Saint Cucuphas (also Cucufas or Qaqophas, Catalan: Cugat, Culgat, Cougat, Spanish: Cucufate, Cucufato, Cocoba(s), French: Cucuphat, Cucufa, Cucuphat, Quiquenfat, Galician: Covade, Cobad, Occitan: Cophan, Asturian: Cucao) is a martyr of Spain. His feast day is 25 July but in some areas it is celebrated on 27 July to avoid conflict with the important feast day of Santiago, the patron saint of Spain. His name is said to be of Phoenician origin with the meaning of "he who jokes, he who likes to joke."[1]
Cucuphas was born into a noble Christian family in Scillis (Africa Proconsularis). He and Saint Felix, later martyred at Girona, were said to have been deacons of the Catholic Church in Carthage who arrived at Barcelona to evangelize the area. According to his legend, he functioned as a merchant in Barcelona while preaching the Christian faith, baptizing converts, and aiding the Christian community there. According to Christian accounts of his life, he was generous with the poor and a worker of miracles.
He was martyred near Barcelona during the persecution of Diocletian. Under the Roman governor, he suffered many torments and was imprisoned somewhere near Barcelona, along the twenty-mile stretch between ancient Barcino (Barcelona) and Egara (Terrassa). His throat was finally cut in 304. Tradition holds that two Christian women from Illuro (Mataró), Juliana and Semproniana, buried his body and were consequently martyred as well.
The Benedictine abbey of Sant Cugat del Vallès is considered to be situated on the site of his martyrdom, which was once the Roman site of Castrum Octavianum.
The legendary details of his martyrdom state that he was handed over to twelve strong soldiers, who were ordered to whip him and tear his skin with iron nails and scorpions. Cucuphas was then roasted alive after being covered in vinegar and pepper, though heavenly intervention saved him from death and injury. A great bonfire also failed to kill the saint and instead killed his would-be executioners. His jailers were then subsequently converted to Christianity after they found Cucuphas in his cell illuminated with heavenly light. The next day, he was flagellated with iron whips. By means of heavenly intervention, the prefect Maximianus was killed when his carriage caught on fire. Rufus, the new prefect, prudently decided not to practice torture of any kind on the saint and instead ordered his immediate execution by sword.
Textual references
The poet Prudentius honored him in a hymn. Cucuphas is mentioned in the Hieronymian Martyrology; the Prayer Book of Verona (7th century AD); in a hymn called Barcino laeto Cucufate vernans (7th century, recorded in manuscripts in Toledo and Silos, 10th-11th centuries), which has been attributed to Quiricus of Barcelona;[2] the Liber Sacramentorum (Toledo, 9th century, Mozarabic mass dedicated to Cucuphas); Martyrology of Ado; Martyrology of Usuard (9th century); and the Martyrology of Saint Peter of Cardeña (10th century, presumed copy of 7th-century manuscript).
The early medieval hymn Barcino laeto Cucufate vernans runs as follows:
When the first Benedictine community gathered at Sant Cugat in the 9th century, the monastery dedicated itself to the pre-existing veneration of Cucuphas. Since the eighth century, Sant Cugat has claimed Cucuphas' relics. In the eighth century, Saint Fulrad took a relic of Cucuphas from Sant Cugat to Saint-Denis. The relics of Cucuphas occupy a place of honor in the apse to the right of Saint Denis to this day.
From the 14th century onwards, Sant Cugat kept the martyr's remains in a small chest, decorated with scenes of the saint's life. This chest was taken to the parish of Sant Cugat del Rec (or "del Forn") in Barcelona after the monasteries were freed from mortmain.
In 1950, Sant Cugat commemorated a relic proceeding from this chest of Sant Cugat del Rec. The relics are now in the crypt of the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.
Many churches in Europe, from the Middle Ages onwards, claimed his relics, including Reichenau; the cathedrals of Braga, Oviedo; and Lièpvre, whose monastery had been founded by Fulrad, who had already brought some of the saint's relics to Saint-Denis.
The saint is venerated at Paris, with some of his relics enshrined at the church of Saint-Denis, in the Chapelle Saint-Cucuphas. Near Rueil-Malmaison, a forest is named Bois de St-Cucufa, and a tiny lake carries the saint's name.[5] Property of the state since 1871, the forest was called Bois Béranger (Nemus/Boscus Berengerii) until the Benedictines built a chapel dedicated to the saint in the 13th century. Pilgrimages to the shrine of "Saint Quiquenfat" were practiced until the eighteenth century.
Other place-names that may point to Cucuphas' cult in France include Guinelat, Conat, and Coplian.[6]
Veneration in Spain
The diocese of Girona has several parochial churches dedicated to him.
Concern amongst Catalan devotees of the saint was raised when it was discovered in 2001 that the name of Saint Cucuphas had been removed from the latest version of the Roman Martyrology. However, the saint had been included –under his Latin (and English) name of "Cucuphas" rather than "Cugat." In the martyrology, he was described as a "martyr of the persecution of Diocletian, killed with a sword. Fourth century. African."[7]
Saints Juliana and Semproniana are still venerated at Mataró on 27 July. They appear with Cucuphas in the façade of the church of Santa Maria de Mataró.
In the folklore and tradition people pray to this saint when they lose things and are not able to find their belongings again. Some knots are made in a handkerchief with a cord, an allegory that represents tying the testicles of the saint. Then a prayer is performed as follows:
"San Cucufato, San Cucufato los cojones te ato y hasta que no encuentres mi (objeto perdido) no te los desato".
Which means:
"Saint Cucuphas, Saint Cucuphas your testicles I tie, and until you find my (lost belonging) I will not untie them".
Patronage
He is not generally associated with any special patronage, although Ángel Rodríguez Vilagrán writes that Joan Amades' Costumari Català mentions that anciently, hunchbacks venerated Cucuphas as their patron saint, as well as those who committed petty thefts.[7] The origins of this patronage are not known.
Gallery
Sant Cugat monastery
Ceramic tile designs from the Saint-Cucuphas Chapel, Saint-Denis
Sant Cugat del Vallès is a town and municipality north of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Known as Castrum Octavianum in antiquity and as Pins del Vallès during the Second Spanish Republic, it is named after Saint Cucuphas, who is said to have been martyred on the spot now occupied by its medieval monastery. The final part of its toponym, del Vallès, is a reference to the historical county where the town is situated, Vallès.
Saint Agathius, also known as Acacius of Byzantium, Achatius, or Agathonas to Christian tradition, was a Cappadocian Greek centurion of the imperial army, martyred around 304. A church existed in Constantinople associated with Acacius and possibly named after him: the Church of St Acacius.
July 24 - Eastern Orthodox calendar - July 26
Apollinaris of Ravenna is a Syrian saint, whom the Roman Martyrology describes as "a bishop who, according to tradition, while spreading among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ, led his flock as a good shepherd and honoured the Church of Classis near Ravenna by a glorious martyrdom."
Lièpvre is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. A monastery was built here in the eighth century by Saint Fulrad, who filled it with relics of Saint Cucuphas and Saint Alexander.
Saint Marcellus of Tangier or Saint Marcellus the Centurion was a Roman centurion who is today venerated as a martyr-saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches. His feast day is celebrated on October 30.
Saint Leocadia is a Spanish saint. She is thought to have suffered martyrdom and died on December 9, ca. 304, in the Diocletianic Persecution.
Himeriusof Cremona, also known as Himerius of Amelia or Irnerius, was an Italian bishop. He is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and Christian communities of Western Rite Orthodoxy.
Saint Zoilus is venerated as a saint by the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Christian tradition states that he was a young man martyred with nineteen others at Córdoba, Spain under Diocletian.
Saint Fructus was a Castilian hermit of the eighth century venerated as a saint. Christian tradition states that he had two siblings, named Valentine (Valentín) and Engratia (Engracia). They all lived as hermits on a mountain in the region of Sepúlveda. Engratia should not be confused with the 4th-century Portuguese martyr of the same name.
Severus of Barcelona is venerated as a saint by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. His legend states that he was a bishop of Barcelona and was martyred during the persecution of Christians by Diocletian in AD 304. Details concerning his life and death are uncertain and of questionable historicity.
Saint Antoninus of Pamiers was an early Christian missionary and martyr, called the "Apostle of the Rouergue". His life is dated to the first, second, fourth, and fifth century by various sources since he is often confused with various other venerated Antonini. Today he is revered as the patron saint of Pamiers, Palencia, and Medina del Campo. His historicity and exact identity are in doubt.
Eleutherius (or Eleut erus or Eleftherios; sometimes called Liberalis or Liberator, the former transliterations and the latter translations of his and his mother Antia are venerated as Christian saints and martyrs in Greece and Albania.
The Monastery of Sant Cugat is a Benedictine abbey in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in the ninth century, and under construction until the 14th century, it was the most important monastery in the county of Barcelona. Its most notable architectural feature is its large Romanesque cloister.
The Sant Cugat Museum was opened on 23 April 2003; its mission was to oversee the conservation and dissemination of the historic, artistic and cultural heritage of Sant Cugat del Vallès in Catalonia. It is part of the Barcelona Provincial Council Local Museum Network and has two centres: the Sant Cugat Monastery and Casa Aymat plus two other buildings, the Celler Modernista and the Chapel of Sant Domenec. In both areas there are spaces reserved for temporary exhibitions related to art, history and local and universal heritage. In addition, the Museum works to recover the heritage and memory of the town, periodically organising walks that help people discover local history and heritage.
Saint Candidus is a painting by Ayne Bru, conserved at the National Art Museum of Catalonia.
Quiricus, a churchman and well-connected man of letters, was the bishop of Barcelona from 648 until about 667 during the Visigothic period.
The casket of Sant Cugat is a reliquary of gold from the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is made with embossed silver plates engraved and partly superimposed on a golden casket of wood, depicting scenes from the life and death of the martyr Saint Cugat. Its makers were Joan de Gènova and Arnau Campredon. During the seventeenth century, it was dismantled and built in a smaller size in which the plates were reused from the previous silver.
Mantius of Évora was the legendary first bishop of Lisbon and Évora in the 1st century AD. In some versions of his legend, he was one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, who was sent to preach the Gospel in Lusitania.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
