Blessed Herman Contractus

Blessed Herman Contractus is also known as Herman the Cripple or Herman of Reichenau. He was born February 18, 1013 at Altshausen, Swabia --- modern Germany. He died September 21, 1054. We celebrate his memorial on September 25 and he was beatified in 1863.

He was born with a cleft palette, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida to a farming family. His parents were unable to care for him and brought him to the abbey of Reichenau when he was seven. He spent the rest of his life there. He became a Benedictine monk at age twenty. He studied and wrote on astronomy, theology, math, history, poetry, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. He built musical instruments and astronomical equipment. He eventually went blind and had to give up writing. He was the most famous religious poet of his day and is the author of the Salve Regina as well as the Alma Redemptoris Mater.

Those of us who say the Liturgy of the Hours recite the Salve Regina as our last prayer of the evening.

• Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
  our life, our sweetness and our hope.
  To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
  to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.
  
  Turn then, most gracious advocate,thine eyes of mercy toward us;
  and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
  O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
  
  V./ Pray for us O holy Mother of God,
  R./ that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.