Hugh the Little

Also known as: Hugh Little
Hugh of Lincoln
Memorial: formerly 27 July
cultus suppressed
Profile: Son of a widow named Beatrice. Alleged to have been kidnapped, tortured, and killed by Jews at age nine. The Chaucer version (The Prioress's Tale) has him lured into the home of a man named Koppin, imprisoned, scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified in mockery of Jesus, then the body thrown into a well to hide the corpse and poison the water. The death led to Koppin and 18 Jews being hanged. Other Jews were arrested for being part of an imaginary plot to replay this incident as some type of religious ritual, but a group of Franciscans intervened and obtained their release. More a matter of anti-Semitism than sanctity, this incident was condemned by the Vatican centuries ago, and the feast is no longer kept.
Born: c.1246 at Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England
Died: murdered 27 August 1255
Patronage: torture victims
Representation: small boy bound with cords
small boy bound with cords, kneeling before Our Lady
Additional Information: Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic Online
New Catholic Dictionary
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
Translate: español | français | deutsch | italiano | português