"Where do you find #Orval in #Dante?", I am often asked. The abbey is pointed to several times in the #Commedia. The most direct being in the Empyrean, beyond Paradise. Dante admires the White Rose of the chosen ones and is confronted by Saint Bernard who points out to him the place of #Beatrice: "in the third row". A crucial clue if we remember that Bernard founded #Clairvaux, the third daughter of #Cîteaux! Dante's enumeration is modelled on the Claravalian filiation! #history #medieval