Ailred

AILRED, êl´red (ÆLRED, ETHELRED): Abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in England (20 m. n. of York); b. at Hexham (20 m. w. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), probably in 1109; d. at Rievaulx Jan. 12, 1166. He spent his youth at the court of Scotland, entered the abbey of Rievaulx in 1131, became abbot of Revesby, Lincolnshire and returned to Rievaulx as abbot in 1146. He wrote historical and theological works, the former of which include lives of St. Edward the Confessor and St. Ninian, while among the latter are: Sermones; Speculum charitatis; De spirituali amicitia; De duodecimo anno Christi; Regula sive institutio inclusarum; and De natura animæ. All of his printed works, with life by an anonymous author, are in MPL, cxcv.

Bibliography: Thos. Wright, Biographia Britannica literaria, ii. 187-196, London, 1846; J. H. Newman, Lives of the English Saints, 2 vols., ib. 1845-46; A. P. Forbes, in Lives of St. Ninian, St. Kentigern, St. Columba, Introduction, ib. 1875; Ethelred, in DNB, xviii. 33-35 (contains list of his writings).