Saint Heribert of Cologne

When he had returned to Worms, Bishop Hil debaud, c Hildebaud Bishop of Worms who appointed Heribert as his provost. harmed by his spirit, his wisdom, and his piety, made him provost of his Church, and intended him to be his successor: but his death prevented the execution of this design. A few years later, Emperor Otto III, w ho had no Othon III Holy Roman Emperor. t yet received the imperial crown, having been informed of Heribert's merit, summoned him to court and made him his chancellor. This prince, who had love and a taste for virtuous people, judging him equally fit for the service of the Church and the State, did not leave him in peace until he had him promoted to holy orders with his cousin Bruno, who was later pope under the name of Gregory V, and who crowned him emper or in the Grégoire V Legitimate pope and contemporary of Saint Nilus. year 996.

However, the archbishopric of Col Cologne Archiepiscopal see and burial place of the saint. ogne became vacant: and, after several months of disputes, which formed a kind of schism in that Church, everyone agreed to choose the chancellor Heribert. Deputies were immediately sent to the emperor, who was in Italy. He summoned Heribert, who was finishing pacifying the peoples around Ravenna, to Benevento, where he was staying. When he learned of the designs they had for him, his humility, joined with the apprehension of seeing himself charged with a ministry as formidable as that of the pastors of the Church, made him resort to a thousand means to divert this burden from his shoulders. But it was in vain that he declared himself a sinner, ignorant, and incapable before the emperor and the deputies of the church of Cologne; no one would believe him. He was obliged to yield as soon as they gave him tangible signs of the will of God. Having been provided for according to the customary forms and ceremonies, he spent another two months after his investiture with the prince. He then went to Rome to receive the Pallium from the hands of Pop Sylvestre II Tutor of Giraud and future pope. e Sylvester II, and he left immediately to go to the metropolitan church of Cologne, of which he took possession on Christmas Eve, the year 999, which was the day of his consecration.

He responded immediately to the grace of his ordination by the care he took of his flock: and, not content with reviewing it, recognizing its needs, dressing its wounds, and feeding it with the bread of life which he distributed himself through the ministry of preaching, to which he was very assiduous, he also presented to it in his own person the model it had to follow, by giving examples of all kinds of virtues to his clergy and his people, and by making himself the provider of the poor, the physician of the sick, the support of the weak, and the common father of all his diocesans. He always remained within the bounds of profound humility, to protect his heart from swelling and pride, and not to let himself be dazzled by the false glitter of the greatness that surrounded him. He joined to this a continual mortification, to always keep his body and his passions under the yoke of the spirit; and he never took off the rough hair shirt that he hid under ordinary clothing suitable to his dignity.

He had churches repaired and built new ones; but a great famine that afflicted Germany and France caused him to suspend what seemed less necessary in these works, in order to meet the public misery that pressed even more urgently upon his charity. He was not only the liberator of his country on this occasion, as the patriarch Joseph had been of Egypt; he also made himself the servant of the poor and the strangers, to whom he provided by himself all possible assistance for the needs of the soul and the body, even washing their feet and preparing food for them with his own hands. He built, in a place indicated by the Blessed Virgin, a great monastery on the other side of the Rhine, opposite Cologne, and he endowed it with a rich fund that Emperor Otto III had left him shortly before his deat h, as wel Othon III Holy Roman Emperor. l as with his personal assets. This is the one called Deutz, in the town of the same name, which was long afte r in Duitz Monastery founded by Heribert opposite Cologne. reputation for great regularity, due to the excellence of the discipline that our holy Prelate established there. He consecrated a chapel to Saint Stephen in Cologne, near the High Gate. He rebuilt the basilica of the Twelve Apostles and added a college to it. To avert the plague and famine, he instituted a solemn procession around the walls of the city, which took place until the end of the 18th century, on the Friday in the octave of Easter. During a time of extreme drought, after a procession to the church of Saint Severin, the custom of which has been piously preserved to this day, the blessed Prelate bowed his head into his hands resting on the altar to implore the Almighty, weeping abundantly, and, like Saint Scholastica of old, he suddenly drew a torrential rain from heaven.

As this excellent Shepherd had nothing more at heart than the preservation and growth of the flock that his Master had entrusted to him, he could not tire of reviewing it through continuous pastoral visits, carrying everywhere with him not only the light of the word of God to enlighten minds, the fire of charity to encourage everyone to enlist, but also the relief of bodily life, to remedy the necessity and misery of individuals. It was during the course of these laborious visits that he was stopped in the small town of Deutz by an illness that it pleased God to use t Duitz Monastery founded by Heribert opposite Cologne. o end and crown his labors. He died on March 16, 1021. His body was buried in Deutz in the monastery he had founded. Arnold, Archbishop of Cologne, exhumed it on August 30, 1147, and it still rests Arnold Archbishop of Cologne who performed the exhumation of the saint's body in 1147. in that place in a beautiful sepulcher.

He is represented with a church in his hand; this attribute specifically recalls the foundation of the abbey and monastery of Deutz; we say specifically, because he had a large number of sacred buildings restored in his diocese.

The foundation of this same abbey of Deutz has given rise to representing Saint Heribert in another way, that is to say, kneeling in prayer before an image of Our Lady, because, wishing to raise his foundation in a place famous for the crimes that had been committed there, he begged the Blessed Virgin to purify it.

Saint Heribert, as we have just seen, obtained from heaven the end of a prolonged drought that threatened to bring about a great famine. During the public prayers ordered by him to appease the anger of God, and at which he was present, a dove was seen fluttering around his head, as if to signal him to the veneration of the people. His commiseration for the poor was great. Thus, people flocked from France and Germany to share in the largesse of his charity. He is invoked for rain.

He is honored in Deutz, and even in Lombardy, because he accompanied Emperor Otto III there. See the Proper of Cologne, Baillet, and the fam ous Ru Rupert Abbot and author of the life of Saint Heribert. pert, abbot of Deutz, who composed the life of the Saint in the monastery he had founded.