Biography
Gilbert of Sempringham
About Gilbert of Sempringham
Gilbert of Sempringham was an English priest who founded the religious communities later called the Gilbertines. He was born at Sempringham in Lincolnshire, probably between 1083 and 1089; an exact birthday is not known. His father, Jocelin, was a Norman landowner, while the early account describes his mother as English. Sent to France for education, Gilbert eventually returned to his own district rather than pursuing a military career. He served in the household of the bishops of Lincoln and was ordained deacon and priest under Bishop Alexander. Although offered an archdeaconry, he declined it. His work would take shape around teaching, parish life and the needs of people seeking a religious vocation.
Before his foundation became an order, Gilbert taught boys and girls in his home community. The older biography associates him with the churches of Sempringham and Tirington, whose income he used differently: one supported his own needs, while the other helped poor people. Education and the use of property were therefore connected in his early ministry. He did not begin as the head of a large institution with a finished plan for its future. The school taught girls as well as boys, making instruction available within the parish rather than requiring all pupils to leave home.
Around 1131, seven women of the parish began their religious life in buildings beside the north wall of the parish church. That first setting matters: the community grew beside an existing place of worship, rather than beginning with the extensive priory later associated with Gilbert’s name. A new site southwest of the church was chosen in 1139 as the foundation expanded. The later priory contained a double church, cloisters and other buildings. Archaeological records distinguish those successive sites, so the remains of the larger complex should not be mistaken for an unchanged survival of the women’s first dwelling. The surviving foundations were investigated in excavations in 1938 and 1939, long after the community’s dissolution.
The growing community needed people to provide food, manage property and serve its worship. Lay sisters and lay brothers joined the enterprise, and Gilbert sought help from an established religious order. In 1147 he approached the Cistercians at Cîteaux, hoping they would take responsibility for his foundations. They declined to administer communities that included women. Gilbert consequently brought in Augustinian canons regular to provide pastoral care and assist with government. These men were clerics living under a religious rule, not simply another name for Cistercian monks. Pope Eugene III approved the developing arrangement in 1148, with Gilbert serving as its master.
Gilbert also sought advice rather than relying only on his own judgment. William of Newburgh describes him consulting Bernard of Clairvaux, whose counsel encouraged him to continue his work. The chronicler presents this encounter as an effort to join religious enthusiasm with informed guidance. In his account, Gilbert established rules for communities of both men and women and secured the material support needed for their lives together. Newburgh especially praises his work in women’s religious education. That praise is the judgment of a medieval church historian, not proof that everyone under Gilbert’s authority experienced his leadership in the same way.
The order’s growth brought a serious conflict with its lay brothers. Its date is uncertain; modern scholarship places the outbreak possibly around 1165, earlier than some familiar accounts. The brothers challenged their conditions and the distribution of authority after the addition of canons. Their complaints reached the pope, while bishops defended the separation of the men’s and women’s quarters. Thomas Becket urged Gilbert to moderate his religious zeal. The dispute cannot fairly be reduced to ingratitude among the workers: harsh discipline was a real part of the problem. Near the end of Gilbert’s life, rules concerning food and clothing were moderated.
Alongside this difficult institutional history, the devotional tradition remembers a practical concern for hungry people. Franciscan Media describes a custom in Gilbertine houses of setting aside the best portions of a meal for those in need. Food reserved in this way was shared rather than kept for the community’s own comfort. The same account remembers Gilbert’s personal simplicity and the time he gave to prayer. These details help explain why his memory is associated with generosity as well as foundation-building. They do not make severe fasting a practice that others must copy, or cancel the need to examine the burdens his rule placed on workers.
In old age, Gilbert gave responsibility for the order to Roger, prior of Malton. With his sight failing, he made his own religious profession and accepted obedience to the successor who would govern the communities he had founded. He died at Sempringham on February 4, 1189. Innocent III canonized him in 1202, beginning a further history of public veneration.
His commemoration continues on February 4 as a local Catholic feast. The Roman Martyrology remembers the distinctive arrangement of Benedictine observance for the nuns and Augustinian observance for the clerics.
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