Hermann Cohen (Hamburg, 1820 — Spandau, 1871), known in religion as Brother Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, was one of the most prodigious children of Romantic Paris before becoming one of the greatest artisans of the 19th-century Catholic Eucharistic revival. The son of a Jewish family from Hamburg, a virtuoso pianist trained by Franz Liszt himself — who affectionately nicknamed him "Puzzi" —, he knew at twenty the salons, budding glory and gambling debts, before undergoing in 1847 a shattering conversion before the Blessed Sacrament exposed.[1][2]
Baptized on August 28, 1847, he renounced his virtuoso career to enter the Discalced Carmelites, where he received the name of Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament. Ordained priest in 1851, he became one of the great itinerant preachers of Catholic Europe, founded in France the Nocturnal Adoration — from which the perpetual adoration of Montmartre would later spring —, restored Carmel in Lyon and then in London, and formed friendships with the Curé of Ars and Pope Pius IX.[3][4]
His life ended in 1871 in a gesture of extreme charity: voluntary chaplain to the French prisoners interned at Spandau during the Franco-Prussian War, he contracted smallpox while caring for them and died singing the Salve Regina.[5][6] His remains rest today at the monastery of Le Broussey, in Gironde, where his cause for beatification — opened on January 19, 2016 by the Archdiocese of Bordeaux — now earns him the title of Servant of God.[7]
This Ignispedia article belongs to the series devoted to the Servants of God whose causes are underway, alongside for instance the Servant of God Therese Neumann. It tells the life of an extraordinary convert, whose witness sheds light on the history of Judaism and Christianity in the 19th century, the spirituality of Eucharistic adoration and the concrete experience of abandonment to God's will.
A Child Prodigy in Reformed Judaism in Hamburg (1820-1834)
Birth into a Jewish Family in Hamburg
Hermann Cohen was born on November 10, 1820 in Hamburg, then a free city of the German Confederation, into a well-to-do Jewish family attached to Reformed Judaism.[8] His father, David Abraham Cohen, was a merchant and banker; his mother, Rosalie Benjamin, is described by his biographers as an energetic woman, entirely devoted to her son's budding career.[9] Hermann grew up with a sister, Henriette, to whom he would remain very close all his life.[10]
A Precocious Musical Gift
From the age of four, the child showed extraordinary dispositions for the piano.[11] At six, reports the Carmelites' official biography, he already played "all the fashionable opera tunes" and improvised with an ease that stunned those around him.[12] His first public concerts, given at seven in Altona and Frankfurt, confirmed a talent his parents decided to place at the service of a great European career.[13]
To finance the family's move to Paris, his mother obtained the patronage of two German grand dukes, George of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Frederick Francis I of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who were won over by the child's talent.[14] The family settled in Paris in July 1834: Hermann was thirteen.
Franz Liszt's Favorite Pupil (1834-1841)
Refused by the Conservatory: Meeting Liszt
As a foreigner, young Hermann was refused admission to the Paris Conservatory.[15] His mother then turned to Franz Liszt, already famous despite his young age, and managed to persuade him to take the child as a private pupil.[16] Liszt thus became, for seven years, young Cohen's master, mentor and almost adoptive father.
"Puzzi": the Darling of the Romantic Salons
Liszt affectionately nicknamed his pupil "Puzzi" — a diminutive of the German Putzig, "cute little one," a pet name his own master Carl Czerny had already used for him.[17] The little prodigy became the darling of Romantic Paris: George Sand, close to Liszt, nicknamed him "the melancholy Puzzi," and the Abbé de Lamennais gave him a dedicated copy of his Words of a Believer inscribed "A keepsake offered to my dear little Puzzi".[18][19] The child thus rubbed shoulders with the greatest musicians of his time — Chopin, Mendelssohn, Paganini — and traveled across Europe on concert tours, notably alongside Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult.[20][21] On October 1, 1835, in Geneva, he played his part in a concert given with Liszt under the patronage of Princess Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso.[22]
Gambling Debts and a Dissolute Life
But success went to the adolescent's head. The biography published by Carmel in France pulls no punches: "intoxicated by success, he soon became 'the tyrant of the family'", giving himself over to "a passion for gambling, in which he ran up debts" and gradually neglecting his talents.[23] He himself would later admit it without evasion:
"My music lessons brought me money, and money gave me pleasures." — Hermann Cohen[24]
"My life was then a complete abandonment to every whim." — Hermann Cohen[25]
Gambling debts piled up; concert tours served increasingly to pay them off rather than to nourish an art from which the young man was turning away.
The Break with Liszt (1841)
In 1841, in Dresden, Cohen was accused of having pocketed part of a concert's proceeds.[26] Unable to convince his master of his innocence, he broke with Liszt in bitter circumstances which he would later describe, with some exaggeration, as a "plot hatched in hell"[27]. He was then only twenty-one, and found himself alone, without a master, with a damaged reputation.
Wandering Years and Grace's Silent Approach (1841-1847)
Five Years of Touring Without a Compass
From 1841 to 1846, Cohen kept traveling across Europe — Venice, Paris, London — accompanied by his mother and his sister Henriette, giving concerts and composing salon pieces.[28] Outwardly brilliant, this period was inwardly empty: the young man dimly felt that worldly life answered nothing essential.
Giving Up Céleste Mogador
Back in Paris in the autumn of 1846, Cohen fell in love with the circus rider Céleste Mogador.[29] Against all expectations, he broke off this liaison, as if seized by the feeling that he must henceforth place his life in hands surer than his own — a first gesture, still obscure in his own eyes, of abandonment to a will beyond him.
Directing the Choir at Sainte-Valère: the Upheaval of May 1847
The decisive episode came in May 1847. A Catholic friend asked Cohen, as a musician, to come and direct the choir during a Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Sainte-Valère church in Paris.[30][31] The young man accepted without seeing any harm in it — one musical service among others. But at the moment of the Benediction, something happened which he would never be able to explain fully:
"My mind found itself as if troubled, so to speak, and withdrawn from the agitation of the world, penetrated by something totally unknown to it until then." — Hermann Cohen[32]
He came back, intrigued, to the following services. One evening, before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, while the other faithful were kneeling, he in turn felt the need to kneel — he who, moments earlier, had remained standing out of reserve.[33] The account published by Carmel in France reports that "this time, he fell to his knees," seized by a peace of unknown depth.[34] Cohen himself would later compare this experience to that of the prodigal son suddenly coming face to face with himself.[35]
Ems, August 1847: the Decision to Convert
The experience repeated and clarified itself over the following weeks. Cohen left to take the waters at Ems, in Germany; it was there, by his own account, that the thought of conversion imposed itself on him with new clarity:
"The next day, I had the same experience and, suddenly, the thought touched me to become a Catholic." — Hermann Cohen[36]
On his return to Paris, the temptations of the world assailed him one last time — "concerts, parties, pleasure outings came assailing him anew," notes the Carmelite biography — but without managing to erase what had happened before the Blessed Sacrament.[37] Cohen was introduced to Father Marie-Théodore Ratisbonne, himself a priest from a converted Jewish family and founder, with his brother Alphonse Ratisbonne — whose spectacular conversion in Rome in 1842 had remained famous —, of the congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion.[38] Ratisbonne entrusted him to Abbé Legrand, who methodically instructed him in Catholic doctrine.[39][40]
Baptism and Entry into the Catholic Church (1847-1849)
Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation
Hermann Cohen was baptized on August 28, 1847, the feast day of Saint Augustine, in the chapel of Notre-Dame de Sion in Paris, under the names Marie-Augustin-Henri.[41][42] His godmother was the Duchess of Rauzan; among the witnesses present was Alphonse Ratisbonne himself, surrounded by several Catholics of Jewish origin.[43][44] By his own account, at the moment of baptism he experienced a grace of overwhelming intensity, like an inward vision of Christ, the Virgin and the saints "bathed in radiant light," accompanied by a feeling of love that submerged him.[45]
He received his First Communion on September 8, 1847, then Confirmation on December 3, 1847 from the Archbishop of Paris, Msgr Denis-Auguste Affre[46][47] — the very man who, the following year, would be killed by a stray bullet while trying to interpose himself on the barricades of the June 1848 uprising.
Choosing Carmel over Solesmes or the Dominicans
As soon as he was confirmed, supported by Vicar General de la Bouillerie, Cohen threw himself into promoting nocturnal adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the very mystery that had led him to the faith.[48] But he also felt growing within him a call to religious life. He first turned to the Benedictines of Solesmes, who declined his request, then consulted Father Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, who suggested an order with a more eremitical spirituality.[49] Cohen then turned to the Discalced Carmelites, drawn by their contemplative ideal rooted in the figure of the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel.[50]
The canon law of the time requiring a pontifical dispensation for the entrance into religion of a recent convert, Cohen obtained it and gave a final farewell concert to pay off his youthful debts before leaving the musical stage for good.[51]
The Pontifical Dispensation and the Broussey Novitiate
After about two years devoted to clearing his debts and preparing himself, Hermann Cohen entered the Carmelite novitiate of Le Broussey, at Rions (Gironde).[52][53] He received the religious habit on October 6, 1849 and the name of Brother Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament.[54][55] He was twenty-eight years old.
Brother Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament (1849-1851)
Profession and Ordination Despite a Shortened Education
Cohen made his religious profession on October 7, 1850.[56][57] Remarkably, as all his biographers stress, his schooling had stopped at around the age of ten, entirely swallowed up as it had been by his musical career.[58] Thanks to dispensations from the course of studies and hard work catching up in theology, he was nevertheless ordained priest on April 19, 1851.[59][60]
A Former Virtuoso at the Service of the Altar
The convert who had once thrilled the salons of Europe now placed his art entirely at the service of the liturgy: throughout his life he would compose a good number of hymns and frequently improvise at the organ before his sermons — improvisations his confreres described "as the expression of his inward self-emptying".[61] Liszt's star pianist had become a religious who played for God alone.
| Collection or sacred work | Year | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Gloire à Marie | 1849 | 32 Marian hymns |
| Amour à Jésus-Christ | 1851 | 32 hymns and 8 motets |
| Messa a Tre Voci | 1852 | Mass for three voices |
| Fleurs du Carmel | 1869 | 19 hymns and 6 motets |
| Thabor | 1870 | 20 hymns and 1 motet |
This catalogue, modest beside a virtuoso career cut short at twenty-seven, says enough: conversion did not extinguish the musician — it simply changed his sole listener.[62]
The Founder of Nocturnal Adoration (1848-1860)
Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, December 6, 1848
Without waiting to enter Carmel, Hermann Cohen — still a newly converted layman — founded, on December 6, 1848, the men's Nocturnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris.[63][64] The initiative answered a simple but novel intuition for the time: to gather men, lay and religious alike, to keep watch at night before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, in reparation and thanksgiving.
A Work Destined for Universal Reach
The work quickly spread through the parishes of France. Thirty years later, on December 6, 1878 — the anniversary day —, it would give birth to the work of Adoration on the hill of Montmartre, whose influence became truly universal.[65] The chain of perpetual adoration in the basilica has continued day and night without interruption since August 1, 1885.[66] Thus the intuition of a twenty-eight-year-old young convert lives on, a century and a half later, in one of the greatest Eucharistic works of the Church in France — a development that can today be reread in light of what the saints say about Eucharistic adoration.
What Father Hermann Said of the Eucharist and of Himself
Having become a religious, Cohen never ceased to look with lucidity at the road traveled since his worldly life:
"When you knew me, I was a prey to every sort of intemperate pleasure-seeking, irregularity and excess." — Father Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament[67]
He readily acknowledged, with an uncomplacent humility, that grace had not erased his temperament in one stroke: his confreres still described him as "eager, domineering and inclined to exaggeration," a character religious life had patiently to polish.[68] Of the detachment to which he aspired in his ministry, he confided:
"I am detached from everything, even from my own works, and I daily tell Our Lord that I am completely indifferent." — Father Augustine-Mary[69]
The same Eucharistic confidence bore his intercession for his own mother, who had remained Jewish. Arnaud Dumouch reports the following testimony, dated 1864: prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament after his mother's death without visible conversion, Father Hermann is said to have heard a voice assuring him that his prayer had been answered at the final hour[70]:
"At the moment she was expiring, I presented myself to her, she saw me and cried out: 'My Lord and my God!' Take courage then, your mother has escaped damnation and your fervent supplications will soon deliver her soul from the prison of purgatory."[71]
The Tireless Preacher of Catholic Europe (1851-1862)
Foundations: Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Lyon, Tarasteix
Now one of the most sought-after preachers of his time, Father Hermann traveled across France and Europe — Geneva, Bordeaux, Lyon, Paris, where he preached notably at Saint-Sulpice and Sainte-Clotilde.[72] The poet Charles Baudelaire himself said he was fascinated by his sermons.[73] He founded or restored several Carmelite houses: the convent of Bagnères-de-Bigorre (1853), the Carmelite convent of Lyon (1857-1859) and the desert (hermitage) of Tarasteix, not far from Lourdes (1857).[74][75]
| Foundation or mission | Year | Father Hermann's role |
|---|---|---|
| Convent of Bagnères-de-Bigorre | 1853 | Foundation |
| Carmelite convent of Lyon | 1857-1859 | Restoration and direction |
| Desert (hermitage) of Tarasteix, near Lourdes | 1857 | Foundation |
| Carmelite convent of London | 1862 | Restoration of the order in England |
Friend of the Holy Curé of Ars and Protector of Bernadette Soubirous
His reputation for holiness earned him the friendship of figures of the very first rank. He is described as an "intimate friend" of Saint John Mary Vianney, the holy Curé of Ars, whom he visited at the shrine of Ars and with whom he shared the same burning devotion to the Eucharist; encouraged by the holy Curé, he founded the confraternity of thanksgiving, meant to thank the Lord for the gift of His Real Presence.[76] The same source reports that he was also the "spiritual confidant of the lowly as well as the great" and the "protector of young Bernadette Soubirous at a time when she had to face the assaults of skeptics," in 1858 — the very year of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes to young Bernadette.[77] He is also said to have enjoyed the friendship of Pope Pius IX.[78]
Reconciliation with Liszt in Rome (June 1862)
After the painful break of 1841, correspondence had gradually resumed between the master and the former pupil from 1852 onward.[79] In June 1862, the two men finally met again in Rome, where Liszt — already wholly turned toward religious life, three years before receiving the tonsure and minor orders in 1865[80] — spent three weeks with Father Hermann, between music and walks at the Colosseum.[81] The musical genius and the Carmelite recovered, by the favor of grace, the friendship broken by youth.
Restoring Carmel in England (1862-1868)
Seven Pounds in His Pocket: Arriving in London
At the request of Cardinal Wiseman and with the blessing of Pope Pius IX, Father Hermann was sent to re-establish the Carmelite order in England, dissolved since the English Reformation.[82] He landed in London in 1862 with, it is said, seven pounds sterling in his pocket.[83] There he opened a new priory and organized the first public Catholic procession in English streets since Tudor times.[84]
Newgate: the Six Condemned Men and Father Hermann's Courage
In 1864, Father Hermann went to Newgate prison in London to administer the last sacraments to six Catholic sailors condemned to death and about to be hanged.[85] Braving a hostile crowd that jeered him, he accompanied the condemned to the very end; the London newspaper The Times publicly praised his courage.[86]
The Tarasteix Hermitage and the Lourdes Healing (1867-1870)
Two Years of Greater Solitude
From 1867-1868 onward, exhausted by years of unceasing preaching, Father Hermann withdrew for a time of greater solitude to the desert of Tarasteix, near Lourdes.[87][88]
Healing of Glaucoma at the Grotto (November 1, 1868)
It was during this period that he was struck with glaucoma. Refusing the surgical operation proposed to him, he went on pilgrimage to the grotto of Lourdes and washed his eyes in the miraculous spring: his sight, report several biographers, was restored to him on the spot, on November 1, 1868.[89][90]
Novice Master at Le Broussey
In 1870, his superiors called him back to Le Broussey to become first definitor and novice master[91] — charged, henceforth, with passing on to young Carmelites the spiritual path he had himself traveled since his conversion.
War, Spandau and Death as a Servant of Charity (1870-1871)
Exile in Geneva
The Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870. A German subject by birth, Father Hermann had to leave France despite a possible exemption and the presence in France of his family of spiritual adoption; he chose exile in Geneva in October 1870.[92][93]
Voluntary Chaplain to the French Prisoners of Spandau
Learning that several thousand French soldiers were held prisoner in the Spandau citadel, near Berlin — up to 5,000 to 6,000 men according to the sources —, he volunteered, in November 1870, to become their chaplain.[94][95] Once there, he devoted himself unsparingly: distribution of relief, daily Mass followed, it is said, by several hundred prisoners, spiritual comfort brought tirelessly to defeated men, far from their own, in severely degraded sanitary conditions — a smallpox epidemic then raging in the citadel.[96]
Smallpox and Death to the Chant of the Salve Regina (January 20, 1871)
In caring for the infected, Father Hermann in turn contracted smallpox.[97][98] After a few weeks of illness, he received Communion one last time. According to the account published by Carmel in France:
"Strengthened by the presence of his Savior, he gave his soul back to God to the chant of the Salve Regina."[99]
He died on January 20, 1871, at the age of fifty — some French sources retain the previous day, January 19, as the date of death, the nuance doubtless depending on the hour of death relative to the last Communion.[100][101] A Carmelite confrere left this testimony of him:
"It is my belief that he possessed every virtue in a sublime even heroic degree."[102]
The Catholic layman Louis Veuillot, who had known him well, would add:
"I loved and admired him. He was full of simplicity and candor, humility and the love of all that is good." — Louis Veuillot[103]
Burial and Ongoing Beatification
From Spandau to Berlin, then Back to Le Broussey
Father Hermann was first buried in the crypt of Saint Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin.[104][105] After the partial destruction of the cathedral by the bombing of March 2, 1943, his remains were transferred to the adjoining cemetery.[106] On December 2, 2008, his relics were exhumed and repatriated to France; they were definitively reinterred on April 15, 2010 in the church of the Le Broussey monastery, in Gironde — the very place where, in 1849, the young convert had taken the religious habit, and where he had ended his active life as novice master.[107]
Servant of God: Opening of the Cause (2016)
On January 19, 2016, the Archdiocese of Bordeaux officially opened the diocesan process toward a possible beatification of Father Hermann Cohen.[108] Since that date, he bears the title of Servant of God, the first step on the long canonical path which, if Rome judges it fitting, may one day lead him to venerability and then beatification.[109] Father Hermann's journey is today illuminated by a reference scholarly biography, supported by the edition of his general correspondence.[110][111]
The Church, faithful to her customary prudence in handling causes, prejudges nothing as to the outcome of the process: the opening of a cause means only that a bishop judges the reputation for holiness sufficiently established for a rigorous inquiry to be conducted — not that the Servant of God's heroic sanctity has already been recognized by the Magisterium.
What the Servant of God Hermann Cohen Teaches Today
Father Hermann Cohen's life can be summed up in a striking contrast: the child prodigy of Parisian salons turned beggar of the Eucharist, Liszt's adored pupil turned silent Carmelite, the indebted gambler turned chaplain to defeated prisoners. Three traits in particular remain fruitful for today's reader:
- Conversion does not destroy talents, it converts them. Cohen never ceased to be a musician: he simply placed his art entirely at the service of the altar, composing hymns and improvising at the organ "as the expression of his inward self-emptying."
- Eucharistic adoration concretely changes a life. It was neither reasoning nor controversy that overturned Hermann Cohen, but a silent moment before the Blessed Sacrament exposed — an experience he would then devote his life to offering others through Nocturnal Adoration.
- Charity to the very end, even toward the enemy. A German subject, Father Hermann freely chose to serve French prisoners defeated by his own country of birth, even unto death: a charity that knows no borders and no national grudges.
"I am detached from everything, even from my own works, and I daily tell Our Lord that I am completely indifferent." — Father Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament[112]
Further Reading
- Eucharistic Adoration — the central mystery that overturned Hermann Cohen's life and to making it known he devoted his religious life.
- What Do the Saints Say about Eucharistic Adoration? — other voices of saints and mystics on that same mystery.
- Order of Carmel — the religious family Father Hermann joined in 1849 under the name of Brother Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament.
- Saint John of the Cross — reformer of the Discalced Carmel whose eremitical ideal drew Father Hermann to this order rather than to Solesmes or the Dominicans.
- Saint John Mary Vianney — the holy Curé of Ars, intimate friend of Father Hermann and companion of his Eucharistic devotion.
- Saint Bernadette Soubirous — the young seer of Lourdes whom Father Hermann protected in 1858 against the skeptics.
- Our Lady of Lourdes — the shrine where Father Hermann was healed of glaucoma on November 1, 1868.
- The Miraculous Medal — the account of Alphonse Ratisbonne's conversion; Ratisbonne was present at Hermann Cohen's baptism in 1847.
- Servant of God Therese Neumann — another great contemporary cause for beatification still open today.
- Blessed Frédéric Ozanam — another great Catholic figure of 19th-century Paris, a contemporary of Father Hermann.
Notes and References
Benedict Zimmerman, "Hermann Cohen," Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4, New York, Robert Appleton Company, 1908-1913: newadvent.org. Reference notice: born in Hamburg on November 10, 1820, died in Spandau on January 20, 1871; son of a Jewish merchant, trained in music by Liszt in Paris; experience of grace in May 1847 while directing the choir at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in Sainte-Valère church; stay at Ems then decision to become a Christian; baptized on August 28, 1847; founding with de la Bouillerie of nocturnal adoration; entrance to the Broussey novitiate; profession on October 7, 1850; ordained priest on April 19. Foundations of Bagnères-de-Bigorre (1853), Lyon (1857), the Tarasteix desert near Lourdes (1857) and London (1862). Buried in the crypt of Saint Hedwig's church in Berlin after contracting smallpox in the Spandau lazaret.
1 30 48 56 59 64 74 101Wikipedia (FR), "Hermann Cohen (pianiste)": fr.wikipedia.org. Synthesis encyclopedia article — born November 10, 1820 in Hamburg; musical training with Liszt in Paris from 1834; break with Liszt in 1841; conversion in 1847 during a Benediction at Saint-Valère church then at Ems; baptism on August 28, 1847 under the name Marie-Augustin-Henri at Notre-Dame de Sion; confirmation on December 3, 1847 by Msgr Affre; entrance among the Discalced Carmelites; preaching across Europe; reconciliation with Liszt in Rome in 1862; mission in England and the Newgate prison incident in 1864; healing at Lourdes; exile in Geneva in 1870; death in Spandau; successive burials in Berlin then at Le Broussey in 2010; opening of the beatification cause in 2016.
2 42 46 62 75 105Carmel in France (carmel.asso.fr), "Vie d'Hermann Cohen": carmel.asso.fr. Official biography from the order of Discalced Carmelites in France — born November 10, 1820 in Hamburg into a distinguished Jewish family; child prodigy noticed by Liszt, nicknamed "the melancholy Puzzi" by George Sand; worldly life, passion for gambling, debts; conversion in May-August 1847 while directing a choir at Sainte-Valère church, peace before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, religious instruction and inward struggles; baptism on August 28, 1847, First Communion on September 8, confirmation by the Archbishop of Paris; founding of men's Nocturnal Adoration on December 6, 1848 at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, at the origin of the Montmartre adoration instituted on December 6, 1878; discovery of Saint John of the Cross and entrance to the Carmelite novitiate of Le Broussey; reception of the habit and name of Brother Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament; ordination on April 19, 1851; preaching across France and Europe, foundations in Lyon and London; intimate friend of the holy Curé of Ars (founding of the confraternity of thanksgiving), spiritual confidant and protector of young Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, friend of Pope Pius IX; composer of hymns and organ improviser; retreat at the Holy Desert of Tarasteix from 1868, recall to Le Broussey as novice master; 1870 Franco-Prussian War, exile in Switzerland, chaplaincy to the French prisoners of the Spandau citadel, smallpox contagion and death on January 19, 1871 to the chant of the Salve Regina.
3 5 12 19 20 23 31 34 37 52 55 61 63 65 76 77 78 87 93 95 97 99 100Carmel in Switzerland (lecarmel.ch), "Le Père Hermann Cohen (1820-1871)," March 2018: lecarmel.ch. Detailed chronology — born in Hamburg in 1820; Liszt's pupil at thirteen; conversion in May 1847; baptism on August 28, 1847; First Communion on September 8, 1847; confirmation by Msgr Affre on December 3, 1847; reception of the habit at the Broussey novitiate on October 6, 1849; religious profession on October 7, 1850; diaconal then priestly ordination in 1851; preaching tours from 1853; restoration of the Carmelite order in London in 1862; miraculous healing of glaucoma at Lourdes on November 1, 1868; appointed first definitor and novice master in 1870; death in Spandau on January 20, 1871 of smallpox contracted while caring for prisoners; opening on January 19, 2016 in Bordeaux of the diocesan process toward a possible beatification.
4 7 47 54 57 60 89 91 108 109Wikipedia (EN), "Hermann Cohen (Carmelite)": en.wikipedia.org. Very detailed encyclopedia article (cross-checked sources: Liszt, Friedman, Cross, Zimmerman) — family of Reformed Jewish bankers in Hamburg (father David Abraham Cohen, mother Rosalie Benjamin, sister Henriette); patronage of the Mecklenburg grand dukes for the move to Paris in July 1834; nickname "Puzzi" given by Liszt (after the nickname Czerny gave Liszt), Lamennais dedication, concert of October 1, 1835 in Geneva under Princess Belgiojoso's patronage; gambling debts, liaison with a married woman, accusation of embezzlement in Dresden in 1841 and break with Liszt ("a plot hatched in hell"); liaison with Céleste Mogador in 1846; conversion at Sainte-Valérie church in May 1847, introduction to Théodore Ratisbonne and Abbé Legrand, baptism on August 28, 1847 in the presence of Alphonse Ratisbonne, confirmation on December 3, 1847 by Msgr Affre; approaches to Solesmes then to Lacordaire before entering the Discalced Carmelites; novitiate at Le Broussey, profession on October 7, 1850, ordination on April 19, 1851 despite schooling ended around age ten; preaching in Geneva, Bordeaux, Lyon, Paris (Saint-Sulpice, Sainte-Clotilde), Baudelaire's interest; foundations of Bagnères-de-Bigorre (1853), Lyon (1857), Tarasteix (1857); reconciliation with Liszt in Rome in June 1862; mission in England at Cardinal Wiseman's request with Pius IX's blessing, arrival in London in 1862 with seven pounds, first public Catholic procession since the Tudors; Newgate prison episode in 1864 praised by The Times; retreat at Tarasteix from 1867, glaucoma and reported healing at Lourdes; novice master at Le Broussey in 1869-1870; Franco-Prussian War, exile in Geneva in October 1870, voluntary chaplaincy to the French prisoners of Spandau (5,000 to 6,000 men) from November 1870; smallpox contagion, death on January 19 or 20, 1871; burial in the crypt of Saint Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin, transfer to the adjoining cemetery after the bombing of March 2, 1943, exhumation on December 2, 2008 and reinterment at Le Broussey on April 15, 2010; opening of the beatification cause in 2016, status of Servant of God.
6 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 21 22 26 27 28 29 35 40 41 44 45 49 50 51 53 58 72 73 79 81 82 83 84 85 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 104 106 107Aleteia (fr.aleteia.org), "L'incroyable conversion d'Hermann Cohen, pianiste surdoué devenu carme," June 8, 2020: fr.aleteia.org. Account of the conversion — Jewish merchant family of Hamburg amid rising antisemitism; child prodigy, Liszt's pupil; move to Paris in 1834; worldly life in the salons of the Faubourg Saint-Germain; direct quotations: "My music lessons brought me money, and money gave me pleasures" and "My life was then a complete abandonment to every whim"; episode of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Saint-Valère church in 1847 and the inward turmoil felt; sacramental stages (baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, ordination); entrance to Carmel in 1849 under the name Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament; part in developing nocturnal adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
24 25 33Elias Friedman, O.C.D., "Hermann Cohen OCD," Association of Hebrew Catholics (hebrewcatholic.net), May 3, 2013: hebrewcatholic.net. Spiritual notice quoting letters and testimonies in English — conversion experience reported in 1847 ("My mind found itself perturbed, so to speak, and withdrawn from the agitation of the world, penetrated by something totally unknown to it previously"; "The following day, I had the same experience and, suddenly, the thought touched me to become a Catholic"); baptism on August 28, 1847 at the Notre-Dame de Sion chapel; establishment of nocturnal adoration, extended to London in 1863; Father Hermann's self-criticism of his past life ("When you knew me, I was a prey to every sort of intemperate pleasure-seeking, irregularity and excess") and of his incompletely transformed character ("eager, domineering and inclined to exaggeration"); words on apostolic detachment ("I am detached from everything, even from my own works and I daily tell Our Lord that I am completely indifferent"); on friendship ("I find pious attachments of long standing very consoling to me. Long live old friends!"); Louis Veuillot's testimony ("I loved and admired him. He was full of simplicity and candor, humility and the love of all that is good"); death of smallpox contracted while caring for French prisoners in Spandau while dressing a wound on the hand, on January 19, 1870 (sic, a misprint for 1871); testimony of a Carmelite confrere ("It is my belief that he possessed every virtue in a sublime even heroic degree").
32 36 67 68 69 102 103 112Wikipedia (EN), "Marie-Théodore Ratisbonne": en.wikipedia.org. Notice on the priest Théodore Ratisbonne, a converted Jew, founder with his brother Alphonse Ratisbonne — whose conversion in Rome in 1842 after an apparition of the Virgin remained famous — of the congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion; Théodore Ratisbonne's role in Hermann Cohen's Catholic instruction in 1847, entrusting him to Abbé Legrand; Alphonse Ratisbonne's presence at Cohen's baptism on August 28, 1847 at the Notre-Dame de Sion chapel, surrounded by several Catholics of Jewish origin.
38 39 43National Catholic Register, "'We Never Leave the Lord Alone': 135 Years of Eucharistic Adoration at Sacré-Cœur": read online. Chain of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the basilica of the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre, Paris, continued without interruption since August 1, 1885.
66Arnaud Dumouch, Le retour du Christ en gloire, un événement vécu à l'heure de la mort comme à la fin du monde, suivi du Traité des fins dernières, Paris, 1992, p. 139. Reported account of Father Hermann Cohen's testimony (1864): after his mother's death without visible conversion, complaint before the Blessed Sacrament, reported voice announcing that at the moment of expiring she had cried out "My Lord and my God!" and that his supplications would soon deliver her soul from purgatory, then a second apparition announcing her ascent to Heaven; the work cites no primary source here.
70 71Catholic Encyclopedia, "Franz Liszt": read online. Minor orders received from Cardinal Hohenlohe in his private chapel at the Vatican on April 25, 1865; cf. Hyperion Records notes (CDA68202): tonsure and first minor orders in April 1865, beginning of his life as "Abbé Liszt."
80Stéphane-Marie Morgain, O.C.D., Le Père Hermann Cohen (1820-1871). Un romantique au Carmel, Paris, Parole et Silence, 2019. Reference scholarly biography of Father Hermann's journey, supported by his correspondence; presentation of the work: vies-consacrees.be.
110Stéphane-Marie Morgain (ed.), Hermann Cohen (Augustin-Marie du Très-Saint-Sacrement): Correspondance générale (1835-1871), Éditions du Carmel. Edition of Father Hermann Cohen's general correspondence, the primary reference source for his biography and spirituality.
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