The lives of the saints are replete with stories of notorious sinners who became exemplars of Catholicism. Few, though, are so unusual as that of Hermann Cohen, Jewish child prodigy of the piano and gambling addict turned champion of the Eucharist and promoter of nocturnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Born at Hamburg on November 10, 1821 into a rich Jewish family, Cohen was a Liszt-like prodigy. A year after beginning to play the piano he was able to improvise on popular arias, to the amazement of all. Soon he was giving regular concerts. Spoilt and revered by his mother, he became, by his own description, “the tyrant of the family”.
