Saint Judoc, otherwise known as Jodoc, Joyce or Josse ( la, Iudocus; traditionally 600 – 668 AD)Alban Butler, (Michael Walsh, ed.) ''Butler's Lives of the Saints'' (1991) ''s.v.'' "December 13: St Judoc, or Josse (AD 688)". was a seventh-century Breton noble. Though he was never officially

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

, Saint Judoc is considered to be a

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

. Judoc was a son of Juthael, King of Brittany. He renounced his wealth and position to become a priest and lived alone for the rest of his lifetime 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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, ''Josse'' in French, ''Jost,'' ''Joost,'' or ''Joos'' in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, and ''Joyce'' in English. The name Judoc was rarely used after the 14th century except in the Netherlands.

Biography

According to tradition, Judoc was the son of Juthael, King of Brittany, and the brother of

Saint Judicael Saint Judicael or Judicaël ( – 16 December 647 or 652) ( Welsh:Ithel), also spelled Judhael (with many other variants), was the King of Domnonée, part of Brittany, in the mid-7th century and later revered as a Roman Catholic saint. Ba ...

and Saint Winnoc. In approximately 636, Judoc renounced his inheritance and wealth and embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome. He was ordained as a priest during this voyage and subsequently became a hermit in Ponthieu, Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, where he resided until his death. According to ancient

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

, his body was said to be

incorruptible ''Incorruptible'' is an American comic book series written by Mark Waid and published by Boom! Studios. The series follows former supervillain Max Damage in his quest to become a superhero. The book is a spin-off of another Waid comic, '' Irredeem ...

, leaving his followers with the task of continually cutting his hair after death.

Veneration

Saint Judoc developed a local '' cultus''. Built in the eighth century at the place where Judoc's

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...

was kept, the Abbey of Saint-Josse was a small

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

situated on the site of his retreat. In 903, some monks of the abbey fled Norman raiders for England, where they bore Judoc's relics, which were enshrined in the newly built

New Minster The New Minster in Winchester was a royal Benedictine abbey founded in 901 in Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. Alfred the Great had intended to build the monastery, but only got around to buying the land. His son, Edward the El ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

. To honor the event, feasts were held on the 9th of January. The

veneration Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Etym ...

of Judoc spread from France through the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

, England, Germany, and Scandinavia. In these regions, variations of ''Josse, Joyce, Joos,

Joost Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV ( P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; i ...

'', and the diminutive ''Jocelyn'', became popular names for both men and women, and a number of chapels and churches were dedicated to him. The ''mal Saint-Josse'' was the term for an illness resulting from a snakebite, against which the saint's name was invoked by the fifteenth-century French poet Eustache Deschamps in an imprecatory

ballade Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music. Ballad or Ballade may also refer to: Music Genres and forms * Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...

: "...Du mau saint Leu, de l'esvertin, Du saint Josse et saint Matelin... soit maistre Mahieu confondus!". According to

Alban Butler Alban Butler (13 October 171015 May 1773) was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer. Biography Alban Butler was born in 1710, at Appletree, Aston le Walls, Northamptonshire, the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. His father died when ...

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...

gave the abbey to

Alcuin Alcuin of York (; la, Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus; 735 – 19 May 804) – also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin – was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student o ...

who turned it into a hostel for those crossing the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...

. It later became a site of pilgrimage, especially popular with

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

and Germans in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. ''La vie de Saint Josse'' was written in

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

verses by the poet and translator Pierre de Beauvais in the thirteenth century. The

Suaire de St-Josse The ''Suaire de Saint-Josse'', the "Shroud of Saint Josse" that is now conserved in the Musée du Louvre, is a rich silk samite saddle cloth that was woven in northeastern Iran, some time before 961 C.E., when Abu Mansur Bakhtegin, the "camel-prin ...

, or "Shroud of Saint Judoc," is a rich, silk

samite Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived from Old French ''samit'', from medieval Latin ''samitum, examitum'' deriving from the Byzant ...

saddlecloth that was woven in northeastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

prior to 961. When Saint Judoc was reinterred in 1134, the shroud was used to wrap his bones.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). The

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

currently houses his shroud. The

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The c ...

was closed in 1772, and subsequently sold and dismantled in 1789, leaving no traces of the buildings. The abbey church then became the parish church of the French commune of

Saint-Josse Saint-Josse (), or Saint-Josse-sur-Mer (literally ''Saint-Josse on Sea''), is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Saint-Josse is located 4 miles (6 km) west of Montreuil-sur-Mer on t ...

Cultural depictions

Cultural depictions usually portray Judoc holding the pilgrim's staff. He is also shown with a crown at his feet, referring to his renunciation of his lands and fortune. In Austria, there is a depiction of Judoc on the

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...

of Maximilian in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...

. Judoc was most famously mentioned by

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

Wife of Bath "The Wife of Bath's Tale" ( enm, The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe) is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and was probably of interest to Chaucer hims ...

, who swears "by God and by Seint Joce

aint Joyce The word "ain't" is a contraction for ''am not'', ''is not'', ''are not'', ''has not'', ''have not'' in the common English language vernacular. In some dialects ''ain't'' is also used as a contraction of ''do not'', ''does not'' and ''did not''. ...

" This suggests that his name was often invoked in oaths.

Notes

External links