St. Norbert

A Brief History: Saint Norbert was born in Xanten n the Electorate of Cologne in 1080. He grew up there and was also educated there. Ordained as a subdeacon, Norbert was appointed to a canonry at Xanten where he lived a life of pleasure. In 1115, Norbert founded the Abbey of Fürstenberg, endowed it with a portion of his property, and made it over to Cono of Siegburg and his Benedictine successors. He was ordained to the priesthood soon afterward.

 St Norbert attempted to reform the other canons of Xanten, but his asceticism did not sit well with them and they denounced him at the Council of Fritzlar in 1118. At the Council of Reims in October, 1119, Pope Calixtus II requested Norbert to found a religious order in the Diocese of Laon in France. In 1120, Norbert chose a valley in the Forest of Coucy (a grant from the Bishop of Laon), about 10 miles from Laon, named Prémontré. Blessed Hugh of Fosses, Saint Evermode, Antony of Nivelles, seven students of the celebrated school of Anselm, and Ralph of Laon were among his first thirteen disciples. By the next year the community had grown to 40. They all took their vows and the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré was founded. In 1125, the constitution for the order was approved by Pope Honorius II.

Norbert was appointed to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg by Pope Honorius II in 1126. Several assassination attempts were made as he began to reform the lax discipline of his see. He was especially vigilant in protecting the Church's rights against the secular power.

In the schism following the election of Pope Innocent II in 1130, Norbert supported Innocent and resisted Antipope Anacletus II. In Norbert's last years, he was chancellor and adviser to Lothair II, the Holy Roman Emperor, persuading him to lead an army in 1133 to Rome to restore Innocent to the papacy.

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