HAYMO OF HALBERSTADT

Bishop and theologian; b. late 8th century; d. March 28, 853. There are relatively few known details of Haymo's early life, but he was a monk at Fulda and was sent to the celebrated school at Tours (c. 802), where he became a fellow pupil of rabanus maurus and was able to attend the lectures of the renowned alcuin. Shortly before Alcuin's death (May 8, 804), Haymo returned to Fulda, where he taught in the monastic school as testified by several documents of the years 815 to 820, written probably in his hand. Haymo seems also to have been at the abbey of hersfeld for some time, and it was while there that he was named bishop of Halberstadt in 840. As bishop he participated in the synods of Mainz in 847 and 852. trithemius calls Haymo "a most learned man, a penetrating interpreter of the Scriptures," basing his judgment on the numerous works that have been attributed to him; but the ascribed homiletical and exegetical works are nearly all spurious. Several works formerly attributed to Haymo are now thought to belong to Haymo of Hirschau (d. c. 1107), but it is difficult to know which of the two authors composed any particular work that has survived. Some of Haymo's works are: De corpore et sanguine Christi (Patrologia Latina 118:815–818), a treatise on the dogma of transubstantiation; De vanitate librorum, sive de amore coelestis patriae libri tres, a treatise on detachment from the world and the desire of heaven, valuable largely because it is a testimony to the piety of the 9th century; and Historiae sacrae epitome (Patrologia Latina 118:819–874), which is derived from earlier historians (Eusebius) and records the principal events of Christian times up to the death of Emperor theodosius (395). A biography of Haymo (Archiv 11:285), written c. 1000 by Rochus, a monk of Ilsenburg, is no longer extant except for a few fragments. No official cult of Haymo exists, but he is often given the title saint or blessed, and he appears in the Benedictine martyrology for March 27.

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne, 217 v., indexes 4 v. (Paris 1878–90) v.116–118, passim. j. gautier, Catholicisme 1:248. m. mÄhler, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller et al. (Paris 1932–) 1:261–262. Histoire littéraire de la France (Paris 1733–68) 5:111–126. g. allmang, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 1:1187–88. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 v. (Munich 1911–31) 1:292, 295, 500, 516–517. g. baader, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 4:1325–26. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 1:383. j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, 9 v. (Paris 1668–1701; 2d ed. Venice 1733–40) 5:583–586.

[v. a. schaefer]