Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jocelin (fl.1200)
JOCELIN or JOSCELIN (fl. 1200), hagiographer, was a Cistercian monk of the abbey of Furness in Lancashire, and was one of the monks brought from Furness, towards the close of the twelfth century, by John de Curci to the new monastery founded by him at Down in the north of Ireland. Jocelin was author of: 1. ‘The Life and Miracles of Saint Walthen, or Waltheof, of Melrose,’ compiled under direction of Patrick, abbot of the Cistercian establishment there, printed in the ‘Acta Sanctorum,’ 3 Aug., and dedicated by Jocelin to William, king of Scotland, and his son Alexander. 2. A life of David, king of Scotland, which is only known by extracts in Fordun's ‘Scotichronicon,’ lib. vi. 3. ‘A Life of Saint Kentigern,’ dedicated to Jocelin [q. v.], bishop of Glasgow from 1174 to 1199, preserved in Brit. Mus. MS. Cott. Vitellius, c. viii., and printed by Pinkerton in his ‘Vitæ Antiquæ Sanctorum,’ 1799. 4. ‘A Latin Narrative of the Life and Miracles of Saint Patrick,’ in 196 chapters, prepared under the patronage of Thomas, archbishop of Armagh, Malachy, bishop of Down, and De Curci. This was first printed by Thomas Messingham at Paris in 1624, in his ‘Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum,’ and again by John Colgan in his ‘Triadis Thaumaturgæ Acta,’ Louvain, 1647, also in the ‘Acta Sanctorum’ of the Bollandists, 17 March. An English version by E. L. Swift was published at Dublin in 1809. A page from a decorated manuscript of Jocelin's work, now in the Bodleian Library, was reproduced in ‘Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland,’ edited by the present writer. 5. Some extracts made in 1377 from ‘A Life of St. Helen,’ attributed to Jocelin, are appended to the manuscript of the ‘Historia Aurea’ of John Tinmouth [q. v.] in the Bodleian Library. 6. Stow, in his ‘Survey of London,’ mentions a work by Jocelin entitled ‘De Britonum Episcopis,’ which is not otherwise known.
[Bibliotheca Scriptorum Ordinis Cisterciensis, 1656; O'Flaherty's Ogygia, 1685; Pinkerton's Vitæ Antiquæ Sanctorum, 1799; Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland, London, 1879, p. liii, plate lxxxvi; Chartularies of Saint Mary's Abbey, Dublin, London, 1884, ii. 223; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 429; Wright's Brit. Biog. Lit. ii. 257–8.]