Do you know anyone named Joyce, Jocelyn, or Josselin?

Jodocus (from Breton Iodoc,Latin Judocus),sometimes Josse, Joos, Joost, Joest or Jost, is a given name and a family name. Other names such as Jocelyn, Jocelyne, Josselin, Josseline, or also Josquin Jospin, and Joyce derived from it.

The given name Jodocus or its form Josse was popular in the Middle Ages in England.   Why?  Because Saint Jodocus was very popular in the Middle Ages.

Saint Jodocus:

He was a king in the Breton region of France who went on a pilgrimage to Chartres, Paris, and Amiens.

He then abdicated his throne and became a hermit in Runiacum near the ocean which was later renamed in his honor as Saint-Josse-sur-Mer.

He has said to have said many prayers for sailors and those shipwrecked and lost at sea.

For eight years, he fed birds of every kind and fed fishes from his hand.

He built two chapels in the woods to honor Saints Peter and Paul.

He died around the year 668.

When the Normans invaded the Breton area in 902, monks fled from the area with his relics and settled in Winchester, England where his cult spread throughout the country and into Germany and Scandinavia.

His popularity in medieval England is reflected in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in which the Wife of Bath swears "by God and Seint Joce."

Jodocus is often pictured in pilgrim's garb with a crown ast his feet to symbolize his renunciation of the throne.

He is traditionally invoked against storms and shipwrecks.

His feast day is January 9 in Winchester, July 26 in Amiens, and December 12 elsewhere.