HERMAN OF SCHEDA

Abbot and author, called also Herman the Jew; b. Cologne, Germany, c. 1107; d. Abbey of Scheda, near Paderborn, Germany, 1170 (or according to some authorities 1198). Of Jewish parentage, he was converted to Christianity c. 1128, while on a business trip to Mainz, and entered the premonstratensian order at the Abbey of Kappenberg. Ordained a priest in 1134, he became abbot of Scheda (1143), one of the houses dependent on Kappenberg. Herman seems to have been singularly impressed by the graces he had received; in his autobiography, Opusculum de vita sua (Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne, 170:805–836), he stressed his conversion and traced his own religious development, following his discussions with rupert of deutz, from his entrance into Kappenberg through his days at Scheda. However, the main purpose of the autobiography was a stirring appeal to his fellow Jews to accept Christ. A. Potthast has called it "a pearl of medieval literature." Herman is also credited with the authorship of the Vita Godefredi (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, 12:513–530), the life of the brother of otto of cappenberg, one of the early supporters of the Premonstratensians in Germany.

Bibliography: r. seeberg, Hermann von Scheda (Leipzig 1891). Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis, 2 v. (Brussels 1898–1901; suppl. 1911) 3575–76. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 v. (Munich 1911–31) 3:592–593. g. madelaine, Histoire de saint Norbert, 2v. (3d ed. Tongerloo Abbey, Belg. 1928) 1:190–209. j. greven, "Die Schrift des Herimannus quondam Iudaeus De conversione sua opusculum," Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein 115 (1929) 111–131. n. backmund, Monasticon Praemonstratense, 3 v. (Straubing 1949–56) 1:190. j. c. didier, Catholicisme 5:656–657. k. honselmann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 5:252–253. g. niemeyer, "Das Praemonstratenserstift Scheda im 12. Jahrhundert," Westfälische Zeitschrift 112 (1962) 309–333.

[l. l. rummel]