Judoc
| Saint Jodoc | |
|---|---|
 A 16th-century portrayal of Saint Judoc by the Master of Meßkirch. | |
| Born | Brittany, France |
| Died |
c.668 Ponthieu, France |
| Venerated in |
Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast |
13 December |
| Attributes | pilgrim's staff; a crown at his feet |
Saint Judoc or Saint Joyce (Latin: Iudocus; traditionally c. 600 – 668 AD)[1] was a seventh-century Breton noble and is considered a Catholic saint, though he was never canonized.[2] Judoc is believed to be the son of Saint Judicael, King of Brittany. Judoc renounced the crown to become a priest and live as a hermit[3] in the coastal forest near the mouth of the River Canche.
Etymology
The name Judoc, meaning "lord", is the 14th century Breton version of Iudocus in Latin, Josse in French, Jost, Joost, or Joos in Dutch and Joyce in English. The name was rarely used after the 14th century except in the Netherlands.
Biography
According to tradition, Judoc was the son of Saint Judicael, King of Brittany. His brothers were Alain II Hir and Saint Winnoc. In about 636, Judoc renounced his inheritance and wealth, and went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He was ordained as a priest during this voyage and became a hermit in Ponthieu, Saint-Josse-sur-Mer. Judoc died there, and folklore had it that his body was incorruptible.[4] It is believed that his bread and hair continued to grow after death, which his followers proceeded to cut.[5]
Veneration
Saint Judoc, never formally canonized, developed a local cultus. The Abbey of Saint-Josse, beginning as a small monastery on the site of his retreat, was built in the eighth century at the place where Judoc's shrine was kept. In 903, some monks of the abbey, fleeing the Norman raiders, took refuge in England, bearing his relics. The tradition of the New Minster of Hyde in Winchester (founded 901), was that the relics were translated there by St Grimbald, and the date was commemorated annually, on 9 January.[6] These feasts were accorded high rank at the cathedral.[5]
From France, the veneration of Saint Josse spread through the Low Countries, England, Germany, and Scandinavia, regions where variations of Josse, Joyce, Joos, Joost, and the diminutive Jocelyn,[7] became popular names for both men and women, and chapels and churches were dedicated to him.
The mal Saint Josse was the term for illness resulting from snakebite, against which the saint's name was invoked by the fifteenth-century French poet Eustache Deschamps in an imprecatory ballade:[8] "...Du mau saint Leu, de l'esvertin, Du saint Josse et saint Matelin... soit maistre Mahieu confondus!".[9] According to Alban Butler, the abbey was given by Charlemagne to Alcuin and functioned as a hostel for those crossing the English Channel; it became a centre of pilgrimage, especially popular with Flemish and Germans in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
La vie de Saint Josse was written in Old French verses by the learned and competent poet and translator, Pierre de Beauvais, in the thirteenth century.[10]
The Suaire de St-Josse, the "Shroud of Saint Judoc ", now conserved in the Musée du Louvre, is a rich silk samite saddle cloth which was woven in northeastern Iran, some time before 961. This was used to wrap the bones of Saint Judoc when he was reinterred in 1134.[11]
The abbey was closed in 1772, sold and then dismantled in 1789, leaving no traces of the monumental buildings; the abbey church became the parish church of the French commune of Saint-Josse.
Saint Judoc or Josse has his feast-day on 13 December.
Cultural depictions
Cultural depictions usually portray him holding the pilgrim's staff. He is also shown with a crown at his feet, referring to the renunciation of his lands and his fortune. In Austria, there is a fine representation of St. Judoc on the mausoleum of Maximilian at Innsbruck. St. Judoc was most famously mentioned by Chaucer's Wife of Bath, who swears "by God and by Seint Joce". This suggests that his name was often invoked in oaths.[5]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Alban Butler, (Michael Walsh, ed.) Butler's Lives of the Saints (1991) s.v. "December 13: St Judoc, or Josse (AD 688)".
- ↑ The Breton genealogist Fr. Augustin du Paz, (du Paz, Histoire généalogique de plusieurs maisons illustres de Bretagne, Paris, 1619) states that Conan I de Rennes, count of Brittany had a son Juthael; Alban Butler, following the twelfth-century Ecclesiastical History (iii) of Orderic Vitalis ("Beatus Iudocus Iuthail regis Britonum filius et frater Iudicail regis"), states "Judoc was a son of Juthaël, King of Armorica (Brittany), and brother of that Judicaël who had a cult in the Diocese of Quimper", whom Orderic would make king of the "Britons" after his father.
- ↑ Butler 1991 gives "Runiacum".
- ↑ David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997, p.278.
- 1 2 3 Farmer, David Hugh (1997). The Oxford dictionary of saints (4th ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 278. ISBN 9780192800589.
- ↑ Butler 1991.
- ↑ Chaucer's Wife of Bath swears "by God and by Seint Joce"
- ↑ S.V. Spilsbury, "The imprecatory ballade: a fifteenth-century poetic genre", French Studies 33.4 (1979:385-396).
- ↑ Among a host of ills wished upon Master Matthew, Eustache wishes "the ill of Saint Leu, a spell of madness, those of Saint Josse and Saint Matelin..." (Eustache Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes DCCCVI ((Paris 1884) vol. 4, p. 321).
- ↑ Pierre de Beauvais, Nils-Olof Jönsson, tr. La vie de Saint Germer et la vie de Saint Josse de Pierre de Beauvais: Deux poèmes du XIIIe siècle (University of Lund) 1997. Jönsson's introductory notes offer good introductions both to Saint Judoc and Pierre de Beauvais.
- ↑ M. Bernus, H. Marchal, and G. Vial, "Le Suaire de St-Josse", Bulletin de Liaison du Centre International d'Études des Textiles Anciens 33 (1971:1-57).
External links
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