Saint Julian the Hospitaller
Also known as
- Julian Hospitator
- Julian the Poor
- 12 February
- last Sunday in August (hunters in Malta)
Profile
Noble layman; friend and counselor to the king, he was married to a wealthy widow. A stag he was hunting predicted he would kill his own parents. Julian moved far away to avoid his parents, but they found him, and came to make a surprise visit. His wife gave them her and Julian’s bed; Julian killed them, thinking they were his wife and another man.
As penance, he and his wife travelled to Rome, Italy as pilgrims seeking absolution. On his way home, to continue his penance, Julian built a hospice beside a river, cared for the poor and sick, and rowed travellers across the river for free.
Once, after having helped many, many travellers, Julian gave his own bed to a pilgrim leper who had nearly frozen to death. When they had him safely settled, the man suddenly revealed himself to be an angel. The visitor announced that Christ had accepted Julian’s penance; the angel then disappeared.
Immensely popular in times past; scholars today think the story is likely to be pious fiction, mistaken for history.
- boatmen
- carnival workers
- childless people
- circus workers
- clowns
- ferrymen
- fiddlers
- fiddle players
- hospitality
- hotel-keepers
- hoteliers
- innkeepers
- jugglers
- knights
- Macerata, Italy
- reformed murderers
- pilgrims
- San Giljan, Malta
- shepherds
- to obtain lodging while travelling
- travellers
- wandering musicians
- carrying a leper through a river
- ferryman
- hart
- holding an oar
- man listening to a talking stag
- oar
- stag
- with Jesus and Saint Martha as patrons of travellers
- young hunter with a stag
- young man killing his parents in bed
- young man wearing a fur-lined cloak, sword, and gloves
- young, well-dressed man holding a hawk on his finger
MLA Citation
- “Saint Julian the Hospitaller“. CatholicSaints.Info. 12 February 2018. Web. 19 December 2018. <>