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Heribert of Cologne
Left: Heribert of Cologne, town hall tower Cologne
Born	c. 970, Worms
Died	March 16, 1021, Cologne
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Canonized	1075
Major shrine	Deutz
Feast	March 16
Patronage	Rain

Saint Heribert (c. 970 – 16 March 1021) was Archbishop of Cologne and Chancellor of Emperor Otto III, and was canonized c. 1074.

Life

He was born in Worms, the son of Hugo, count of Worms. He was educated in the school of Worms Cathedral and at the Benedictine Gorze Abbey in Lorraine. He returned to Worms Cathedral to be provost and was ordained a priest in 994.

In the same year Otto III appointed him chancellor for Italy and four years later also for Germany, a position which he held until Otto's death on 23 January 1002. Heribert accompanied Otto to Rome in 996 and again in 997, and was still in Italy when he was elected Archbishop of Cologne. At Benevento he received investiture and the pallium from Pope Sylvester II on 9 July 999, and on the following Christmas Day he was consecrated at Cologne.

In 1002, he was present at the death-bed of the emperor at Paterno. While returning to Germany with the emperor's remains and the imperial insignia, he was held captive for some time by the future Henry II, whose candidacy he at first opposed, but whom he served faithfully subsequently.

Shrine

In 1003 Heribert founded the Abbey of Deutz on the Rhine, at a strongpoint that controlled the western entry to the city of Cologne; when he died in Cologne on March 16, 1021, he was buried in his abbey church.

Veneration

Heribert was already honoured as a saint during his lifetime, and was canonized by Pope Gregory VII in about 1074. His reported miracles included ending a drought; he is thus invoked for beneficial rains.

His relics were kept in the abbey church at Deutz in a golden reliquary, which is now preserved in the parish church of Neu-St.Heribert in Köln-Deutz.^[1]

His feast day is celebrated on 16 March, his private feast day on 12 October.

References

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

External links

• Heribert von Köln (with picture of shrine) (German)