Saint Norbert: A Medieval Reformer

June 6th is the feast of Saint Norbert. Let’s learn a little bit about him, from one of my old columns:

This is the story of a young German living a worldly life, who, after experiencing a terrible thunderstorm, joined a monastery and later became known to the world as a “reformer.” But this is not the story of Martin Luther. Our German lived 400 years before Protestantism, and was very different from the conflicted, tumultuous, and rebellious Luther. St. Norbert was a true Catholic reformer, shaped by the Church. Under her obedience, he brought together monastic discipline and apostolic zeal, renewing the clergy, refreshing the witness of preaching, and leaving a legacy of followers who still bear his name today.

Norbert was born in 1080 in Xanten, near Cologne, to a wealthy noble family. He served at the court of the Archbishop of Cologne and the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V and gave himself over to a sinful life of luxury and the pursuit of pleasure. Worldly though he was, Norbert nonetheless resisted the corrupting path of ecclesiastical careerism by refusing an episcopal appointment or even ordination to the priesthood.

Jesus was waiting for Norbert, keeping him free for a decisive moment that would move his heart. In 1113, Norbert’s horse was struck by lightning during a storm and threw him to the ground, unconscious. Something happened in those moments, and when Norbert recovered he was changed. Jesus had suddenly revealed to him the futility of his life, and filled him with the desire for conversion and penance. 

Norbert left the court at Cologne, and in order to follow Jesus fully, he turned to the Church in earnest, and he did so by going to a place close to home, the Benedictine Abbey at Siegburg. This was a relatively new monastery, a fruit of the great monastic reform that spread from Cluny in France, but it had begun to flourish under Cono, its third abbot. Jesus drew Norbert to His heart through the wise spiritual fatherhood of Cono. For three years Norbert lived the life of the abbey and followed Cono’s guidance. He saw the foundational value of the monastic life, and yet — as his faith grew stronger — he was filled with the desire to preach the Gospel beyond the monastic walls. Cono’s friendship prevented Norbert from any rash decisions, and helped him to learn humility and patience. But when the right moment came, this great friend sent Norbert out to seek ordination as a priest in the Archdiocese of Cologne.

The courtier returned with the humility of a monk and a heart burning with the desire to bring Christ to the world. After his ordination, during his initial struggles with his inimical fellow clergy, and then after the final confirmation of his vocation in 1118 when the Pope appointed him “missionary apostolic” with authority to preach throughout the Church, Norbert continued to visit the abbot and consulted with Cono up until the latter’s death. By then Saint Norbert was spreading from Premontre to Magdeburg his vision of a priestly life that was both monastic and missionary. He faced much resistance but gained many friends and disciples of his own, one of whom —Blessed Hugh of Fosse — would become the first abbot of the religious order we call the “Norbertines,” who brought renewal to the Church in the Middle Ages and continue to do so today.