Chief Justice of the whole district of Saint-Claude.
The city of Saint-Claude derives its name from S. Claudius, Abbot of Condat, whose life has been the subject of much controversy. Dom Benoît, Histoire de l’abbaye et de la terre de S. Claude (Montreuil-sur-Mer, 1890), tells us that the Saint had been Bishop of Besançon before being abbot; that he ruled his monastery for fifty-five years, and died in 694. The Abbey of Condat, which was founded between 425 and 430 by the hermits S. Romanus and S. Lupicinus, who had withdrawn into the desert where Saint-Claude now stands, became one of the most distinguished houses in Christendom. Originally the town which arose around the cloisters was known as S. Oyan de Joux from S. Eugendus (Oyan or Oyand), a disciple of the two holy founders. S. Eugendus died 1 January, 510, at Condat, and his tomb was long a place of pilgrimage. When, however, the body of
