Holy and Right-Believing Judicaël, High King of Brittany

Saint Judicaël of Brittany

Today, the seventeenth of December, is the feast-day in the Orthodox Church of Saint Judicaël, the Prince of Domnonée and High King of Brittany. A national hero among the Bretons, he is much like his insular fellow sainted kings Custennin and Æþelræd, in that he renounced his kingship, passed the crown on to his son Alan Hir (or ‘the Tall’), and became a monk.

Judicaël [also in Breton Yezekael or Ezekiel; in English occasionally Jude or Josse] was the son of Hoël III [Hywel] of Domnonée. When he came to the throne, he did so with great reluctance, having no desire for worldly power or lordship. All the same, he acquitted himself admirably of all his duties. He took a wife named Morwen, and together they had three sons: Juzeg, Winog and Alan. He was indomitable in battle, and ruled justly and impartially. It is said of him that:

Terror of his name alone was sufficient to keep evil men from violence, for God, who watched over him without ceasing, had made him brave and mighty in battle; it happened more than once that with the aid of the Almighty he was able to put whole troops of the enemy to flight by the strength of his sword-arm alone.

As a result, Gwened and Kernev submitted to Judicaël’s rule, and the entire peninsula of Armorica was politically unified. He went to war often with the mighty Franks and defeated them twice in battle. In 635 the Frankish king Dagobert sent him a threat that unless he wanted to suffer a full-scale invasion of his lands, he had to submit himself to Frankish overlordship. Thus Judicaël faced a choice not unlike the one that the later Saint Aleksandr Nevsky had to face. According to the history, Saint Judicaël went to Clichy to make his submission to Dagobert, and indeed brought gifts with him. But he would not sup at the same table as Dagobert, which apparently insulted the Frankish monarch.

Judicaël was also a generous patron of the Church in Brittany. He had founded a monastery at Paimpont in the forest of Brocéliande while he still wore the crown. This is not the same monastery as that of Saint Mewan, but it was located close by, so that Judicaël could better seek the counsel of his friend the abbot. There are a few chronological problems – not too severe, but noticeable – with Judicaël’s association with Saint Mewan, who died in 617. It is more likely the case that Judicaël had met and was awed by Saint Mewan in his youth, or that he was the close friend of Mewan’s successor at the Abbey of Saint John.

Having thus ruled his kingdom and secured its peace, Judicaël stepped down from his throne, leaving it to his son Alan Hir. Desirous of the contemplative life, he took the tonsure and entered the cloister as a simple monastic brother at the Abbey of Saint John, Saint Mewan’s monastery near Rennes, and thus spent the rest of his days. He reposed in the Lord on the seventeenth of December of 658, and was buried at his own request beside Saint Mewan. Holy and right-believing prince Judicaël, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

Prince of Brittany, you gave the crown
Over to your brothers, and withdrew to a monastery.
You came back to the throne and signed the peace
Between Brittany and the kingdom of the Franks,
And then returned to the monastic life.
Holy Judicaël, intercede with Christ God for our souls!

Paimpont Abbey, founded by Saint Judicaël