Gilbert of Sempringham

Gilbert of Sempringham
Priest and religious founder
Born	ca. 1085 Sempringham, Lincolnshire, Kingdom of England
Died	4 February 1189 or 1190 Sempringham, Lincolnshire, Kingdom of England (Aged 104 or 105)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Church of England
Canonized	1202, Rome, Papal States by Pope Innocent III
Feast	4 February

Seal of the master of Sempringham

Gilbert of Sempringham (c. 1085 – 4 February 1190) the founder of the Gilbertine Order, was the only Medieval Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the Abbot of Cîteaux declined his request to assist him in organising a group of women who wanted to live as nuns, living with lay brothers and sisters, in 1148. He founded a double monastery of canons regular and nuns.

Life

Gilbert was born at Sempringham, near Bourne in Lincolnshire, the son of Jocelin, an Anglo-Norman lord of the manor, and an unnamed Anglo-Saxon mother. He had a brother, Roger, and a sister, Agnes.

Unusually for that period, his father actively prevented his son from becoming a knight, instead sending him to France, probably the University of Paris but possibly under Anselm of Laon, to study theology. Some physical deformity may have made him unfit for military service, making an ecclesiastical career the best option. When he returned in 1120 he became a clerk in the household of Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln, started a school for boys and girls (the existing primary school at Pointon is still named after him) and was ordained by Robert's successor, Alexander. Offered the archdeaconry of Lincoln, he refused, saying that he knew no surer way to perdition.

“ A man from Stamford had lived a long time with his wife without having children. It happened that Father Gilbert stopped at their house to spend the night. The discreet lady of the household put her trust in the holiness of the guest she had received, and prepared a place for him on her own couch so that through his merits she might be found worthy to bear a son, as the Shunammite did through Elisha. It turned out just as she believed. For when her husband came home to sleep he before long fathered a son on her, and they named him after Father Gilbert. When Our Lord's servant heard what had happened, being a cheerful and generous person he sent the boy a cow to supply him with food, acting just as if the boy had been his own son. ” — The Book of St Gilbert

The Gilbertines

File:St.Gilbert's well - geograph.org.uk - 528617.jpg

St Gilbert's well at Sempringham

When his father died in 1130, Gilbert became lord of the manor of Sempringham. In 1131 he founded the Gilbertine Order, and with the help of Alexander constructed at Sempringham a dwelling and cloister for nuns, at the north of the church of St Andrew. Eventually he had a chain of twenty-six convents, monasteries and missions. A custom developed in the houses of the order called "the plate of the Lord Jesus", whereby the best portions of the dinner were put on a special plate and shared with the poor. In 1148 he approached the Cistercians for help. They refused because he included women in his order. The male part of the order consisted of Canons Regular.

In 1165 Gilbert was charged with having aided Thomas Becket when Thomas had fled from King Henry II after the council of Northampton, but he was eventually found innocent. In 1174 some of his lay brothers revolted, but he received the backing of Pope Alexander III. Gilbert resigned his office late in life because of blindness and died at Sempringham in about 1190, at the claimed age of 106.

The only religious order of English origin founded during the Middle Ages, it thrived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.

Veneration

File:St Gilbert of Sempringham C of E Primary School, Pointon, Lincs - geograph.org.uk - 215132.jpg

St Gilbert of Sempringham C of E Primary School, Pointon, Lincs

Gilbert was canonised in 1202 by Pope Innocent III. His liturgical feast day is on 4 February, commemorating his death, as it remains also in the Church of England (commemoration). According to the order of Hubert Walter, the bishops of England celebrated his feast, and his name was added to the wall of the church of the Four Crowned Martyrs. His Order did not outlast the English Reformation, however; and despite being influenced by Continental models, it did not maintain a foothold in Europe. There are, however, at least three primary schools in England named after him: in Pointon, Stamford, Lincolnshire and Winton, Greater Manchester.

See also

• List of Catholic saints

Further reading

• Iredale, Eric W., Sempringham and Saint Gilbert and the Gilbertines. (1992. ISBN 0-9519662-0-0. (Includes Capgrave, John, The Life of St Gilbert.)
• Müller, Anne, "Entcharismatisierung als Geltungsgrund? Gilbert von Sempringham und der frühe Gilbertinerorden," in Giancarlo Andenna / Mirko Breitenstein / Gert Melville (eds.), Charisma und religiöse Gemeinschaften im Mittelalter. Akten des 3. Internationalen Kongresses des "Italienisch-deutschen Zentrums für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte" (Münster u.a., LIT, 2005) (Vita regularis. Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens im Mittelalter, 26), 151–172.
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