Himerius of Cremona

Saint Himerius of Cremona (Imier, Imerio), also called Himerius of Amelia, was a bishop in Italy who died on 17 June, around the year 560. Our sources show him venerated by the Roman Catholic Church and by Orthodox communities of the Western Rite. The birth year 401 on the record does not fit the rest, and the Russian source says that he was bishop of Amelia around 520.

He was a native of Bruttium (today Calabria) and first a hermit, then a monk, probably at the monastery of San Giuliano on Monteluco near Spoleto, or at San Pietro in Valle in the Nera valley near Terni, before being elected bishop of Amelia. He is described as an extremely austere and ascetic man. Little is known of his life.

His name does not appear in the ancient martyrologies, but he was entered in the Roman Martyrology of Baronius, on 17 June. An abbot named Ambrose, who lived in the twelfth century, wrote a Life of Himerius, of which only the prologue survives. Later, Bishop Antonio Maria Graziani of Amelia (1592 to 1611) wrote another biography.

Around 965 his relics were moved from Amelia to Cremona by Bishop Liutprand (bishop of Cremona from 962 to 972). They were interred in a church later destroyed by the earthquake of 3 January 1117. Rediscovered in 1129, they were placed in a sepulchre, and miracles were reported at it. A monk named John composed, in the twelfth century, in the time of Bishop Offredo (1168 to 1185), a collection of miracles worked by the saint after the rediscovery of the relics. In 1196 Bishop Sicard placed the relics of Himerius in a stone archway together with those of a martyr, Archelaus, and consecrated an altar in their honour. Until the seventeenth century he was the sole patron of Cremona; then Sant'Omobono was also chosen, and now Himerius is patron of the city together with him.

In the presbytery of Cremona Cathedral there is a relief by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, Bishop Himerius distributing alms. The monastery of Sant'Imerio was built in Cremona in 1606 for the Discalced Carmelites. Himerius is also venerated as patron of the town of Amelia and of other localities, among them Offlaga, and at Soncino his commemoration is kept on the third Sunday of October.