Cucuphas

Saint Cucuphas (also Cucufas or Qaqophas, Catalan: Cugat, Culgat, Cougat, Spanish: Cucufate, Cucufato, Cocoba(s), French: Cucuphat, Cucufa, Cucuphat, Quiquenfat, Galician: Covade, Cobad, Occitan: Cophan, Asturian: Cucao) is a martyr of Spain. His feast day is 25 July but in some areas it is celebrated on 27 July to avoid conflict with the important feast day of Santiago, the patron saint of Spain. His name is said to be of Phoenician origin with the meaning of "he who jokes, he who likes to joke."^[1]

Cucuphas was born into a noble Christian family in Scillis (Africa Proconsularis). He and Saint Felix, later martyred at Girona, were said to have been deacons of the Catholic Church in Carthage who arrived at Barcelona to evangelize the area. According to his legend, he functioned as a merchant in Barcelona while preaching the Christian faith, baptizing converts, and aiding the Christian community there. According to Christian accounts of his life, he was generous with the poor and a worker of miracles.

He was martyred near Barcelona during the persecution of Diocletian. Under the Roman governor, he suffered many torments and was imprisoned somewhere near Barcelona, along the twenty-mile stretch between ancient Barcino (Barcelona) and Egara (Terrassa). His throat was finally cut in 304. Tradition holds that two Christian women from Illuro (Mataró), Juliana and Semproniana, buried his body and were consequently martyred as well.

The Benedictine abbey of Sant Cugat del Vallès is considered to be situated on the site of his martyrdom, which was once the Roman site of Castrum Octavianum.

Details of his martyrdom state that he was handed over to twelve strong soldiers, who were ordered to whip him and tear his skin with iron nails and scorpions. Cucuphas was then roasted alive after being covered in vinegar and pepper, though heavenly intervention saved him from death and injury. A great bonfire also failed to kill the saint and instead killed his would-be executioners. His jailers were then subsequently converted to Christianity after they found Cucuphas in his cell illuminated with heavenly light. The next day, he was flagellated with iron whips. By means of heavenly intervention, the prefect Maximianus was killed when his carriage caught on fire. Rufus, the new prefect, prudently decided not to practice torture of any kind on the saint and instead ordered his immediate execution by sword.

The poet Prudentius honored him in a hymn. Cucuphas is mentioned in the Hieronymian Martyrology; the Prayer Book of Verona (7th century AD); in a hymn called Barcino laeto Cucufate vernans (7th century, recorded in manuscripts in Toledo and Silos, 10th-11th centuries), which has been attributed to Quiricus of Barcelona;^[2] the Liber Sacramentorum (Toledo, 9th century, Mozarabic mass dedicated to Cucuphas); Martyrology of Ado; Martyrology of Usuard (9th century); and the Martyrology of Saint Peter of Cardeña (10th century, presumed copy of 7th-century manuscript).

The early medieval hymn Barcino laeto Cucufate vernans runs as follows:

Barchinon laeto Cucufate vernans,

corporis sancti tumulum honorans,

et locum sacri venerans sepulchri,

sparge ligustris.

("Barcino bursts into the vernal joy,

of Saint Cucuphas, honoring his remains,

and spreads privet branches on the burial

mound and on the tomb".)^[3]

When the first Benedictine community gathered at Sant Cugat in the 9th century, the monastery dedicated itself to the pre-existing veneration of Cucuphas. Since the eighth century, Sant Cugat has claimed Cucuphas' relics. In the eighth century, Saint Fulrad took a relic of Cucuphas from Sant Cugat to Saint-Denis. The relics of Cucuphas occupy a place of honor in the apse to the right of Saint Denis to this day.

Desde el siglo XIV en adelante, Sant Cugat conservó los restos del mártir en un pequeño cofre decorado con escenas de la vida del santo. Este cofre fue llevado a la parroquia de Sant Cugat del Rec (o "del Forn") en Barcelona después de que los monasterios fueran liberados del mortmain .

En 1950, Sant Cugat conmemoró una reliquia procedente de este cofre de Sant Cugat del Rec. Las reliquias se encuentran actualmente en la cripta de la basílica de Santa María del Mar.

Muchas iglesias de Europa, desde la Edad Media en adelante, reclamaron sus reliquias, entre ellas Reichenau ; las catedrales de Braga , Oviedo ; y Lièpvre , cuyo monasterio había sido fundado por Fulrad, quien ya había llevado algunas de las reliquias del santo a Saint-Denis.

La Historia Compostelana del siglo XII contiene un relato de cómo Diego Gelmírez llevó secretamente las reliquias de Cúcufas desde Braga hasta Santiago de Compostela , donde fueron colocadas en la catedral. ^{[ 4 ]}

El santo es venerado en París , y algunas de sus reliquias se conservan en la iglesia de Saint-Denis, en la capilla de Saint-Cucuphas. Cerca de Rueil-Malmaison , un bosque se llama Bois de St-Cucufa , y un pequeño lago lleva el nombre del santo. ^{[ 5 ]} Propiedad del estado desde 1871, el bosque se llamaba Bois Béranger ( Nemus/Boscus Berengerii ) hasta que los benedictinos construyeron una capilla dedicada al santo en el siglo XIII. Las peregrinaciones al santuario de "San Quiquenfat" se practicaron hasta el siglo XVIII.

Otros topónimos que podrían indicar el culto a Cucuphas en Francia incluyen Guinelat, Conat y Coplian. ^{[ 6 ]}

La diócesis de Girona tiene varias iglesias parroquiales dedicadas a él.

San Cucao de Llanera está situado en el municipio de Llanera, Asturias .

La preocupación entre los devotos catalanes del santo surgió cuando en 2001 se descubrió que el nombre de San Cucuphas había sido eliminado de la última versión del Martirologio Romano . Sin embargo, el santo sí figuraba, bajo su nombre latino (e inglés ) de «Cucuphas» en lugar de «Cugat». En el martirologio , se le describía como un «mártir de la persecución de Diocleciano, muerto a espada . Siglo IV. Africano». ^{[ 7 ]}

Santa Juliana y Santa Semproniana siguen siendo veneradas en Mataró el 27 de julio. Aparecen junto a Cucuphas en la fachada de la iglesia de Santa Maria de Mataró.

En el folclore y la tradición, la gente reza a este santo cuando pierde algo y no puede encontrar sus pertenencias. Se hacen nudos en un pañuelo con una cuerda, una alegoría que representa atar los testículos del santo. Luego se realiza una oración como sigue:

"San Cucufato, San Cucufato los cojones te ato y hasta que no encuentres mi (objeto perdido) no te los desato" .

Lo que significa:

"San Cucuphas, San Cucuphas, te ato los testículos, y hasta que no encuentres mi (pertenencia perdida) no te los desataré" .

Generalmente no se le asocia con ningún patronazgo especial, aunque Ángel Rodríguez Vilagrán escribe que el Costumari Català de Joan Amades menciona que antiguamente, los jorobados veneraban a Cucuphas como su santo patrón , al igual que los que cometían pequeños hurtos . ^{[ 7 ]} Se desconocen los orígenes de este patronazgo.

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  Monasterio de Sant Cugat
• 
  Diseños de azulejos de cerámica de la capilla de Saint-Cucuphas, Saint-Denis.

• Ataúd de San Cugat

• (in Spanish)San Cucufate
• (in Spanish)¿Existió San Cucufate?
• Catholic Online: Cucuphas
• End Panel of a Reliquary Casket with St Cucuphas
• PDF (972 KB download)
• (in French)Le Bois de St Cucufa
• (in Spanish)San Cucufate
• (in Italian)San Cucufate (Cugat)