Hermannus Contractus le paralytique, saint érudit allemand

Hermannus Contractus, Patron des malades et des handicapés

(Saint Hermann Contract, Hermann de Reichenau)

Hermann von Reichenau

(Hermann der Lahme, Herimannus Augiensis)

né le 18 juillet 1013 à Altshausen (Bade-Wurtemberg, Allemagne)

mort le 24 septembre 1054 à l'Abbaye de Reichenau (Bade-Wurtemberg)

Peinture sur bois de Zodel, Schlosskirche St. Michael

Altshausen (Seelsorgeeinheit)

Gebete, Novene und Lied

D'après de nombreux historiens et hagiographes,

Saint Hermann Contract serait le compositeur du Salve Regina,

de l’Alma Redemptoris Mater et de l’Ave Regina Cœlorum

Voici un magnifique poème en anglais

à la louange de Saint Hermannus Contractus

Traduction en français ici

Herman The Cripple

by William Hart Hurlbut, M.D.

I am least among the low,

I am weak and I am slow;

I can neither walk nor stand,

Nor hold a spoon in my own hand.

Like a body bound in chain,

I am on a rack of pain,

But He is God who made me so,

that His mercy I should know.

Brothers do not weep for me!

Christ, the Lord, has set me free.

All my sorrows he will bless;

Pain is not unhappiness.

From my window I look down

To the streets of yonder town,

Where the people come and go,

Reap the harvest that they sow.

Like a field of wheat and tares,

Some are lost in worldly cares;

There are hearts as black as coal,

There are cripples of the soul.

Brothers do not weep for me!

In his mercy I am free.

I can neither sow nor spin,

Yet, I am fed and clothed in Him.

I have been the donkey’s tail,

Slower than a slug or snail;

You my brothers have been kind,

Never let me lag behind.

I have been most rich in friends,

You have been my feet and hands;

All the good that I could do,

I have done because of you.

Oh my brothers, can’t you see?

You have been as Christ for me.

And in my need I know I, too,

Have become as Christ for you!

I have lived for forty years

In this wilderness of tears;

But these trials can’t compare

With the glory we will share.

I have had a voice to sing,

To rejoice in everything;

Now Love’s sweet eternal song

Breaks the darkness with the dawn.

Brother’s do not weep for me!

Christ, the Lord, has set me free.

Oh my friends, remember this:

Pain is not unhappiness.

Source: in « Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones: Spiritual Answers to Psychological Questions », by Father Benedict Joseph Groeschel, C.F.R., Paulist Press, 1988.

CD "Le Miracle du Siècle" à l'occasion du millénaire de la naissance

de Saint Hermann Contract (mai 2013, Label Raumklang)

"Das Wunder des Jahrhunderts"

"The Miracle of the Century"

"Hermannus Contractus: Hermann der Lahme von der Reichenau"

"1013-1054"

"Ensemble ORDO VIRTUTUM"

"Stefan Johannes Morent"

Reliques de Saint Hermannus Contractus

(Altshausen, Allemagne)

Salve Regina (composé par Saint Hermann de Reichenau, fêté le 25 septembre)

chanté par Les Petits Chanteurs de Passy (2011)