May/June 2025: Prepared for Every Good Work: Lessons from the Life of Saint Norbert

Even though Saint Norbert is remembered by the universal Church each year, many people have never heard of him or of the community of priests, sisters, and brothers that he founded in 1120. Yet, this 12th century man and his ministerial work is particularly relevant today, when it seems that polarization of ideas and ideologies in the world is creating such discord. 

Norbert, born into nobility around the year 1080, became a prominent figure of Church reform. Living a life of privilege as a nobleman, Norbert had a conversion experience in his 30s, which in his time, would be considered middle-age. He began a life of itinerant preaching, advocating for reform within the Church among the clergy. He was disliked by the local priests in the towns he visited, and was called out as a hypocrite and a preacher without authority in the Church. He responded by giving away all of his wealth, renouncing his title, and seeking out and receiving permission from the Pope to preach. After a few years of traveling, usually walking barefoot, a number of events took him to Laon, France. It was there that his cousin, Bishop Bartholomew, encouraged him to remain and lead a group of priests at the Church of Saint Martin in Laon. Norbert agreed, but the style of life he demanded of the priests was too disciplined for the group who enjoyed a freedom to live fairly autonomous and opulent lives. Discouraged by his experience, Norbert was disillusioned; however, Bartholomew had the thought that Norbert might consider establishing his own religious community within his diocese, as he did not want to lose talented and articulate Norbert. 

Bartholomew brought Norbert to a hermit’s chapel in an isolated wooded area a short distance from Laon. There, after spending time alone in prayer, Norbert had the inspiration and vision to begin a new community of ordained men and women, living separately but in community with lay men and women, as well. On Christmas Day, 1120, Norbert and the first group of Norbertines professed their vows, and the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, or Premonstratentians, began. The community grew quickly, though the work of creating a self-sustaining abbey was challenging. 

The Norbertine Order grew, and it expanded quickly across Europe, as Norbert took on the role of Bishop of Magdeburg, Germany, leaving the Abbey of Prémontré under the direction of Blessed Hugh of Fosse. Over the centuries, war, the Protestant Reformation, nationalism and changes in governments challenged the existence of the Order. It is a common story among many Norbertine abbeys to be founded by a group of Norbertine missionaries from an existing abbey, only to have the community disbanded and the abbey buildings and contents confiscated by the state or destroyed. After some time, in some cases, centuries, the Norbertines who were disbanded or their successors who were living either independently in homes or in exile in abbeys in other countries, would return to the abbey, oftentimes having to repurchase the land and buildings and begin again.

Fast-forward seven centuries to 1893, when three missionaries from Berne Abbey, in Heeswijk, Holland, traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to help minister to the people who had settled on, what was in those days, the Western frontier. Led by Fr. Bernard Pennings, O.Praem., the Norbertines, in addition to parish work, founded a school for boys that eventually became Saint Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin. The Norbertines who staffed the college lived at the Priory on the campus of the College. The Priory, when it became financially self-sufficient and vocationally self-sustaining, was later made an independent Abbey from Berne Abbey, and later still, a new Abbey was constructed in 1959. 

It was in 1932 that Abbot Pennings and members of Saint Norbert Abbey negotiated the purchase of Archmere from Mr. and Mrs. John Raskob, in order to start a school for boys on the East Coast. By that time, a number of Norbertines were serving in parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at the request of the Archbishop, who needed to staff the growing parishes and schools that were needed to accommodate the significant influx of Catholic immigrants in the early 20th century. Eventually, because of the increased number of vocations coming from the Philadelphia area, the Norbertines would establish a Priory in Daylesford, Pennsylvania for the formation of priests and brothers. Over time, the Norbertine faculty at Archmere started coming from the Philadelphia area rather than Wisconsin, and Daylesford Priory was elevated to an independent Abbey in 1963, moving to a newly constructed Abbey in Paoli, Pennsylvania in 1966. Priests from the abbey not only taught at Archmere, but also ministered in Archdiocesan parishes in Pennsylvania. Though Archmere was located in Delaware, the Norbertines were not as well-known in the Wilmington, Delaware area, most likely because there were other religious communities who established schools in Delaware before Archmere was founded. The history of the Norbertines, much like Saint Norbert himself, was not as well-known as I recall when I was growing up in the area.

The incongruity about the relative obscurity of Saint Norbert and his work is its relevance to the state of the world today. According to his followers, he was masterful at resolving conflict, which has been documented in the writings of the members of the Norbertine community. He is considered a “minister of peace and concord.” He used his gifts of eloquence and intellect to arbitrate disputes, and with principled actions, resolve matters that caused generations of bloodshed and turmoil between noble families. He also defended the papacy once when the Holy Roman Emperor coerced the Pope to allow him to invest in Bishops of the Church, and again, when an antipope was elected. Throughout his life, Norbert, as a reformer, used his talents, his connections, and his conviction to advocate for peace and collaboration within the Church, not attempting to break away from or start a new Church. 

Lessons learned from Saint Norbert’s life that we might consider for ourselves include: sharpen active listening skills, minimize preconceived ideas, keep an open mind, rely on unchanging values and principles to evaluate, practice the ability to empathize with others, develop a strong work ethic, pray for a stronger faith, and “be prepared for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17)) Changing the world “one person at a time,” sounds cliché, but, let’s take away the labels (cliché) and preconceived notions, and be happy to be able to be a person who advocates for peace and concord. So, even though we at Archmere Academy have missed celebrating collectively the Feast of Saint Norbert on June 6th, we can individually pray now the Collect of the Mass for that day:

Peace,

Michael A. Marinelli, Ed.D. ‘76

Head of School

If you want to learn more about the life of Saint Norbert and the Norbertine Community, beyond this high level overview I have attempted, here are a few resource suggestions:

Man on Fire: The Life and Spirit of Norbert of Xanten, Thomas Kunkel, 2019, St. Norbert College Press.

Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality, Theodore J. Antry, O.Praem. and Carol Neel, 2007, 

Daylesford Abbey and Carol Neel.

The Order of Prémontré: History and Spirituality, Bernard Ardura, Translated from the French by Brother Edward Hagman,O.F.M. Cap., 1995 Paisa Publishing Company.