High Middle Ages (12th century)
Feast: June 6
Lightning struck next to his horse and knocked him to the ground. When he got up, he gave away his money, his estates, and his old life.
Norbert was a wealthy young canon living the comfortable life of a minor nobleman attached to the imperial court. He collected church benefices for their income without doing any of the pastoral work. Then, around 1115, he was riding through a field near Xanten when a bolt of lightning struck beside his horse. He was thrown to the ground and lay there, stunned, for hours. When he got up, he asked the same question Paul asked on the Damascus road: 'Lord, what do you want me to do?' He gave away his wealth, was ordained a priest, and began preaching barefoot through northern France and the Rhineland. At Premontre, a marshy valley near Laon, he gathered a community of followers in 1120 and founded the Premonstratensian Order — canons regular who combined monastic discipline with active preaching and parish work. The 'Norbertines,' as they came to be called, spread rapidly across Europe. Norbert himself was pulled away from his order almost immediately: in 1126, he was made Archbishop of Magdeburg, a politically explosive see in the middle of the investiture controversy. He dealt with riots, schismatics, and an assassination attempt. He supported Pope Innocent II during a papal schism and exhausted himself traveling. He died in Magdeburg in 1134, worn out at about fifty-four. His order survived him and is still active today.