Saint Cucuphas (also Cucufas or Qaqophas, Catalan: Cugat, Culgat, Cougat, Spanish: Cucufate, Cucufato, Cocoba(s), French: Cucuphat, Cucufa, Cucuphat, Quiquenfat, Galician: Covade, Cobad, Occitan: Cophan, Asturian: Cucao) is a martyr of Spain.
He and Saint Felix, later martyred at Girona, were said to have been deacons of the Catholic Church in Carthage who arrived at Barcelona to evangelize the area.
Tradition holds that two Christian women from Illuro (Mataró), Juliana and Semproniana, buried his body and were consequently martyred as well.
The early medieval hymn Barcino laeto Cucufate vernans runs as follows: When the first Benedictine community gathered at Sant Cugat in the 9th century, the monastery dedicated itself to the pre-existing veneration of Cucuphas.
From the 14th century onwards, Sant Cugat kept the martyr's remains in a small chest, decorated with scenes of the saint's life.
The twelfth-century Historia Compostelana contains an account of the relics of Cucuphas being taken secretly from Braga to Santiago de Compostela by Diego Gelmírez, where they were placed in the cathedral.
[5] Property of the state since 1871, the forest was called Bois Béranger (Nemus/Boscus Berengerii) until the Benedictines built a chapel dedicated to the saint in the 13th century.
He is not generally associated with any special patronage, although Ángel Rodríguez Vilagrán writes that Joan Amades' Costumari Català mentions that anciently, hunchbacks venerated Cucuphas as their patron saint, as well as those who committed petty thefts.