Prayer to St. Heribert (Herbert), Bishop
God, Light and Shepherd of souls, You established St. Heribert as Bishop in Your Church to feed Your flock by his word and form it by his example. Help us through his intercession to keep the Faith he taught by his word. Amen.
St. Heribert (Herbert), Bishop
Invoked in Time of Drought
St. Heribert was born at Worms in Germany about 970 and educated at the Abbey of Gorze in Lorraine. He wanted to enter the Benedictine Order there, but his father recalled him to Worms and obtained a canonry for him. As a young priest, Heribert became a trusted counselor of the youthful Emperor Otto III, chancellor of the diocese, and finally Archbishop of Cologne in 998.
In that same year the Saint accompanied the Emperor to Rome and assisted him in his last moments before his death in 1002. In the ensuing skirmishing for the post of Emperor, St. Heribert at first was opposed to St. Henry II through a mutual misunderstanding. But in time the two Saints, Archbishop and Emperor, were publicly reconciled and labored together for the good of the people.
St. Heribert was practically a model of what a Bishop should be. He was a peaceful man but a firm disciplinarian; a holy man but one who knew the value of money and saw to it that his was always divided among the poor. He was a man of prayer, and in a time of drought it was in answer to his prayers that a torrential rain fell, saving the harvest and delivering the people from famine. He died in 1021 and is invoked in time if drought.
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