Saint Norbert, Bishop

Norbert was born about 1080 at Xanten on the Rhine and, as a young canon, lived the comfortable life of a courtier. According to his Life, in 1115 he was caught in a thunderstorm and thrown from his horse by a lightning bolt, and asked, “Lord, what would you have me do?” He changed his life, was ordained and gave away his property, and became a wandering preacher in northern France and the Low Countries.

In 1120, at Prémontré near Laon, he founded a community of canons living under the Rule of Saint Augustine; they became the Premonstratensians, or Norbertines. In 1126 he was made archbishop of Magdeburg, where he worked to reform the clergy, despite violent opposition. He died there on 6 June 1134 and was canonized in 1582.