Blessed Herman of Reichenau - September 25
September 25 - Feast day of Blessed Herman. Ora pro nobis.
“Loving mother of the Redeemer,
gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again,
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
yet remained a virgin after as before,
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.”—Blessed Herman (7) Blessed Herman (Hermann Contractus, Herimanus Augiensis, Hermann von Reichenau) was born 18 February, 1013, at Altshausen (Swabia). He was the son of Count Wolverad II von Altshausen. Being a cripple (born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida) from birth (hence the surname Contractus) he was powerless to move without assistance, and it was only by the greatest effort that he was able to read and write; but he was so highly gifted intellectually, that when he was but seven years of age his parents confided him to the learned Abbot Berno, on the island of Reichenau. (1) …More