Jean Sarazin (also Sarrasin or Sarrazin), Latinized Joannes Saracenus (1539–1598) was an abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Vaast, Arras, and the third archbishop of Cambrai.

Joannes Saracenus
Allegory of the First Estate, engraved by Adriaen Collaert after Maerten de Vos and published by Philip Galle; dedicated to Jean Sarazin
Native name
Jean Sarazin
ChurchCatholic
ArchdioceseArchdiocese of Cambrai
SeeNôtre Dame Sainte Marie de Cambrai
Elected6 March 1596
PredecessorLouis de Berlaymont
SuccessorGuillaume de Berghes
Other post(s)Abbot of St Vaast (1577–1598)
Orders
Consecration15 December 1596
by Ottavio Mirto Frangipani
Personal details
BornJuly 20, 1539
DiedMarch 3, 1598(1598-03-03) (aged 58)
Brussels, Duchy of Brabant, Spanish Netherlands
BuriedAbbey of St. Vaast
DenominationBenedictine
ParentsAntoine Sarazin, craftsman, and Marie de Poix, inn-keeper
Alma materUniversity of Paris, Leuven University
MottoPietate et patientia (From piety and patience)
Coat of armsJoannes Saracenus's coat of arms

Life

edit

Sarazin was baptized in Arras on 20 July 1539. He was the son of Antoine Sarazin, a craftsman in the wool trade, and Marie de Poix, an inn-keeper. As a choirboy he came to the attention of the parish priest, who ensured he obtained an education. On 29 May 1556 he entered the Abbey of St Vaast. The abbot, impressed with his abilities, sent him for further studies in Paris and Leuven.

From 1575 Sarazin was the delegate of the abbot of St Vaast in the States of the County of Artois, and in that capacity was involved in negotiations relating to the Pacification of Ghent (1576).[1] In 1577 he became abbot himself. An edition of the works of Prosper of Aquitaine, printed in Douai by Joannes Bogardus in 1577, was dedicated to Abbot Sarazin, as was Antonius Meyer's Ursus, sive de rebus Divi Vedasti Episcopi Atrebatensis (Paris, Charles Roger, 1580), and much later Philippe Bosquier's Le Fouet de l'Académie des Pécheurs (Arras, Guillaume de la Rivière, 1597).

Sarazin was active in bringing about the Union of Arras (1579) which was a first step towards reconciling the Walloon provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands to the government of Philip II of Spain. In 1582 he took part in a delegation from the Southern Netherlands to Philip II. A manuscript account of this mission was written by his successor as abbot of St Vaast, Philippe de Caverel, and was published in 1851 as Relation du voyage et de l'ambassade de Jean Sarrazin en Espagne et en Portugal, edited by Louis de Baecker (Bruges, 1851).

On 6 March 1596 Sarazin was appointed to the archbishopric of Cambrai in succession to Louis de Berlaymont, being consecrated in Brussels by the apostolic nuncio on 15 December 1596.[2]

He died in Brussels on 3 March 1598 and was buried in the Abbey of St Vaast.

Writings

edit

A manuscript volume of Sarazin's sermons (1578–1598) survives in the Bibliothèque Municipale Arras.[3]

References

edit
  1. ^ Herman Vander Linden, "Sarrazin (Jean)", Biographie Nationale de Belgique vol. 21 Archived 2017-02-15 at the Wayback Machine (Brussels, 1913), 402-409.
  2. ^ Hugues Du Tems, Le clergé de France, vol. 4 (Paris, 1775), p. 35.
  3. ^ Catalogue collectif de France. Accessed 23 November 2015.
edit
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Abbot of St Vaast
1577–1598
Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Cambrai
1596–1598
Succeeded by