Norbert grew up and got educated in Xanten, near Wesel. His father was a member of the high nobility of the Holy Roman Empire.
Norbert was ordained as a sub-deacon and was tasked with chanting the Divine Office at the Church. Later, he was appointed as a religious counselor to Emperor Henry V in Cologne. There he lived a life of dissipation and luxury.
Norbert sunk into luxury and avoided as much as possible ordination to the priesthood. In 1113, he had even been offered an appointment as a bishop of Cambrai, an appointment he gladly declined.
In 1115 AD, as he was riding his horse, a lightning bolt struck his horse and he was thrown down. For over an hour he lay unconscious. After he recovered from this ordeal, he resigned from his position as a religious counselor to Emperor Henry V and returned to Xanten to start a new life of penance.
He was under instruction from the Abbot of St Sigeberg, near Cologne called Cono. In 1115, Nobert felt he should reward Cono for his help and therefore, with his own wealth founded the Abbey of Fürstenberg, and handed it over to Cono.
At the age of thirty-five, Norbert was ordained to as a priest and devoted himself to the Eucharist and Our Lady.
He tried to reform the canons of Xanten by exposing their abuses but was silenced by the local council. Therefore he resigned his position from the local Church, sold all his property and offered the money to charity.
After this, Pope Gelasius II permitted him to become a mobile preacher. He started moving from place to place, like Belgium, western Germany, northern France and the Netherlands where he preached and performed a number of miracles.
St Norbert was able to rejuvenate the spirit of the priesthood, drive out heresy and quicken the faith of the people. There were several apostate priests who had a contempt for the Blessed Sacrament and buried them in filthy places. St Norbert started a search for the Sacred Hosts and found all of them untainted. He triumphantly brought them back to the tabernacle. This is why he is attributed through paintings, drawings, and statues with the monstrance in his hand.
In October 1119, at the Council of Reims, Norbert was requested by Pope Calixtus II to establish a religious order in the Diocese of Laon in France. St Norbert established the Canons Regular of Prémontré on the day of Christmas, 1120.
Pope Honorius III appointed Norbert, in 1126, to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. While doing his reform work he experienced several assassination attempts due to his reform agenda in his see and protecting the right of the Church against the civil authority.