Saint Hermes

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Cornish Saint Hermes, see Erbin of Dumnonia.

Saint Hermes
Saint James the Great, Saint Joseph, Saint Ghislain, and Saint Eligius.
Martyr
Died120
Rome
Venerated inCatholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
CanonizedPre-congregation
Feast28 August
PatronageForte dei Marmi; Ronse; Acquapendente; invoked against mental illnesses

Saint Hermes, born in

Salarian Way
bears his name.

Background

In the Roman Rite, his feast is on 28 August. Under that date, he appears in the Roman Martyrology, the official but professedly incomplete list of saints recognized by the Catholic Church. The entry is as follows: "In the Cemetery of Basilia on the Old Salarian Way, Saint Hermes, Martyr, whom, as reported by Saint Damasus, Greece sent forth, but Rome kept as its citizen when he died for the holy name."[2]

His existence is attested by his early cult. However, his Acts, included in those of Pope Alexander I, are legendary. They depict Hermes as a wealthy freedman who with his companions was martyred in Rome, being killed on the orders of a judge named Aurelian.[3]

Veneration

Some of his

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 Fiertelommegang (Fiertel Procession) that has been held here since 1090, a procession with the relics throughout the city.[4]

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 become known for curing 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". Hermes is the patron saint of Ronse.[5]

Although he is recognized as a saint of the Catholic Church, the commemoration of Saint Hermes in the General Roman Calendar was removed in 1969 because of the paucity of information about him.[6]

Gallery

  • Church of Saint Hermes (Sint-Hirmes) in Ronse, Belgium.
    Church of Saint Hermes (Sint-Hirmes) in Ronse, Belgium.

See also

References

  1. ^ Farmer, David (1978). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 191.
  2. ISBN 88-209-7210-7
    .
  3. ^ "St. Hermes". Catholic Online.
  4. ^ "St Hermes' Crypt", Tourism Ronce
  5. ^ Walker, Lauren. "Old entrance to crypt of St. Hermes' Basilica used for first time in 300 years", The Brussels Times, 28 August 2022
  6. OCLC 2461164
    .

External links
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