Which is prettily rendered by d'Amaury Duval: "Tandis que les nymphes, haletantes, montent vers le sommet de la montagne, l'une d'elles, éprise de la beauté du vallon, y fixe sa demeure."
The third saint who disputes the patronage of this particular church is S. Julian Hospitator, who watches over travellers, ferrymen, boatmen and travelling minstrels. He was a nobleman much given to the chase, and one day, while pursuing a deer, the frightened creature turned round, and cried out, "Thou followest me, thou who wilt one day kill thy father and mother."[93] Thereupon Julian rushed away to a far country, where he was made a knight, and much honoured by the king. But his parents, grieved at his loss, set off to try and find him, and coming to his castle, they made themselves known to his wife, who put them in their son's chamber, and left them for the night. In the morning she went to early mass to give thanks for this great mercy, and during her absence, Julian, finding the old people in his room, and not recognizing them in the dim light of dawn, turned upon them and slew them, as it seems, somewhat hastily. Then Julian resolved to depart and devote himself to some good work; but his wife would not let him go alone, so they journeyed until they came to a great river, where many people were drowned in trying to ford it, and there they set up a hermitage and a hospital, and a ferry boat for travellers free of charge. One day, when a leper presented himself, Julian not only ferried him over, but carried him in his arms to his own bed, and tended him with the aid of his good wife. And in the morning the leper arose, transformed, and saying, "Julian, the Lord hath sent me to thee; thy penitence is accepted, and thy rest and that of thy wife is near at hand," vanished out of their sight. And shortly after, both Julian and his wife fell asleep.[94] The Cathedral of Rouen possesses a window presented by the company of bateliers-pêcheurs in the 14th century, upon which this legend of the ferry is represented.
There can be little doubt that the church was originally dedicated to Julian the Martyr, as recorded by Grégoire de Tours, and that later the culte of the other two Julians was added; particularly as we find upon one of the houses of the Rue Galande, which abuts upon one side of the church, a curious 13th century bas-relief of this very legend of the ferry. S. Julian and his wife are rowing the boat, apparently in opposite directions, and standing up is the passenger, no other than Our Lord Himself, as we see from the cruciform nimbus. Is it not probable that at some time, when repairs were going on, this bas-relief was removed from the church, and does not the situation of S. Julien le Pauvre, or des pauvres, close to a river and a fish-market, seem to be further proof that the Hospitator was one of the later patrons of the church? There are said to be nearly sixty[95] saints of this name, and as a proof of their popularity in France, we find no less than one hundred and sixty-two villages called after them. In Spain they were still more popular. Saint-Julien le Ménétrier, or des Ménétriers, was a hospital founded in 1330 by Jacques Grare and Huet le Lorrain, for fiddlers, jugglers, and acrobats. It was situated near the Rue S. Martin. One of the attributes of S. Julian Hospitator is a mask. He is thus seen on some of the windows at the cathedrals of Chartres and Rouen, the latter of the 14th century. His name also seems to have had virtue in it as an expletive, for in the Chronique des Ducs de Normendie et des Rois d'Engletierre the following exclamation occurs: "'Par Saint Julian!' dist Hubiers Gautiers li bons archevêsque de Chantorbire (Canterbury)."
S. Julien was also invoked by travellers:
(Saint Ylaire) saint Juliens
Qui héberge les Crestiens,
was a rhyme of the Moustiers de Paris, written in 1270; and a document of 1325 upon the Churches and Monasteries of Paris thus confirms the usefulness of S. Julien-le-Pauvre:
Or m'en iray outre le pont
Pour des autres moustiers trouver
Que l'on ne puisse réprouver,
Quar s'en mon dit faille de rien,
Premiers trouverez saint Julien
Le Povre, et bien ai regardé
Que maint compagnon a gardé
De mort, ce n'est pas mesprison
Et d'estre en vilainne prison;
Il les héberge et si les tence
De héberger a la poissance.