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{{Short description|Abbot of Saint Martin of Tournai}}'''Herman of Tournai''', '''Herman of Laon''' or '''Hériman of Tournai''',  (French ''Hériman'', Latin ''Herimannus''; 1095–1147), the third abbot of Saint Martin of Tournai, was a [[chronicle]]r of his abbey and, in many anecdotal accounts connected with the abbey, a social historian of the world seen from its perspective. Forced from his abbacy in 1136  by a contingent within the monastic community that asserted he had been lax in his enforcement of the [[Benedictine rule]],  he had the leisure while at [[Rome]] to write his book, ''Restauratio sancti Martini Tornacensis'', written in [[Latin]] about fifty years after a local plague of 1090. He was a pupil of [[Odo of Cambrai|Odoardus, later Bishop of Cambrai]], whose example as a teacher he delineates at the start of his work, and who was the driving force behind the refounding of a neglected and undistinguished church dedicated to [[St Martin of Tours]] near [[Tournai]]. Herman's ''Restauratio'' has been edited and translated for the first time into English by Lynn Harry Nelson, who provided extended explanatory notes.<ref>Lynn Harry Nelson, ed., tr. (Herman of Tournai), ''The restoration of the Monastery of Saint Martin of Tournai'' (series: Medieval Texts in Translation) [[Catholic University of America Press]] Washington DC, 1996.</ref>

Following his expulsion from Tournai, Herman spent some time at [[Laon]], where he joined the circle of Bishop [[Barthélemy de Jur|Bartholomew de Jur]]. Bartholomew sent Herman into Spain to recover the body of Saint [[Vincent of Saragossa]], which had been promised for Laon by [[Alfonso I the Battler|Alfonso, king of Aragon]], Bartholomew's kinsman. Though the relics were not forthcoming, Herman had the opportunity to copy some Spanish [[Blessed Virgin Mary|Marian works]] by [[Ildefonsus of Toledo]] to which he added an account of Bartholomew's building programme at Laon, and his own [[Hagiography|miracle book]], ''[[De miraculis sanctae Mariae Laudunensis|De miraculis beatae Mariae Laudunensis]]'', "of the miracles of Saint Mary of Laon". The work linked a revival in the spiritual life of [[Laon]] under its bishop Bartholomew to the particular local [[Marian apparitions|interventions of the Virgin Mary]], whose relics were toured in central France and England to raise money for the rebuilding of [[Laon Cathedral]], recently laid waste by fire.<ref>Simon Yarrow, ''Saints and their Communities: miracle stories in twelfth century England'', "Hermann of Tournai and the relic tours" 2006:75–99.</ref> He wrote the account in the 1140s,<ref>G. Niemayer, ""Die Miracula S. Mariae Laudunensis des Abtes Hermann von Tournai", ''Deutsches Archiv für geschichte'' '''27''' (1971:125-74) offers a full account of Herman's life, his authorship and the date, according to Yarrow (76 note 64).</ref> [[pseudepigraph]]ically, as if by a canon of the cathedral: in his address to Bartholomew he asserts, "I was reluctant to put my small name beneath them, so I have washed these miracles by a pretext under the name of the [[Canon (priest)|canons]] of the [[Laon Cathedral|church]]."<ref>Quoted in Yarrow 2006:76.</ref>

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[[Category:1095 births]]
[[Category:1147 deaths]]
[[Category:French chroniclers]]
[[Category:Writers from Tournai]]