Eternal rest grant unto him Bishop Herbert Hermes, OSB
Born • May 25, 1933 Professed • July 11, 1954 Ordained • May 26, 1960 Ordained Bishop • September 2, 1990 Died • January 3, 2018 by Joe Bollig, the Leaven The letter Father Herbert Hermes, OSB, received from the apostolic nunciature in Brazil was most unwelcome. With apprehension, he opened and read it at midnight on June 9, 1990, at St. Joseph Priory in Mineiros, Brazil. And the letter contained an important question. Would the Kansas monk accept the Holy Father’s appointment to become bishop of the Prelacy of Cristalandia? “I immediately went to the chapel,” Bishop Herbert recounted much later, “and there, before the Blessed Sacrament, I fought against the proposal.” The monk, born in Shallow Water, Kansas, came from a modest, working-class family in a small Kansas town. “I didn’t feel comfortable with the prestige of [being] a member of the hierarchy with reverences and kissing of my hand,” he said. Cristalandia was a land so poor and the church there so weak that it couldn’t even rate as a diocese. The prelacy had experienced four years of neglect because the previous two bishops were limited by serious illnesses. His prayer did not yield the answer he’d hoped for. “The phrase, ‘They are like sheep without a shepherd,’ kept bombarding my thoughts,” he said. “Finally, at 4 a.m., I gave in and accepted trying to be ‘pastor’ of this ‘flock without a shepherd,’” he continued. Father Herbert was ordained a bishop on Sept. 2, 1990 in St. Benedict’s Abbey Church in Atchison, . Bishop Herbert was a champion for the poor of Brazil, seeking to be a shepherd and stand up for their rights – a ministry he continued until his death.
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Kansas Monks
And what a shepherd he was. He worked hard — and effectively — to build up the church spiritually and temporally. He was a
tireless advocate for human rights, so much so that, for a time, he was on a hit list of a death squad sponsored by powerful business interests in Brazil. Even after he retired to St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Paraiso do Tocantins in 2008, Bishop Herbert continued to advocate for the poor and oppressed. On January 3, 2018, however, the poor and oppressed of Brazil lost a shepherd. Bishop Herbert died of complications from pneumonia at the General Hospital of Palmas, Bishop Herbert was one Tocantins. A funeral Mass was of the first monks to celebrated at St. Joseph the Worker volunteer to serve in Brazil Parish. He was buried in the crypt in 1962. of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Cristalandia, Tocantins. Bishop Herbert was born on May 25, 1933, in Shallow Water, about eight miles south of Scott City. He was the ninth child of John Nicholas and Mary Ann (Hilger) Hermes. He was born five minutes before his identical twin brother, Norbert, the family’s tenth child. The future bishop and Norbert learned from their older brothers to serve Mass at St. Joseph Parish in Scott City. “We started when we were in the third grade,” said Norbert Hermes, “We could hardly see above the altar, and could barely reach the [Roman Missal].” Bishop Herbert was educated in public schools and, after high school graduation in 1951, went to St. Benedict’s College. He professed first vows on July 11, 1954, and solemn vows in 1957. He also graduated in May that year with degrees in biology and philosophy. He completed theological studies and was ordained a priest on May 26, 1960. His ordination classmates, Father Blaine Schultz and Father Albert Hauser, survive; Father Emeric Fletcher and Father Bruce Swift preceded him in death. At the time of his ordination, the abbey was establishing a mission foundation in Mineiros, Brazil.
