Hari
OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and
parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
As
a curiosity, an on-line search was done for 'saints of the 6th'… there were
many! Most, though, had very little
story available. One stood out for
having a full and searchable history. Most sources looked at in researching
this post cited the reference given at end.
Here, then, are the key markers in the life of Saint Norbert, who is
remembered on 6th of June. [The language is
left in its Victorian style but a few AV notes or edits are in square brackets.
Where the text has been 'clipped' for brevity, ellipsis is used… also,
paragraphing has been inserted where it does not exist on the original text, to
provide ease of reading. For those
interested in the deeper detail, the reference at end is also a link.]
St.
Norbert was born at Santen, [sometimes spelled Xanten], in the duchy of Cleves
in 1080. His father, Heribert, count of Gennep, was related to the emperor, and
his mother derived her pedigree from the house of Lorraine. …[He was strong and
fine of body and sharp of mind, doing well in his education]… But being at
first blinded by the flattery of the world, he suffered himself to be carried
away by its pleasures and pastimes, and had no higher thoughts than how he
might live in honour and at his ease. He even received the ecclesiastical
tonsure with a worldly spirit; and though he was instituted to a canonry at
Santen and ordained sub-deacon, he neither changed his spirit nor his conduct.
…[He
was inclined to the party life, not rejecting the material world at all,
inspite of wearing Holy clothes.]... He would not be prevailed on to receive
any higher orders for fear of a greater restraint on his conduct; and he led
the same manner of life in the court of his cousin, the emperor Henry IV... God
beheld with compassion the heart of this young nobleman enslaved to the world,
... to break his secret chains an extraordinary grace was necessary. God
awakened him from his spiritual lethargy by an alarming accident.
Norbert
was riding to a village in Westphalia, called Freten, in pursuit of his
pleasures, mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, and attended by only one
servant, when, in the midst of a pleasant meadow, he was overtaken by a violent
storm, accompanied with dreadful thunder and lightning. Finding himself at a
great distance from any shelter, he was overwhelmed with perplexity and fear,
and while he was going on briskly, having set spurs to his horse, a ball of
fire, or lightning, with a loud clap of thunder, fell just before his horse's
feet, burned the grass, and cleft the earth. The poor beast, thus affrighted,
threw his rider who lay like one dead for near an hour. At last coming to
himself, like another Saul, he cried out to God, in the bitter compunction of
his heart, "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" To which the
divine grace interiorly suggested this reply, "Turn away from evil, and do
good: seek after peace, and pursue it."
Being
thus humbled in the full career of his passions, he became upon the spot a
sincere penitent. Returning no more to the court, he withdrew to his canonry at
Santen, there led a life of silence and retirement, wore a hair shirt next his
skin, and spent his time in tears, holy prayer, and meditation.
…[Understanding, now, the trap of the material life, he pondered long on this
incident and he now felt pain for his fellows who could not see the world
afresh as he now did]... his conversion was completed by a retreat which he
made in St. Sigebert's monastery near Cologne, ... Norbert was at this time in
the thirtieth year of his age.
After
his conversion, he employed two years in preparing himself for the priesthood,
which he received from the hands of the archbishop of Cologne, together with
the order of deacon, his fervour seeming a sufficient cause for such a
dispensation. At the time of his ordination, he appeared in a lambskin cassock
tied with a cord, and thus published to the world, that from that moment he
renounced all its vanities. After his ordination, he returned to Conon, and
made, under his direction, a severe retreat of forty days to dispose himself by
tears, prayer, and fasting to say his first mass, which he came back to Santen
to celebrate with his chapter. After the gospel was sung at high mass, he
mounted the pulpit, and made a most pathetic sermon on the vanity of the world,
the shortness of human life, and the insufficiency of all created beings to
satisfy the heart of man; and he indirectly inveighed against the disorders of
his colleagues.
In
a chapter which was held the next day, he pointed them out more distinctly, and
pressed a reformation so vigorously, that several of them became perfect
converts, and loudly condemned their past irregularities. …[Others, though,
were ill-disposed towards Norbert's reformative stance and decried him to the
Pope accusing of stirring up trouble]...
The
saint, having before his eyes the sins of his past life, confessed that he
deserved all manner of contempt and ill treatment, and rejoiced under injuries
and afflictions Nevertheless, reflecting on what he owed to God's honour, he
purged himself before the legate, in a council held at Fritzlar, in 1118. Soon
after, inflamed with an ardent zeal to live to God alone, he resigned all his
ecclesiastical preferments into the hands of the archbishop of Cologne, and
sold his own estate, giving the money to the poor, reserving only to himself
ten marks of silver, a mule, and sacred vestments and ornaments for the altar.
Thus divested of all that could engage his stay in his own country, he
travelled barefoot to St. Giles's in Languedoc, where pope Gelasius II. was at
that time. He threw himself at his holiness's feet, and with extraordinary
compunction, made to him a general confession of his whole life, begging
absolution of all his past disorders, especially of the irregularity committed
in his receiving the holy orders of deacon and priest at the same time, without
observing the interstices prescribed by the canons, though it had been done by
the dispensation of his diocesan; and cheerfully offered himself to make any
satisfaction.
He
obtained of the pope faculties to preach the gospel where he judged proper. It
was then the depth of winter. Yet he walked barefoot through the snow, and,
inflamed with an ardent love of God, and desire of promoting his glory, seemed
insensible to the rigors of the season. His whole life was a perpetual lent,
and he never took his meal till evening, except on Sundays. …[There was an
extended period of traveling the provinces now, during which time Norbert
preached penance and surrender of worldly life, accruing a few fellow pilgrims
- who had not his stamina and died from exposure. Eventually, the Pope was
convinced of the value of Norbert's work by the good graces of Bartholomew,
Biship of Laon]... Wherefore the zealous bishop gave the holy man the choice of
several places to build a house. The saint pitched upon a lonesome valley
called Premontre, in the forest of Coucy, where he found the remains of a small
chapel, which bore the name of St. John, but stood in so barren a soil that the
monks of St. Vincent at Laon, the proprietors of it, had abandoned it.
The
bishop bought of them this desert piece of land, and there built a monastery
for the saint, who assembled out of Brabant thirteen brethren, desirous to
serve God under his direction. Their number soon increased to forty, who made
their profession on Christmas-day, 1121. The saint gave them the rule of St.
Austin, with a white habit, destining them, in imitation of the angels in
heaven, to sing the divine praises on earth. Their manner of living was very
austere; but their order is no other than a reformation of regular canons. It
was soon spread over several parts of Europe.
Among
the foundations made by our saint, that of St. Michael's at Antwerp was
attended with circumstances which were illustrious proofs of his zeal.
…[Antwerp had fallen prey to a church and priest who was as decadent as the
society he was expected to show example to. There was anger among certain folk
about the nature of the church and an uprising occurred, resulting in some
conflagration. The insurgents themselves were tamed and the situation left the
church in disarray.]…
The
reputation of the sanctity and erudition of Norbert attracted the eyes of all
Europe; and the canons of Antwerp, in this distress of their church, being
joined by Burchard their bishop, who resided at Cambray, implored his
charitable assistance. The saint lost no time, and arrived at Antwerp with a
select number of his canons who laboured under his direction. Such was the
success of this mission, that in a short time the people were undeceived, the
heretics converted, abuses reformed, and the city restored to its former
tranquillity and lustre.
...
St. Norbert revived the devotion of the people to the holy sacrament of the
altar, and its frequent use, which heresy had interrupted, and had the comfort
to see this church flourish in piety before he returned to his first
settlement.
His
order was then much increased, and contained ten abbeys and eight hundred
religious men. Among others who embraced his rule, count Godfrey, a nobleman of
high renown in the empire, put on the habit at Floreff near Namur, and led an
exemplary life in that convent, serving God in the humble quality of a
lay-brother. Several other persons of distinction fled from the corruption of
the world to the sanctuaries established by this great director in the paths of
salvation. His institute had been approved by the legates of Calixtus II., but
a more solemn confirmation being judged necessary, St. Norbert undertook a
journey to Rome in 1125. Pope Honorius II., who had succeeded Calixtus II. in
the close of the foregoing year, and was a great encourager of learning and of
good men, received him with all possible marks of respect and affection, and
granted all he desired, as appears by his bull, dated in the February
following.
…
Norbert having completed the great work of the establishment of his order, was
obliged to quit his monastery, to be placed in a more exalted station for the
benefit of many. …[There came an occasion where Norbert was called to officiate
for a society wedding of a relation of the Duke of Champagne.]… He followed the procession barefoot, and was
conducted to the church, and thence to his palace. But his dress was so mean
and poor, that the porter shut the door against him, saying: "Why will you
go in to disturb my lords?" Those that followed cried out: "He is our
bishop." The saint said to the porter: "Brother, you know me better
than they do who have raised such a one to this dignity." In this high
station the austerity of his life was the same he had practiced in a
cloister... By the joint weight of his authority, eloquence, and example, he
made a great reformation both in the clergy and laity of his diocese; and by
his strenuous and undaunted resolution, he recovered a considerable part of the
lands of his church which had fallen into the hands of certain powerful secular
princes.
But his zeal made those his enemies whom his
charity could not gain to their duty They loaded him with injuries, decried him
among themselves, and encouraged one another in their disobedience and contempt
of his person, calling him a stranger, whose manners were opposite to theirs.
To such an excess did their rage carry them, that some even made attempts upon
his life. ... He always pardoned the [would-be] assassins, and showed himself
ever ready to lay down his life in the defence of truth and justice. By this
patience and unshaken courage, he in three years broke through the chief
difficulties which obstructed the reformation of manners he laboured to
introduce, and from that time he carried on the work and performed the
visitation of his diocese with ease and incredible success. …[Between 1130 and
1132, Norbert was involved in matters relating to seating a worthy pope, after
there had been some dissension and a split in the church.]... The saint returned to Magdeburg, where he
fell, ill, and after four months' tedious sickness, died the death of the just
on the 6th of June, in the eighth year of his episcopal dignity, the
fifty-third of his age, ... 1134.
He
was canonized by Gregory XIII. in 1582. …
…
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