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Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

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December 13 · Priest, Hermit

St. Judoc

St. Judoc

Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

Traditional feast

December 13
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

December 13 (also listed: January 9)
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Priest
Hermit

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 29 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

Judoc died a few years after his return, about 675.1 His relics are preserved in the parish church of Saint Josse, at the mouth of the Canche, near MontreuiL

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. Leaving everything to pray, yet still drawing people who needed wisdom.

Keep their day. Remember them on December 13 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 29 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Gallican and Roman Martyrologies. Authorities: — A Life by an anonymous author of the 8th cent, in MabiUon, Acta SS. O.S.B. ssec. ii. Another Life by the Abbot Florentius, in Surius; a third Life from the Abbey of S. Meen, published in the 1st vol. of “ Memoires pour servir k l’histoire de Bretagne.” A Life in Ordericus Vitalis, 1. iii S. Judoc, also called Josse, was the son of Hoel III., king of Brittany. He was younger brother of S. Judicael, so that he must have been bom about 591. His youth was passed in the monastery of San Maelmon. When S. Judicael resolved on abdicating, that he might retire to a monastery, he asked his brother Judoc to ascend the throne in his room, and look after his children. Judoc asked eight days to consider the proposal, and during them fled the monastery, in company with some pilgrims who were passing, and took up his abode with Haymon, count of Ponthieu, who had him ordained to serve as his chaplain. After some years Judoc asked leave to retire from the world, and was given Ray, on the river Authie, where he built a cell and chapel. There he spent eight years, till the curiosity of the people who came to observe him, and obtain miracles from him, drove him thence to Runiac, on the river Canche. The site of his cell there has become the town of Saint Josse. After thirteen years spent at this place, he went into the forest land, and obtained from Count Haymon a grant of the valley of Pidrague. This was in 67 1, twenty-nine years after his flight from Brittany. He then set off for Rome, where he was received by Pope Vitalianus, and given many relics.

Judoc died a few years after his return, about 675.1 His relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] are preserved in the parish church of Saint Josse, at the mouth of the Canche, near MontreuiL

Feast days

Feast: December 13

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Judoc's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on December 13
A

St. Adelhaid

December 13 · Feast
L

St. Lucy

December 13 · Virgin, Martyr
A

St. Abra

December 13 · Virgin
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.