Hugh of Lincoln

 Today is the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, one of the patrons of my daughter; we did Lizzie last year.

Saint Hugh of Lincoln

Also known as
Hugh of Avalon
Hugh of Burgundy

Memorial
17 November

Profile
Our saint today was orphaned at a young age ans so he was raised and educated at a convent in France. As you might guess with that background he become a Monk at age15 and a Deacon at 19. He later joined the Carthusians and was ordained a priest.

King Henry II, as a part of his penance for murdering Saint Thomas Beckett, built monasteries throughout England. One of these was the first Carthusian Monastery in England, and Hugh was named the first Abbott.

When it came to the Political-Religious relationships of the time, one would think that after that whole row in the cathedral with Tom Becket religious folk would keep their traps shut….not Hugh oh no! He admonished Henry for keeping dioceses vacant in order to keep their income for the throne. Apparently King Henry had still not learned his lesson for real.

After much resistance on our Saint’s part, Hugh was made bishop of Lincoln on 21 September 1181. He cleaned up the place real nice; he restored clerical discipline and rebuilt the Lincoln cathedral. This Cathedral was, ironically, destroyed by earthquake 4 years later. The pessimist in me would have taken that as some sort of a sign.

It is said that a swan would stand near our saint while he slept to guard him from being disturbed or worse yet, attacked. An attack swan, can you beat that? “Get away! or my swan will peck your heart out.”

Hugh denounced the mass persecution of Jews in England in 1190-91, repeatedly facing down armed mobs, making them release their victims. Because of this he was named a diplomat to France for King John in 1199, France is possibly the most anti Semitic country in Europe; look at how their military dealt with Dreyfus, because he was Jewish. King John wanted to stick it to France and send him this bishop known for defending our fathers in faith.

While in France he was shown an arm of St. Mary Magdalene; he pulled out his dagger (yes, bishops carried daggers in the 12th century) and cut away at a finger on the relic while the French monks looked on in stupefied horror. To finish the job Hugh pulled the relic to his mouth, bit the finger off (12th century bishops were far less squeamish than most of us are today), and tossed the finger to his assistant (who tells us this story). When asked why he would bite a saint’s relic, Hugh replied: I put my mouth on the body of Christ every day; why would I treat his saints differently? (Catholic Digest, 7/11)

This trip ruined his health. In the year 1200, while attending a national council in London a few months after the cadaver incident, he was stricken with an unnamed ailment, and died two months later; probably from biting cadaverous fingers. He was canonized in 1220, the first Carthusian to be formally recognized as a saint.

Patronage
sick children
sick people
swans