Marculf of Nantus

Saint Marculf was an abbot at Nantus in the Cotentin peninsula of Normandy in the sixth century. The Church remembers him on 1 May as a spiritual father honoured in France for healings, above all of the disease called scrofula.

He is said to have been born around 490 or 500 in a Saxon settlement near Bayeux. The accounts of his life have merged with those of Saint Helier, whom he is said to have sent to bring the people of Jersey to Christianity. Marculf himself visited Jersey, where miracles are ascribed to him. He was abbot at Nantus in the Cotentin and fell asleep on 1 May 558 on the Îles Saint-⁠Marcouf off the east coast of the peninsula.

His relics were moved to the abbey of Corbény in Champagne. From the early tenth century crowds went there on pilgrimage to be healed of scrofula. His veneration was tied to his name by a popular wordplay between "mar" (badly) and "cou" (neck), since the disease showed most often on the neck. Later the healing of this illness by the laying on of hands came to be regarded as a power of the kings of France and England, and tradition says it came from the power of Marculf's relics. They played a part in the coronation ceremonies of the kings of France at Reims. In the north ambulatory of Notre-⁠Dame Cathedral in Coutances there is a chapel of Saint Marcouf, with a stained glass window showing scenes of his life, and several places in Normandy bear his name.