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Saint Hermes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other saints with this name, see Saint Hermes (disambiguation).
| Saint Hermes | |
|---|---|
 Dutch Book of Prayers from the mid-fifteenth century. Saint Hermes is the figure in the back, in armor. Other saints pictured include Saint James the Great, Saint Joseph, Saint Ghislain, and Saint Eligius. |
|
| Died | 120 AD, Rome |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | August 28 |
| Patronage | Forte dei Marmi, Ronse; invoked against mental illnesses |
| Catholic cult suppressed | confined to local calendars in 1969. |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Hermes (Italian: Erme, Ermete) (d. 120 AD) is venerated as a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. His name appears in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum as well as entries in the Depositio Martyrum (354 AD). There was a large basilica over his tomb that was built around 600 AD by Pope Pelagius I.[1] It was restored by Pope Adrian I. A catacomb in the Salarian Way bears his name.
His existence is attested by his early cult. However, his Acts, included in those of Pope St. Alexander I, are legendary. They state that Hermes was a martyr with companions in Rome, who were killed at the orders of a judge named Aurelian.[2] Hermes was a wealthy freedman.
Some of his relics were given to Spoleto by Gregory the Great. Other relics went to Lothair I by Pope Leo IV; Lothair brought them first to Cornelismünster, near Aachen. The relics later came to Ronse in the 9th century. During those times, Viking raids forced the monks to flee the town more than once, and the monastery was burnt by the Normans in 880. The relics were recovered in 940 and housed in a Romanesque-style crypt in 1083. The church of Saint Hermes, which was later built on top of the crypt, was consecrated in 1129. A pilgrimage in honour of the saint, who had by then be known to cure mental illnesses, sustained the local economy. There is still a French saying today which translates as "Saint Hermes cures the area's madmen but keeps the Ronse dwellers as they are".
In past centuries, St. Elmo's Fire was sometimes called "St. Hermes’ Fire."[3]
- ^ David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 191.
- ^ http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=733
- ^ http://inamidst.com/lights/wisp/brand1777