Norbert was born to the noble family of Gennep at Xanten on the Lower Rhine and entered the imperial court of Henry V as a worldly subdeacon and royal almoner. In 1115, riding to Vreden, he was knocked from his horse by lightning during a storm and lay senseless for an hour; on rising he heard a voice command him in the words of Psalm 33: 'Turn from evil and do good.' He abandoned the court, was ordained priest, sold his estates, and went on penitential foot to Pope Gelasius II at Saint-Gilles in 1118.
Authorized to preach throughout France and Flanders, he refounded community life on the strict Rule of St. Augustine, and in 1120 settled with thirteen companions at a place in the forest of Coucy called Prémontré — the 'meadow shown' to him in a vision of the Virgin. The community he founded there became the Premonstratensian Order (the 'Norbertines' or 'White Canons'), the largest of the new orders of regular canons.
In 1126 Pope Honorius II named him Archbishop of Magdeburg, where he reformed his see against fierce opposition (three attempts were made on his life), restored ecclesiastical property, and reorganized the missions to the Wendish frontier. His central devotion was to the Eucharist: he was the great preacher against the heresy of Tanchelm of Antwerp (who denied the Real Presence), and the Norbertines have remained ever since marked by Eucharistic centrality — the white habit and the daily Office in choir being their signature.