Ivo of Kermartin

Ivo of Kermartin, TOSF (17 October 1253 – 19 May 1303), also known as Yvo, Yves, or Ives (and in Breton as Erwan, Iwan, Youenn or Eozenn, depending on the region, and known as Yves Hélory (also Helori or Heloury) in French), was a parish priest among the poor of Louannec, the only one of his station to be canonized in the Middle Ages. He is the patron of Brittany, lawyers, and abandoned children. His feast day is 19 May. Poetically, he is referred to as "advocate of the poor".
Born at Kermartin, a manor near Tréguier in Brittany, on 17 October 1253, Ivo was the son of Helori, lord of Kermartin, and Azo du Kenquis. In 1267 Ivo was sent to the Faculty of Law of Paris (University of Paris), where he graduated in civil law. While other students caroused, Ivo studied, prayed and visited the sick. He also refused to eat meat or drink wine. Among his fellow-students were the scholars Duns Scotus and Roger Bacon. He went to Orléans in 1277 to study canon law under Peter de la Chapelle, a famous journalist who later became bishop of Toulouse and a cardinal.
On his return to Brittany, having received minor orders, he was appointed an "official", the title given to an ecclesiastical judge, of the archdeanery of Rennes (1280). He protected orphans and widows, defended the poor, and rendered fair and impartial verdicts. It is said that even those on the losing side respected his decisions. Ivo also represented the helpless in other courts, paid their expenses and visited them in prison. Although it was common to give judges "gifts", Ivo refused bribes. He often helped many disputing parties settle out of court so they could save money.
Meanwhile, he studied Scripture, and there are strong reasons for believing the tradition held among Franciscans that he joined the Third Order of St. Francis sometime later at Guingamp. Ivo was ordained to the priesthood in 1284. He continued to practice law and once, when a mother and son could not resolve many of their differences, he offered a Mass for them. They immediately reached a settlement.
Ivo was soon invited by the Bishop of Tréguier to become his official, and accepted the offer in 1284. He displayed great zeal and rectitude in the discharge of his duty and did not hesitate to resist taxation by the king, which he considered an encroachment on the rights of the Church. Due to his charity he gained the title of advocate and patron of the poor. Having been ordained he was appointed to the parish of Tredrez in 1285.
Eight years later he was sent to Louannec, where he and built a hospital and himself helped care for the sick. Ivo died in 1303 of natural causes after a life of hard work and repeated fasting.
John Wigmore retells the famous story of St. Ives and the Widow of Tours, writing in the Fordham Law Review in 1936:
On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of St. Ivo, Pope John Paul II said, "The values proposed by St Ivo retain an astonishing timeliness. His concern to promote impartial justice and to defend the rights of the poorest persons invites the builders of Europe today to make every effort to ensure that the rights of all, especially the weakest, are recognized and defended."
Saint Yves is the patron of lawyers. As a result, many law schools and association of catholic lawyers have taken his names. For instance, the Society of St. Yves in Jerusalem (a Catholic Center for Human Rights and Legal Aid, Resources and Development), the Conférence Saint-Yves [fr] in Luxembourg (the Luxembourg Catholic Lawyers Association), or the Association de la Saint Yves Lyonnais.
He was buried in Minihy-Tréguier in the church he founded.
Bretons sang a song about Ivo:
Ivo was canonized in June 1347 by Clement VI at the urging of Philip I, Duke of Burgundy. At the inquest into his sanctity in 1331, many of his parishioners testified as to his goodness, that he preached regularly in both chapel and field, and that under him "the people of the land became twice as good as they had been before". The connection between religion and good behaviour was especially stressed in his sermons.
Shortly after 1362, the future saint Jeanne-Marie de Maillé reported a vision of Yves (and an ecstasy, raptus), during which he told her, "If you are willing to abandon the world, you will taste here on earth the joys of heaven."
Ivo is often represented with a purse in his right hand (for all the money he gave to the poor during his life) and a rolled paper in the other hand (for his charge as a judge). Another popular representation of Ivo is between a rich man and a poor one. The churches of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza and Sant'Ivo dei Bretoni in Rome are dedicated to him.