Last modified: 2019-01-13 by ivan sache
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Municipal flag of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode / Sint-Josse-ten-Noode - Image by Ivan Sache, 19 May 2006
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The municipality of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (French) / Sint-Josse-ten-Noode (Dutch) (23,785 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 110 ha; municipal website) is one of the 19 municipalities forming the bilingual region of Brussels-Capital. It is the smallest by its area and the most densely inhabited of the 19 municipalities.
The hamlet of Nude was mentioned for the first time in the 13th
century in a document of the chapter of the St. Gudula church. The full
name of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode appeared in 1527. The early village was
located in the valley of Maelbeek, then a rural area with vineyards,
fields and pastures. The burghers of Brussels set up their vacation houses there and a duke of Burgundy built there a manor, disappeared long ago.
In the beginning of the 19th century, urbanization caused the
suppression of rural areas. The town developed as a multicultural
place (today with 130 nationalities - Saint-Josse shares with
Schaerbeek the Turkish borough known as "Little Anatolia") and a place of asylum, where for instance Marx and Engels settled. Unsurprisingly,
such a place attracted artists and there is every year a famous jazz
festival called "Saint-Jazz-ten-Noode".
Saint Josse's life is related in the Supplement to Jacobus da Varagine's Golden Legend, written in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés abbey
in Paris by Dom Jean Mabillon (1632-1707).
Josse ( d. 669) was the son of King of the Bretons Judicaël, who was
succeeded by Josse's elder brother, Judaël. At that time, the Bretons
and the Franks, ruled by Dagobert, lived in peace. Josse followed
twelve pilgrims up to Paris and then moved, alone, northwards to the
deep forests of Ponthieu (today in Picardy). After seven years of study and prayer, Josse built a small church and hut on an island in the
middle of the river Authie. Once he had only a small bread left, a poor
sent by God asked him to eat. Josse cut the bread and give one fourth
of it to the poor. God sent successively three other beggars, and
Josse ordered his disciple to give each of them a fourth of the bread,
keeping nothing for them. A few minutes later, four boats laden with food
landed of the island. Famous for his miracles, Josse left eight years
later for an even more isolated place, where he built a small shrine
dedicated to St. Martin. For the 14 years he spent there, the saint was
teased by the devil and eventually moved even further with Count
Haymon. In order to quench Haymon's thurst, Josse hit the ground with
his stick and a source gushed fourth. Josse climbed on a small
hill on the seaside and decided he would spend the rest of his life
there. He was then invited by St. Martin to visit him in Rome and came
back to his hermitage, where he did a lot of other miracles.
An abbey, suppressed in 1772, was founded near the saint's tomb and
shrine; the vilage which developed nearby was and is still named
Saint-Josse (website).
Ivan Sache, 19 May 2006
The flag of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (photo, La Tribune de Bruxelles, No. 178), is vertically divided blue-red. The colors of the flag are taken from the arms.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones [w2v03a], the arms of Saint-Josse are
"Per fess, 1. Azure a castle argent, 3. Gules per pale dexter a purse
or sinister a grape slipped and leaved or.
These arms were adopted by the Municipal Council on 25 June 1913,
confirmed by Royal Decree on 3 March 1914 and published in the Belgian
official gazette on 23-24 March 1914.
On the municipal website, the coat of arms has the shield surmounting a
white scroll with the motto L'union fait la force (Unity makes
strength).
Jan Mertens, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 19 May 2006