DAVID OF HIMMEROD, BL.

Cistercian mystic; b. Florence, Italy, c. 1100; d. Himmerod, Eifel, Germany, Dec. 11, 1179. He studied in Paris and entered clairvaux in 1131. St. bernard sent him in 1134 to the abbey at himmerod in the Diocese of Trèves (Trier), where he became noted for mysticism and miracles. He was venerated immediately after death. The Benedictine, Peter of St. Eucharius, in Trier, c. 1204 composed his vita, one of the first pieces of Cistercian hagiography, emphasizing interior sanctity rather than miracles. David was buried first in the chapter room, and translated to a marble altar in the cloister in 1204, and to a chapel in the cloister church in 1692 for public veneration. A Cistercian general chapter confirmed his cult as immemorial in 1699. After Himmerod's secularization in 1802, the relics were taken to Trier, to Jupille, Belgium, in 1913, and back to Himmerod in 1930. David is the patron of mothers.

Feast: Dec. 11.

Bibliography: a. schneider, "Der Kult des sel. David," Cistercienser-Chronik 50 (1938) 97–102, 135–143, 170–176; "Vita B. Davidis monachi Hemmenrodensis," Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 11 (1955) 27–44. c. hontoir, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed., m. viller et al. (Paris 1932) 3:44–46. k. spahr, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 3:178–179.

[a. schneider]