The Story of our Clairvaux Magazine

Although the College commenced in 1940 at The Strand, Moonee Ponds, no formal documentation of activities was produced until 1955 when the first Clairvaux magazine was published.

The name derived from Clairvaux Cistercian Abbey, 240 km southeast of Paris, founded by St Bernard in 1115 who was a prolific religious writer on various topics. Clairvaux then seemed an appropriate choice for the name of the College magazine to showcase stories, photos, news items, sporting victories, etc.

With minor deletions for space reasons, the Editorial of Clairvaux, Vol. 1, 1955, read as follows:

This year 1955 is a year of special significance for St Bernard’s College. Through the tireless efforts of our past pupils and benefactors, we now have a Matriculation class at the College, and our pupils are able to finish their secondary education without having to travel to St Kevin’s, Toorak. To mark this, our special year, the boys of the senior classes under the auspices of the Brothers and the teaching staff, have come together to produce a term magazine and annual report. It is the earnest desire of the editing staff that the magazine will be an incentive to you, the pupils, and encourage you to always strive to uphold the name and fame of our College. We hope that future generations will be able to keep and cherish these summaries of our school’s activities and achievements in all fields, and be able to say with pride that they attended St. Bernard’s College, Essendon.

Editor: Barry Rule

Sub Editor: Richard Rogalski

Committee: Kerry Cronin

Anthony Lyons

Gerard Beasley

Desmond Kiernan

Reference: Clairvaux, Vol. 1, 1955

The College colours of blue, black and gold were chosen for the covers.

It later became an annual.