Hermann of Tournai

Herrman von Tournai (lat. Herimannus Tornacensis ) (* around 1095 in Tournai , † after 1147 in Palestine ) was a Benedictine monk, chronicler , author of historical treatises on Heiligenleben and abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Martin of Tournai.

Life

Hermann von Tournai, who had attended the council of Reims as a deacon in October 1119 , was a disciple of St. Odo of Cambrai (Odo of Tournai) and bishop of Cambrai . Following his example as a teacher, Hermann described at the beginning of his work that Odo was the driving force behind the founding of a neglected and inconspicuous church in 1092, which was dedicated to St. Martin of Tours . Hermann's Restauratio was edited by Lynn Harry Nelson and translated into English with the title The restoration of the Monastery of Saint Martin of Tournai with detailed explanations for the first time.

Hermann worked as a chronicler at the Saint-Martin Abbey in Tournai, and according to many of the individual reports connected with the abbey, he was a social historian who used to see the world from his own perspective. In this abbey Hermann von Tournai was elected third abbot in 1127. In 1136, however, he was expelled from the abbey by a contingent within the monastic community on the grounds that he had slacked off in enforcing the Regula Benedicti . He used the free time gained during a stay in Rome to write his book Restauratio sancti Martini Tornacensis , which was written in Latin about fifty years after a local plague epidemic of 1090.

After his expulsion from Tournai, Hermann spent some time in Laon , where he joined the circle around Bishop Bartholomäus de Jur (around 1080-1158). Here Hermann was sent to Spain by Bartholomew to recover the remains of the martyr Vincent of Valencia , also called Vincent of Saragossa , who had promised to Laon, King Alfonso I, King of Aragon , Bartholomew's relative.

Although the relics were not available, Hermann was given the opportunity to copy some Spanish works on Mary of Ildefons of Toledo, to whom he received an account of Bartholomew's building program in Laon and his own miraculous book De miraculis beatae Mariae Laudunensis (The miracles of the saints Mary of Laon) added . The work combined a revival of the spiritual life of Laon under his Bishop Bartholomew with the particularity of the local Marian apparitions and their relics, which could be viewed in central France and England , in order to raise money for the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Laon ( Notre-Dame de Laon ) that was recently destroyed by fire. He wrote the report in the 1140s as a pseudepigraphy like that of a canon of the cathedral: In his address to Bartholomew he claimed: “I was reluctant to put my minor name under them, so I named the“ miracles ”under a pretext washed by the Canon of the Church ” .

Hermann von Tournai was involved in the establishment of the Diocese of Tournai (1146) through his later trips to the Holy See in Rome after the separation of the Diocese of Noyon , while the Notre-Dame de Tournai Cathedral was rebuilt at the same time .

Web links

Literature by and about Hermann von Tournai in the catalog of the German National Library
COMMISSION DE LA BIOGRAPHIE NATIONALE: Nouvelle Biographie Nationale de Belgique, Volume 1, HÉRIMAN, moine et historien de l'abbaye de Saint-Martin de Tournai, né vers 1090, décédé après 1147, pp. 163–170. (PDF) December 31, 1988, accessed on September 22, 2019 (French).
Saint-Denis, Alain (ed.): Les miracles de Sainte Marie de Laon / Hériman de Tournai. Retrieved September 24, 2019 (French).
Herman of Tournai active 12th century. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .

Individual evidence

↑ Lynn H Nelson: The restoration of the Monastery of Saint Martin of Tournai. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .
↑ Herimannus Abbas: Liber de restauratione ecclesie Sancti Martini Tornacensis. In: Herimannus Abbas, édition critique par RBC Huygens. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, 233 pp., Accessed September 23, 2019 (Latin).
↑ La restauration de Saint-Martin de Tournai , P. Selvais (planned 11/2019), ISBN 978-2-503-58059-3
^ Niemeyer, Gerlinde: The Miracula S. Mariae Laudunensis of Abbot Hermann von Tournai. 1971, accessed September 24, 2019 .
↑ Simon Yarrow: Saints and Their Communities: Miracle Stories in Twelfth-Century England (Oxford Historical Monographs). Retrieved September 24, 2019 .
^ Gerlinde Niemayer: Saints and Their Communities: Miracle Stories in Twelfth-Century England (Oxford Historical Monographs). 1971, accessed September 24, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Hermann of Tournai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	from Tournai, Hermann; de Tournai, Hériman; Laudunensis, Hermannus; Sancti Martini, Hermannus; Abbas, Hermannus; Tornacensis, Herimannus; Abbas, Herimannus; of Laon, Hermann; from Sankt Martin, Hermann; of Tournai, Hermannus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Benedictine monk, chronicler and abbot
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1095
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tournai
DATE OF DEATH	after 1147
Place of death	Palestine

[1] Lynn H Nelson: The restoration of the Monastery of Saint Martin of Tournai. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .

[2] Herimannus Abbas: Liber de restauratione ecclesie Sancti Martini Tornacensis. In: Herimannus Abbas, édition critique par RBC Huygens. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, 233 pp., Accessed September 23, 2019 (Latin).

[3] La restauration de Saint-Martin de Tournai , P. Selvais (planned 11/2019), ISBN 978-2-503-58059-3

[4] Niemeyer, Gerlinde: The Miracula S. Mariae Laudunensis of Abbot Hermann von Tournai. 1971, accessed September 24, 2019 .

[5] Simon Yarrow: Saints and Their Communities: Miracle Stories in Twelfth-Century England (Oxford Historical Monographs). Retrieved September 24, 2019 .

[6] Gerlinde Niemayer: Saints and Their Communities: Miracle Stories in Twelfth-Century England (Oxford Historical Monographs). 1971, accessed September 24, 2019 .