[2] He was made abbot of Saint Michel-de-Tonnerre around the year 1070, but he soon discovered that the monks were quarrelsome and disobedient, so he returned to Montier-la-Celle.

[3] Meanwhile, two hermits from a group of monks that had settled at Collan went to Rome and asked Pope Gregory VII to give them Robert as their superior.

Initially, the establishment consisted of only huts made of branches surrounding a chapel in the forest, dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

Renaud, the Viscount of Beaune, gave this group a desolate valley in a deep forest[1] where they founded Cîteaux Abbey.

Hugh of Die, Archbishop of Lyons, was persuaded that they could not subsist there without endorsement from an influential churchman, so he wrote in their favour to Odo I, Duke of Burgundy.

Odo paid for the construction they had begun, helping the monks finance their operating expenses and giving them much land and cattle.

His feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is also on 17 April,[7] with the Benedictines celebrating him, along with Alberic of Cîteaux and Stephen Harding on February 26.