The aim of the present work was to study the luminescence properties of the Ce 3+ (x Ce =0.01) doped X 1 form of Y 2 SiO 5 . The materials were prepared by a sol–gel reaction between yttrium and cerium nitrate hydrates as well tetraetoxysilane with annealing in reducing conditions at 1100°C. A strong luminescence band at 445nm was observed with a decay time of 44ns. In addition, two weak bands were observed at 479 and 575nm. The decay times of the latter bands were about 800 and 870μs, respectively. These weak emission bands were tentatively explained to be due to the Ce 4+ charge transfer luminescence associated with oxygen vacancies created by the reducing preparation conditions.