Jocelin was a Cistercian monk and cleric who became the fourth Abbot of Melrose. He was responsible for promoting the cult of the emerging Saint Waltheof. In 1174 Jocelin succeeded Enguerrand as Glasgow’s bishop. He has been credited by modern historians as the founder of the burgh of Glasgow.
About Jocelin of Glasgow in brief
Jocelin was a Cistercian monk and cleric who became the fourth Abbot of Melrose. He was responsible for promoting the cult of the emerging Saint Waltheof. In 1174 Jocelin succeeded Enguerrand as Glasgow’s bishop. He performed the marriage ceremony between King William the Lion and Ermengarde de Beaumont, later baptising their son, the future King Alexander II. He has been credited by modern historians as the founder of the burgh of Glasgow and initiator of the Glasgow fair. He is also one of the greatest literary patrons in medieval Scotland, commissioning the Life of St Wal theof and the life of St Kentigern. His body was found in the eleventh year of his life, and his tomb was opened on the day of his death, before his death in the twelfth year of 1170. The tomb of his father, sir sir Walthef, was opened by the second abbot, sir John, in memory of our good father, on the last day of the first year of this year. The name of his mother, Helia, is not known, but he had two known brothers, with the names Helia and Henry, and a cousin, also called Helia. The names suggest that his family were of French, or at least Anglo-Norman origin, rather than being a Scot or native Anglo-Saxon. For his contemporary and fellow native of the Borders, Adam of Dryburgh, this part of Britain was still firmly regarded as terra Anglorum, although it was located inside the regnum Scottorum.
This would be no obstacle to Joceli. His Anglo-French cultural background was in fact probably necessary for the patronage of the King of Scots. We know that Abbot Walthe of thought highly of him and granted him many responsibilities. It is known that he entered as a novice monk in Melrose Abbey during the abbacy ofwaltheof, and from documentary evidence it seems likely he entered Melrose about 50 years before he died in 1199. As the rules of the CisterCian order prevented entry as a nun before the age of 15, it is likely that he was born around the year 1134. He obviously successfully completed his one-year noviciate, the year in which a prospective monk was introduced to monasticism and judged fit or unfit for admittance. For more information, visit the website of the Melrose monastery at: http://www.melrose.org.uk/joecelin.html/. For more on the life and times of Jocelins father, please visit: www.themelrose-monastery.com/jocelin-s-father-st-Waltheof-and-the-life-of-St-Kentigern-in-memory-of St Ketigern and the Chronicle of Melrose of the-Eleventh-century.
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