Life of St. Hermann Joseph

Hermann Joseph was born in Cologne sometime after 1150. He was devoted to the Mother of God from his earliest years and was favored with mystical graces from childhood. According to his medieval biographer he offered an apple at a Marian altar in Cologne and the statue of the Virgin and Christ child came to life to receive the humble gift. Hermann Joseph entered the Norbertine Abbey of Steinfeld in the Eifel at the age of twelve and went on to become one of the most renowned of the Rhineland mystics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He was sent to Friesland for priestly studies. As canon and priest of the Abbey of Steinfeld, he gained a reputation for his gifts of preaching and guiding souls. He put these gifts to use especially among religious communities of women in the Rhineland. His total dedication to Mary, the mother of Christ, gained him the name of Mary's spouse, Joseph. One day, while he was working in the refectory and feeling that the work there left him too little time for prayer, Mary appeared to Hermann Joseph and consoled him with the words, "You have no higher duty than to serve your brothers with love." Later, as sacristan of the abbey church, Hermann Joseph found ample time for the contemplative prayer he loved so much. The culmination of all the mystical graces experienced by Hermann Joseph was his mystical marriage to the Blessed Virgin. He called her his "rose" in one of the most beautiful Marian poems of the Middle Ages, consecrating himself entirely to her care. His devotion to the Mother brought him ever closer to her Son. He also wrote one of the first and most striking hymns in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During the last Lent in his life, the Cistercian sisters of Hoven requested that the abbot send Father Hermann Joseph to celebrate a special Mass for them. Hermann Joseph, already elderly and weak, insisted on going by foot (he refused horse or wagon throughout his life). Upon arriving at the convent, he pointed to a place in the cemetery with his walking stick and told the sisters, "Here you will bury me." A few weeks later he died at Hoven, either in 1241 or 1252. He is portrayed in priestly garb, holding the Christ child, the apple he gifted to Him, and white roses which recall his devotion to Mary, the "Mystical Rose."

Heavenly Father, you generously bestowed mystical graces upon your humble servant Hermann Joseph. Through his prayers grant that we, too, may devoutly honor the heart of Your Son in prayerful union with the Virgin Mary. We ask this through Christ our Lord, AMEN.

A 13th Century sculpture of St. Hermann Joseph.
A painting based on the sculpture above.

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