By DEB PIROCH
The child earning the nickname “Hermann the Cripple” was born and lived as a cripple in the eleventh century (1013-1054). Many ascribe his diseases to have been spina bifida and cerebral palsy, though some today think it was Lou Gehrig’s disease and another wasting muscle disease. In any case, poor Hermannus could hardly move and was born with a cleft palate as well.
As it was felt he would not live more than a few years, his parents asked Benedictine monks in Swabia, Germany, to care for him.
It was true that Hermann of Reichenau, another name he is sometimes called after the monastery that cared for him, was greatly handicapped in body. But not in mind — and he lived to be about 40, some 35 more years longer than predicted.
Given his birth circumstances, some invoke him as an intercessor for the unborn, as today many would have aborted him before birth. He is also a patron for the handicapped. Despite all of his physical deficiencies, his mind was brilliant and more than made up for the capacities he lacked in other areas.
First, he became a monk, some say by the age of 20. He was a scholar, wrote history, prose and poetry, hymns and prayer. The abbot of Berno, head of the monastery, took special interest in his education. One of Hermann’s most famous writings is the Salve Regina or Hail Holy Queen, with which we end each rosary.
In one of his books, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, relates rather shamefully that there was a period in the 1970s when he stopped saying this prayer. Somehow, he felt “this valley of tears” no longer appropriate to the times. Committed to caring for the poor, suddenly he experienced the death of one of the young men in his boys’ home, and immediately he realized as he grieved his error; the Salve Regina was oh, so relevant and he renewed it among his prayers for the rest of his life.
There is some debate over other pieces Hermann wrote — some say he wrote the hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus. He did write the Alma Redemptoris Mater, and the English translation by Cardinal Newman follows:
“Loving Mother of the Redeemer,/ who remains the accessible Gateway of Heaven,/ and Star of the Sea,/ Give aid to a falling people/that strives to rise;/ O Thou who begot thy holy Creator,/ while all nature marveled,/ Virgin before and after/ receiving that “Ave” from the mouth of Gabriel,/ have mercy on sinners” — Translator: John Henry Cardinal Newman.
Students flocked to see this holy man who could barely move or speak. Later in life he also went blind, but his faith never faltered. He knew astronomy, mathematics, philosophy — basics which one studied at the time before proceeding to learn other higher subjects such as theology. He understood Greek, Latin, and perhaps Arabic as certain translations of works were available in Latin solely due to his academic concentration on them.
He wrote music and invented instruments. He made many mathematical and scientific contributions and we could write an article on this subject alone.
For instance, he calculated an accurate and new lunar calendar, despite using a system entirely different from used today. Another of his many important contributions is a chronicle of the Life of Christ. While likely composed of earlier versions by others that have not survived, this remained an important contribution to the faith. Had he been born “normal,” this German son of royalty, Count Wolverad II of Altshausen and his wife, Hiltrud, he would likely have lived a very typical life and we should never have heard of him.
A lovely post note to the story provided by Regina Magazine involves a trip taken down the Rhine by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, approximately a century later. In the German town of Spire he heard the choir sing the Salve Regina, which ended with the words, “Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende” — that is, “Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” He cried out, “O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria!” that is, “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!” (To which our family response has always been, “Pray for us O Holy Mother, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.”)
Two saints came together a century apart, in their love of the Blessed Mother, to complete this beautiful prayer.
Peripherally, let us witness to the Church’s testimony to the value of every human life, made in the likeness of God our Creator.
In 1950 Venerable Pope Pius XII wrote in his declaration of the Assumption as a dogma of the Catholic Church: “We may hope that those who meditate upon the glorious example Mary offers us may be more and more convinced of the value of a human life entirely devoted to carrying out the heavenly Father’s will and to bringing good to others.”
“The disabled person (whether the disability be the result of a congenital handicap, chronic illness, or accident, or from mental or physical deficiency, and whatever the severity of the disability is a fully human subject with the corresponding innate, sacred, and inviolable rights…from the moment of conception and in every stage of development, whatever his or her physical condition” — Pope St. John Paul II, from Enchiridion Vaticanum (1981).
Today, many among the U.S. population, on hearing that a child carried in utero had Hermann’s disabilities, would have aborted him. We can assume this, as nearly 70 percent of those conceived with Down syndrome suffer this fate. For some incomprehensible reason, the world has bought into the argument that euthanizing/killing the child is more humane. Even though such cases are often aborted at much later gestation, when the baby feels horrible pain during the abortion, and the mother is most endangered, they have bought the lie.
But beyond all this: What mother would suffer less if her baby died by abortion than naturally? None. If the mother does not wish to raise the child, there are options. No one has the right to play God but God. Blessed Hermann himself was predicted to be dead by the age of five if not earlier, yet such love had our Lord that He used this Hermann’s infirmity to reveal how his cross, offered in love to God, made a profound difference to the world.
They say he was visited by Pope Leo IX and Holy Roman Emperor Henry II. But even had he lived but one day in only his mother’s arms, God giveth life and God taketh life, not you or I. We are not the authors of life. Those who wish to “play God” are blinder than Blessed Hermann ever was.
Hermann was beatified in 1863.
His feast day is observed on September 25 in certain Benedictine monasteries.
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