Justus of Vic

Justus of Vic was a layman, venerated as a saint in the diocese of Vic in Catalonia, of whom no other news is known. The data about him are few; he appears in the calendar of saints of Vicenç Domènec of 1602, who draws them from a medieval breviary and hymn, where he is listed as a saint venerated in the cathedral of Vic. The breviary, of the twelfth century, survives and notes the commemoration of the saint, though without a proper office.

Justus was Catalan, probably from Vic or its surroundings (a tradition said he was born in Vic, on the spot where the church of Sant Just stands). It is not known when he lived: Flórez thinks it may have been in Visigothic times, before the Muslim invasion. As a layman, the virtue of his life led to his being held a saint, and after his death miracles were ascribed to him. He was buried in the cathedral of Vic, where he was venerated.

His relics were kept in a silver urn of 1660 on the high altar of the cathedral. In 1809, during the war with the French, the urn disappeared; a new one was placed on the altar in 1827 and stayed until 1936, when the building was burned and the urn vanished for good. His day of commemoration was from ancient times 28 May, the same as that of Justus of Urgell, which may point to a hagiographic doubling. He was one of the patrons of Vic. In 1448 the city council decided to give prominence to the feast, making it a non-⁠working day. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the central and northern region suffered several earthquakes and the saint's protection was invoked above all then; later he was called upon against excessive rains that spoiled the harvest. His devotion declined from the seventeenth century, and he remained patron of the diocese, not of the city. In 1867 Bishop Antoni Lluís Jordà changed the patron of the diocese, putting Saint John the Baptist in his place, and the feast ceased to be kept.

Two miracles swelled the legend: a wall of the cathedral, perhaps in an earthquake, fell on the tomb of Justus and the tomb suffered no damage; and the lamp lit in the saint's honour was not put out by the collapse of the wall. For this reason he was invoked as protector against earthquakes.