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Jolyon's Name Day
12th February |
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Historically Famous JolyonsSt Julian the Hospitaller is the patron of many churches, hospitals and charities in Europe because of the strange story about him in the medieval Golden Legend (drawn up by Jacob of Voraigne between 1255-1266, containing lives of saints and short treatises on Christian festivals). Julian was horrified to discover that it predicted that he would kill his parents, so he sent himself into exile. He eventually married, but his loving parents searched for and found him, only to be killed by him in a terrible mistake, just as the prediction had said. Full of terrible remorse, Julian and his wife abandoned their castle and wealth, and set up a pilgrims' hospice and ferry on the banks of a dangerous river. Shortly before their deaths, Julian rowed an angel well-disguised as a poor, ill pilgrim - across the river. Before the angel disappeared, he assured Julian that God had seen his penitence and forgiven the murder. |