This is part of The Eternal Pilgrim series. You can find the rest of the program content here.
---
Saint Norbert of Xanten (1080–1134) lived in the Holy Roman Empire at the turn of the distant 12th century, under the feudal regime and during the Crusades. In France, around 1120, he founded the Order of Prémontré, which continues to flourish after nine centuries of existence. In opening the record of this extraordinary character, who was a light of his times, we must honestly ask ourselves the question: are we still capable of writing his story, of retracing his steps through the lens of 900 years of filial devotion and transformation experienced by the religious family he founded?
Of course, the original charism of the founder and his initial intuition are still alive if we consider the current vitality of the Norbertine Order. But everyone knows that, over time, the life of a founder becomes more beautiful, is embellished, rewritten, and takes on new levels of symbolic meaning. Each generation gives special emphasis to one particular aspect of his temperament or episode of his life. And the original portrait is modified according to the imagination, religious sentiment and particular needs of the time.
Iconography is often the place where these transformations are passed on and made evident. How can we explain, for example, that Saint Norbert is represented between the 12th and 16th centuries with a Psalter in hand – a man of the Word of God – but, from the 17th century on, appears holding the monstrance – as the defender of the Eucharist?
Today, Saint Norbert has sons and daughters all over the world. They are called “Premonstratensians” in some countries, from the name of the first house of the Order, and “Norbertines” in others. Each of them knows and loves Norbert as the father of the family – but which Norbert are we talking about? Ask a Premonstratensian confrere from California or Australia on the way to the school where he teaches every day, another confrere in India, as he leaves his clinic, still another at his pastoral work in Normandy, Bavaria or South Africa, and you will encounter many different “Norberts” or, at least, portraits of him with identical contours but strongly varying tints.
It will be said that these variants do not matter – as long as the call which resounded in the heart of Norbert nine centuries ago still resounds in the hearts of the men of the 21st century. That is true, and yet the work of a historian is to consult the witnesses of that time, the facts, the texts, and what they have to say about a character who first belonged to his own time long before belonging to ours.
Before briefly presenting the sources of his story, we must mention two difficulties encountered by a biographer of Saint Norbert. The first one is his silence – a paradoxical silence since Norbert was a very great preacher. Saint Bernard, his contemporary and friend, who was well acquainted with his ways, wrote to Geoffrey of Chartres in 1124: "You ask me if Lord Norbert intends to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I do not know. But I had the honor of seeing him a few days ago, and I drank with pleasure from that heavenly reed – I mean from his lips.” When we know that the expression "heavenly reed" (fistula caelestis) referred to the delicate golden cylinder which was used to drink Communion from the chalice, we are given an idea of the esteem in which Bernard held Norbert’s rich and eloquent words. These qualities were also praised by all his contemporaries.
And yet this tireless preacher did not leave a single line in writing. We have hundreds of sermons of Saint Bernard – devoutly transcribed by his brothers – while all the words of Norbert have vanished. Though he founded an immensely successful Order, Norbert did not leave his brethren any precepts, constitutions, or exhortations in writing. Only one letter from his hand remains, the authenticity of which is sometimes questioned, and which doesn’t tell us anything of capital importance or anything original about its author. This silence is not uncommon in religious history: one century after Saint Norbert, Saint Dominic – despite being the founder of the "Friars Preachers" – did not leave behind a single sermon. How dearly we would love to see the silent figure of the preacher come to life!
Faced with this silence, we must obviously turn to the work of the saint to try and decipher in those deeds his psychology, his temperament, his ideals. In the absence of words, his actions must do the speaking for him. However, a second difficulty arises here. The exceptional stature of Norbert, which appears to have impressed his contemporaries a great deal, is not the result of a fine journey climaxing in a beautiful upward curve, or of a body of work carried through to completion with great patience and continuity of ideas. No, Norbert's life looks more like a symphony still in the process of being written. The composer begins a page, leaves it, and then begins another. The same themes recur, the same accents, and many similar harmonies, but each movement seems unfinished.
In a few broken lines, here is the life of Norbert. First movement: the brilliant youth of a young German lord struck by a thunderous conversion to God. Second movement: the long walk of a mystical pilgrim, in poverty and preaching. This is already a second Norbert. But the experience is cut short by a bishop who installs him in the forest of Laon: this is the third movement, which shows us the founder of an Order who seeks to promote the common regular life of the clergy of his time, a life of poverty and prayer. Just as we are getting used to this third Norbert, the founder of many monasteries, he is halted in his course by an unexpected episcopal election which sends him to the borders of the Holy Roman Empire: the fourth movement. Our protagonist is now an archbishop-chancellor, a confidant of the emperor, one who has a say in all the great affairs of the West. Then the line is broken again: this last Norbert is brought down prematurely, at the age of fifty-four, by malaria contracted in Italy.
When the orchestra has played the last notes of this magnificent score – the reader will soon be able to appreciate its effects – filled with crises and prayers, pilgrimages and miracles, riots and attempted assassinations, popes and emperors, one can only wonder about the subject of this work. Is this the story of a lord, of a pilgrim, of a monk or a bishop? It is quite difficult to say. Our sources often show some degree of embarrassment. Should they quickly gloss over the vanity of his youth? Should they hide the ascetic excesses of the pilgrim fool for God? How to speak of this defender of community life who was seldom in his monastery? What about an archbishop who met with considerable success everywhere . . . except in his own diocese? And yet, contemporary accounts overflow with unbounded admiration: Norbert is a fascinating saint, and at the same time a charmer of the first order.
The main sources of our knowledge about Saint Norbert are two lives (“Vitae”) written by contemporaries of the saint. One, Vita B, is the French version of the story, as it were. Probably written around 1150, at Prémontré – the motherhouse of the Order founded by Norbert – it contains a detailed account of the saint's life, accompanied by numerous theological and spiritual commentaries. Its author is a man of letters who greatly admired God's plan for Norbert. A sort of “John the Evangelist” version of the story. It was this version that was the main source for the cult of Saint Norbert until the 19th century.
Vita A, which was discovered only in 1856 at the Royal Library in Berlin in a Premonstratensian manuscript of St. Peter of Brandenburg, would be the German version, probably produced in Magdeburg, the city of which Norbert was archbishop at the end of his life. It is much shorter, and less literary and reflective than the other – a kind of “Mark the Evangelist” version of the story.
The two Vitae nevertheless sound a concordant note – the author of Vita A (named “A” because its 19th century editor believed it to be older than the other) knew either Vita B itself or the sources which were used for its elaboration. Bar a few details, the two biographers write about the same Norbert.
To use these two narratives, some obvious precautions must be observed. The biography of a saint in the Middle Ages – known as hagiography – conforms to its own set of rules, its own "canons" of writing. From one medieval Vita to another, we inevitably encounter consistent themes: the saint’s combat with the demons, his remarkable friendship with animals and nature, his constant desire for martyrdom, and other characteristics. This does not mean that the medieval biographer is inventing: rather, he is highlighting the traits of his character which will most effectively convince his reader of the holiness of the one whose life he has narrated.
On the spiritual level, the writer of a Vita must above all prove that his character is an imitator of Christ – in his poverty, in his preaching, in his passion. The great and ancient prototypes of the 4th century (The Life of Saint Anthony by Saint Athanasius or The Life of Saint Martin by Sulpicius Severus) set a standard for this approach. Norbert's biographers borrow from the great tradition like the others. The saint is another Christ – alter Christus – because Christianity is the infinite reproduction of the same mystery of the Incarnation. It is an "event without end," as Alain Boureau says, in the title of a beautiful book devoted to medieval hagiography.
On the other hand, a Vita can be used for preaching. Its aim is to inspire the reader with Christian sentiments, to cause him to admire the way in which God acts in the life of a man, and how the best of such men find a way to respond to the divine plan. It is therefore a piece of work that is written with a specific goal in mind, intended to make the rounds as an attractive message, even as a means of recruiting. This is especially true when it comes to the life of the founder of an Order: the Vita must make the Order known, magnify its origins, and promote its development. Thus have other biographers done similarly, such as Thomas of Celano for Saint Clare of Assisi or Jordan of Saxony for Saint Dominic.
Nevertheless, as full of admiration as Norbert's Vitae are, they also appear level-headed, written as they are by intelligent and honest religious. We will even see them admit, along the way, some traits of Norbert that an overly devout biographer would have hidden - a good indication of their reliability. Both Vita B and Vita A tell the story of a saint who was first and foremost a man.
Other sources offer invaluable help in getting to know Norbert. First, the Additions (“Additamenta”) sent by the Premonstratensian canons of Cappenberg to the abbey of Prémontré. They contain interesting features (about Norbert and about Godfrey, a close companion of Norbert’s), but the abundance of miracles in just a few pages is such that these Additions should be used only with caution.
Then, we turn to the very pleasant account by a monk, Herman of Tournai, of The Miracles of St. Mary of Laon (“De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudunensis”). This ancient testimony – written before 1151 – is precious because Herman knew Norbert himself well, and he also knew Bishop Bartholomew of Laon, who played a leading role in the life story of the saint. Reading Herman helps to understand the early development of the Order.
For the Magdeburg period, other elements can supplement the Vitae, for example the Chronicle of the monastery of Gottesgnaden – a Premonstratensian foundation made by Norbert in Saxony, or the Vitae of another German bishop and friend of Norbert’s, Saint Otto of Bamberg.
A significant number of letters or official documents obviously reference Norbert's personality and activity. In feudal times, the custom was to have all religious foundations confirmed by the pope and his legates, by bishops and sovereigns, in their temporal possessions and in their legal existence. So much so that the signatures of these acts of confirmation often make it possible to trace with certainty the activities or the itineraries of the saint. In among the conventional formulas of these legal texts, other more personal information also occasionally comes to light.
Finally, the major events dealt with by Norbert at the end of his life, his connections with the great and the powerful of his century, the number of his disciples who themselves became abbots or bishops – all of these ensure that Norbert is mentioned in the correspondences of the time. Were we not to have the Vitae, these documents would still be enough for us to trace the outlines of a portrait resembling Norbert. It is obviously necessary to use these indirect testimonies with discernment, but cross-checking them with the Vitae produces an encouraging result. They cast the same light on the figure of Norbert: a man of character, set on fire by the love of God and by a passion for the truth.
One also needs to be ready to make use of every possible kind of source, even listening to the enemies of Norbert. In 1130, antipope Anacletus wrote to him: “It surprises me that the Emperor Lothair, who is such a religious prince, lets you bark like a cheeky dog against my pontifical power.” Norbert did indeed fight with all his might against the usurper. The antipope, who was not to recover from Norbert's blows, is a precious witness for us!
Our most illustrious witness, however, is Saint Bernard. Although he may have had disagreements with Norbert – the end of this biography will provide an example – Bernard held the founder of Prémontré in lifelong affection and esteem. The abbot of Clairvaux, when quizzed on spiritual questions by one of his correspondents, Bruno of Altena, replied: "You would do well to consult Norbert. This man is all the more apt to uncover the divine mysteries because he is, as we well know, closer to God than we are…."
Let us take these last words of Saint Bernard as an invitation to reflect on the life of this "intimate of God," a man of his century if ever there was one and, at heart, so representative of that which Gustave Cohen has called "the great clarity of the Middle Ages."
It is the patient examination of ancient sources that has made it possible to draw this portrait. However, I would also like to seize the opportunity to recall the memory of two confreres from Mondaye Abbey, Godefroid Madelaine (1842–1932) and François Petit (1894–1990), who in their time were the pioneers of French Premonstratensian historiography, and whose work is of enduring value. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Wilfried M. Grauwen, O.Praem., whose scientific studies on Norbert have in many respects completely renewed our knowledge of the founder of Prémontré.
This book was first published in 1995 by Desclée de Brouwer (Paris), in the collection "Petites Vies" and was awarded a prize by the French Academy (Prix Montyon, 1996).
I fraternally thank Fr. Norbert Wood and fr. Simeon Lee who translated my book with enthusiasm and Alexandra Maclennan who was kind enough to revise this translation with such care.
DMD, 3/1/2024
