St. Norbert - Strahov Convent western gate / Sv. Norbert - západní brána Strahovského kláštera (Prague) - Statues of Religious Figures on Waymarking.com

Depicted Rococo statue of St. Norbert decorates top of Baroque entrance gate at the western side of courtyard of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Prague-Strahov.

The statue is work of Czech Rococo sculptor and carver Jan Antonín Quittainer (*13.8.1709–†7.3.1765). The monumental gate is work of prominment architect of the Baroque period, Anselmo Martino Lurago, from 1742.

Saint Norbert of Xanten (*~1080, Xanten, Duchy of Lower Lorraine — †June 6, 1134, Magdeburg, Saxony) was archbishop of Magdeburg and founder of the Premonstratensian order.

Norbert was ordained in 1115. Failing to reform his peers at the collegiate church of Xanten, he traveled throughout France and Belgium, preaching moral reform. In 1119 Pope Calixtus II asked him to found a religious institute at Prémontré, Fr. With such notable disciples as Hugh of Fosses and St. Evermod, he established his community, the Premonstratensians, in 1120. The congregation was dedicated to preaching, pastoral work, and education. Norbert adopted the rule of Bishop St. Augustine of Hippo for his new order, and he modeled its constitutions after that of the Cistercians, an austere group of cloistered, vegetarian monks practicing perpetual silence. His monastery at Prémontré became the motherhouse of the Premonstratensians.

Norbert was chosen archbishop of Magdeburg in 1126. He became an important church figure four years later when he defended Pope Innocent II, whose claim to the papacy was threatened by Antipope Anacletus II. Norbert won the German church for Innocent’s cause and influenced the German king Lothar II/III to defend Innocent.

When Norbert died, both the canons at the cathedral and the canons at St. Mary's Abbey claimed the body. The two parties resorted to Lothair III who decreed the body should be buried in the Norbertine Abbey. In 1524, Martin Luther preached in the city and, as a result, Magdeburg became a Protestant city. Numerous attempts were made over the centuries by the Abbey of Strahov to retrieve the saint's body. Only after several military defeats at the hand of Emperor Ferdinand II was the abbot of Strahov able to claim the body. On May 2, 1627, the body was finally brought to Prague where it remains to this day, displayed as an auto-icon in a glass-fronted tomb.