Saint Gilbert of Sempringham

Gilbert of Sempringham (c. 1085 – 4 February 1189) was an English Catholic who founded the Gilbertine Order. He was the only medieval Englishman to found a conventual order, mainly because the Cîteaux Abbey declined his request to assist him in organising a group of nuns living with lay brothers and sisters. He founded a double monastery of canons regular and nuns in spite of such a foundation being contrary to canonical practice. 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. In the period 1115-1123 he was given both the vacant churches of Sempringham and West Torrington, near Wragby, by his father, Jocelin. In 1129 he became the Vicar of both St Andrew's, Sempringham and St Mary's, West Torrington having been instituted by Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln. "Gilbert was a lover of truth and justice, chastity and sobriety, and a diligent cultivator of the other virtues: wherefore he was revered and praised by all and obtained their favour and regard. Even Jocelin now rejoiced in the goodness of his son, he began to cherish him with fatherly affection, and ministered to his needs out of his own riches.