A TREASURE IN JARS OF CLAY
Herman “the Cripple” Called to Look Upward

Curated by Gaia Aulino, Pier Paolo Bellini, Marco Bernardi, Marco Bersanelli, Sara Bosi, Maria Giulia Cotini, Anna Cova, Massimiliano Del Corso, Davide De Santis, Adolf Diefenhardt, Paolo Fini, Marco Gozzi, Cristiana Lanzarini, Chiara Locatelli, Caterina Malandri, Adriano Mancini, Paola Navotti, Isacco Neri, Luigi Orioli, Paolo Prosperi, Andreas Schmid, Dorothe Schmid, Pietro Sempio, Paolo Zambelli

Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians introduces this exhibition dedicated to Ermanno “the crippled”, a Benedictine monk from the Monastery of Reichenau in the 11th century, marked by a severe disability, yet a witness to a full life: a fragile and powerful life, raising questions and offering promises for us all.
Don Giussani, through Cyril Martindale, introduced him to many. He does not portray him as a hero who defies and overcomes limitations, but as a living person—alive because embraced.
This sparked a deep desire to discover who Ermanno “the crippled” really was and to bring to him the most heartfelt questions, the ones that arise from experience:
How can one stand before the mystery of disability and suffering without despairing?
Is it possible to live limitations as an invitation to fullness?
Where can dignity be found when everything seems to deny it?
The exhibition is a journey to uncover the source of the positivity Ermanno communicated to those around him. A life entirely oriented toward “looking upward”—whether studying the stars, investigating providence in history, composing hymns to praise God, or invoking help in suffering.
This fullness of life gave rise to popular devotion, which spread rapidly throughout the region.
His story points to living experiences today: faces and places that share Ermanno’s same struggles and testify that every life, even the most fragile, when lived in this way, is an ongoing miracle.