Editing Gilbert of Sempringham

{{short description|English Roman Catholic saint}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=Saint 
|name=Gilbert of Sempringham
|titles=
|birth_date=ca. 1085
|birth_place=[[Sempringham]], Lincolnshire, [[Kingdom of England]]
|death_date=4 February 1189
|death_place=Sempringham, Lincolnshire, Kingdom of England (Aged 104 or 105)
|feast_day=4 February
|venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]], [[Church of England]]
|image=SegellSempringham.jpg
|caption=Seal of the master of Sempringham, depicting St Gilbert
|beatified_date=  
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=1202
|canonized_place=Rome
|canonized_by=[[Pope Innocent III]]
|major_shrine= 
|attributes=[[cross portate]]<ref name="seiyaku">{{cite web |title=St. Gilbert's Cross or Portate Cross |url=https://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/portate.html |publisher=seiyaku.com |access-date=2006-10-29}}</ref>
|patronage=
|issues= 
|suppressed_date=
}}
'''Gilbert of Sempringham''' (c. 1085 – 4 February 1189)<ref>Iredale (pp. 7, 54) says 1189 but this is probably according to the Old Style calendar, which began the year on Lady Day, in March. By the time England abandoned this, the discrepancies of the Julian calendar had moved it into April by modern reckoning.</ref> was an [[Catholic Church in England and Wales|English Catholic]] who founded the [[Gilbertine Order]]. He was the only medieval [[English people|Englishman]] to found a [[convent]]ual order, mainly because the [[Cîteaux Abbey]] declined his request to assist him in organising a group of [[nun]]s living with [[lay brother]]s and sisters.<ref>Iredale places this in 1147 (p. 4). Again, the difference between Old and New style calendars may account for this.</ref> He founded a [[double monastery]] of [[Canon regular|canons regular]] and nuns in spite of such a foundation being contrary to canonical practice.

==Life==
Gilbert was born at [[Sempringham]], near [[Bourne, Lincolnshire|Bourne]] in Lincolnshire, the son of Jocelin, an [[Anglo-Normans|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 of Lincoln|Alexander]].<ref name=butler>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06557b.htm Butler, Richard Urban. "St. Gilbert of Sempringham." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 Oct. 2014]</ref> Offered the [[Archdeacon of Lincoln|archdeaconry of Lincoln]], he refused, saying that he knew no surer way to perdition.

In the period 1115<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Iredale|first=Eric W.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39982100|title=Sempringham and St. Gilbert and the Gilbertines|date=1992|publisher=E.W. Iredale|isbn=0-9519662-0-0|location=Pointon, Lincolnshire|oclc=39982100}}</ref>-1123<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1147481|desc=Church of St Mary, West Torrington|grade=II}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" />

"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. Gilbert would be in his late twenties when his father presented him to the vacant churches of Sempringham and West Torrington, which he had built on his own demesne 'in the custom of his country' "<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

==The Gilbertines==
[[File:St.Gilbert's well - geograph.org.uk - 528617.jpg|thumb|St Gilbert's well at Sempringham]]
When his father died in 1130, Gilbert became [[lord of the manor]] of Sempringham and West Torrington. 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.<ref name=butler/> Eventually he had a chain of twenty-six convents, [[monasteries]] and [[Mission (station)|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.<ref name=foley/> 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 fled from King [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] after the council of Northampton, but he was eventually found innocent.<ref name=butler/> 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.<ref name=":1">[[Rose Graham (historian)|Graham, Rose]] S. ''Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines: a history of the only English monastic order'' (London: Elliott Stock, 1903)</ref>

The only religious order of English origin founded during the Middle Ages, it thrived until the [[dissolution of the monasteries]] under King [[Henry VIII]].<ref name=foley>[http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1293 Foley O.F.M., Leonard. "St. Gilbert of Sempringham", ''Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons and Feast'', (revised by Pat McCloskey O.F.M.), Franciscan Media]</ref>

==Veneration==
[[File:St Gilbert of Sempringham C of E Primary School, Pointon, Lincs - geograph.org.uk - 215132.jpg|thumb|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 [[February 4|4 February]], [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|commemorating]] his death, as it remains also in the [[Church of England]] ([[Commemoration (observance)|commemoration]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=2021-03-27|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref> 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 Europe|Continental]] models, it did not maintain a foothold in Europe.<ref name="dictionary">{{cite book|last=Farmer|first=David Hugh|title=The Oxford dictionary of saints|year=1997|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|location=Oxford [u.a.]|isbn=9780192800589|pages=209–210|edition=4th}}</ref> There are, however, at least three primary schools in England named after him: in [[Pointon]], [[Stamford, Lincolnshire]] and [[Winton, Greater Manchester]].<ref name="Schools">http://www.stgilbertspointon.co.uk; http://www.stgilberts.co.uk; http://www.stgilbertsrc.co.uk</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Catholic saints]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==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.
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Gilbert of Sempringham, St|short=x}}
*{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Gilbert of Sempringham|volume=21|author=Thomas Andrew Archer}}

{{Christian crosses}}
{{portal bar|Biography|Catholicism|Saints|England}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert of Sempringham}}
[[Category:1080s births]]
[[Category:1189 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bourne, Lincolnshire]]
[[Category:Gilbertine Order]]
[[Category:12th-century English Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Founders of Catholic religious communities]]
[[Category:English men centenarians]]
[[Category:12th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Canonical Augustinian saints]]
[[Category:Medieval English saints]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholic saints]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:Longevity claims]]