Saint Hermes of Rome

Hermes Hermès Wealthy Roman patrician, convert, and martyr. was a wealthy patrician of Rome, converted by Pope Alexander. He pape Alexandre Pope who converted Hermes and performed several miracles. manumitted his slaves, who numbered more than twelve hundred, not counting the women and children. This conversion, which had been accompanied by that of his wife and his sister, caused a great stir in Rome; as soon as Count Aureli an had arrived comte Aurélien Gallo-Roman nobleman and ambassador of Clovis. there on behalf of the emperor, whom death took away that same year, the priests of the idols ran to the palace to demand justice against Alexander and Hermes, because they had withdrawn several thousand people from the worship of the gods.

Aurelian immediately had them arrested and taken as prisoners t o the tribune tribun Quirin Prefect who ordered the arrest and torture of Tryphon. Quirinus: the latter asked Hermes how it was that he had deserted the national cult. "I was, like you, in error," he replied, "and I mocked the religion of the Christians; but Alexander, whom you hold in bonds, disillusioned me and opened my eyes to know the truth." — "Well then!" replied Quirinus, "if this Alexander, whom you hold to be a saint, and whom I believe to be a magician, can free himself from his chains and come to find you tonight, or break yours, so that you yourself may go to find him, I will put faith in what you say." Hermes agreed to this, and immediately the tribune went to Alexander's dungeon to load him with new chains and double his guard; but the holy Pope

No sooner had he finished his prayer than an angel, in the form of a five-year-old child holding a torch in his hand, appeared to him and led him to the chamber of Hermes. Quirinus entered a few moments later and was very surprised to find them at liberty, praying together with their arms outstretched to heaven: "You see," Hermes said to him, "that there is nothing impossible for Jesus Christ; but, so that you may be even more convinced of his power, you will find us both this morning loaded with our chains as before."

The tribune not yielding to these wonders, Hermes continued: "I had an only son who fell ill; his mother and I carried him to the Capitol, to sacrifice to the gods and give great gifts to the priests, in order to obtain his healing. However, he died: his nurse told me that, if I had carried him to the church of Saint Peter and believed in Jesus Christ, I would have saved his life." — "Why then," I said to her, "do you not go there yourself, to ask him for the sight that you have lost (for she was blind)?" — "It has been five years," she said, "since I would have been healed, if I had gone there and believed in the true God." — "Go there then," I replied, "and, if you obtain the use of your eyes, I will believe that Alexander can resurrect my son." She went there at the third hour, and at the sixth hour she returned to me perfectly healed; then, taking my son in her arms, she carried him to the holy Pope, who restored his life. I immediately went to throw myself at his feet, to thank him and to beg him to make me a Christian; from that day on, I believed in Jesus Christ. I gave a portion of my goods to the Church, another to my slaves along with their freedom, and the rest to the poor: now, I fear neither confiscation nor any threat from a mortal man."

Quirinus, convinced by this account, threw himself at the feet of the holy Martyrs and said to them: 'You will win my soul for Jesus Christ today; I have a dau ghter, Balbine Daughter of the tribune Quirinus, healed of scrofula by Pope Alexander. named Balbina, whom I wish to marry; nothing is lacking in the beauty of her face, but she is afflicted with scrofula; heal her and I shall become a Christian.' Alexander told him to bring her to him, and restored her to perfect health: which was the cause of his conversion, that of his daughter, and of the other prisoners, who were all baptized by the holy Pope. All also received the crown of martyrdom, through the cruelty of Aurelian, with Saint Hermes, who had his head severed in the year of Our Lord 1 Adrien Abbot sent to England to restore monastic discipline. 32, under the empire of Hadrian, and not of Aurelian, as Ado writes, confusing the emperor of that name with the count of whom we have just spoken. The virgin Theodora, sister of our holy Martyr, took his body and buried it on the Via Salaria, quite near Rome, from where, in the year 831, it was transferred to the city of Munster, at the solicitation of Emperor Lothair. Since then, under Louis, son of Renaix City in Flanders where the saint's relics are venerated. the same Lothair, it has been carried to Renaix, in the county of Flanders, between Tournai and Oudenaarde, where he is greatly honored, as the learned Miraeus reports in his Collectio Pape Pélage II Predecessor of Gregory the Great, mentioned as an alternative. n of the Saints of Flanders and Burgundy. Pope Pelagius II had a cemetery built under his name.

Acta Sanctorum.