of Life For A Recluse , Jesus As A Boy Of Twelve , Pastoral Prayer , On The Soul , Genealogy Of The Kings Of The English , Battle Of The Standard , Lament For The Death Of King David Of Scotland , The Life Of Saint Edward, King And Confessor , and twenty sermons. The other historical works ( Life Of Saint Ninian , On The Saints Of Hexham , and A Certain Wonderful Miracle ) will appear in mid-2006.
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