Jocelin (or
Jocelyn) (died 1199) was a twelfth-century
Cistercian monk and
cleric who became the fourth
Abbot of Melrose before becoming
Bishop of Glasgow,
Scotland. He was probably born in the 1130s, and in his teenage years became a monk of
Melrose Abbey. He rose in the service of
Abbot Waltheof, and by the time of the short abbacy of Waltheof's successor Abbot William, Jocelin had become
prior. Then in 1170 Jocelin himself became abbot, a position he held for four years. Jocelin was responsible for promoting the cult of the emerging
Saint Waltheof, and in this had the support of
Enguerrand,
Bishop of Glasgow.
His Glasgow connections and political profile were already well-established enough that in 1174 Jocelin succeeded Enguerrand as Glasgow's bishop. As Bishop of Glasgow, he was a royal official. In this capacity he travelled <!--Speakers of American English, this is the spelling used in England--> abroad on several occasions, and performed the marriage ceremony between King
William the Lion and
Ermengarde de Beaumont, later
baptising their son, the future King
Alexander II. Among other things, he has been credited by modern historians as "the founder of the
burgh of
Glasgow and initiator of the
Glasgow fair",For this view and quote, see Norman F. Shead, "Jocelin, abbot of Melrose), and bishop of Glasgow)", in
The Innes Review, vol. 54, no. 1 (Spring, 2003), p. 1. as well as being one of the greatest literary patrons in......
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