St. Ives (aka St. Ivo) is recognized as one of the two “patron saints of lawyers” of the Catholic Church, the other being the better-known Sir Thomas More. Nevertheless, St. Ives is an inspiring historical figure for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, for he led a life in the belief that faith and justice are intertwined.

Ives Helory of Kermartin was born to a wealthy noble family on Oct. 17, 1253, in the French province of Brittany.¹ At the age of 14, he was sent to Paris to study law. While a student, he not only forged a reputation as a scholar, but became known for his compassion.²

Ives gave the money sent from home to the poor, removed his clothes and gave them to beggars, and cared for the sick, eventually constructing a hospital. Once when he discovered a homeless man had spent the night on his doorstep, the next night he made the man sleep in his own bed as Ives slept on the doorstep.

After completing his legal studies, Ives was sent to Orleans to learn church law. By 1280 he was an ecclesiastical judge at Rennes. (Church courts heard a wide range of civil and criminal cases.) He earned a reputation for fairness, for helping widows and orphans and for representing the poor without charge in other courts. He did require every applicant for his legal assistance “make an oath that his cause was in conscience a just one.” ³

Ives was also known for rejecting bribes, settling disputes outside of court, regularly visiting prisoners and paying the fines for poor defendants. His efforts caused him to win the title “the Advocate of the Poor.”⁴

He also won renown for compiling all the customary law of Brittany and for founding legal fraternities devoted to providing legal help to the poor. It has been said that his fraternities may be considered the first legal aid societies.⁵

The Widow of Tours

One day Ives came upon a crying widow at Tours. She had been sued by a traveling merchant named Doe. She explained that Doe and his partner, Roe, stayed at her lodging house. They had left in her care a box of valuables with instructions that she only turn it over to both when they returned. However, Roe returned the same day alone and asked for the box saying Doe had been delayed. Accordingly, she gave him the box. Later Doe appeared claiming she had breached the terms of the instructions by handing the box over to only Roe. She explained to Ives that if the court ordered her to pay for the box’s contents, she would be ruined. Ives agreed to represent her.⁶

In court the next day, Doe charged the woman with “breach of faith.” Ives rose and said:

Not so. My client need not yet make an answer to this claim. The plaintiff has not proved his case. The terms of the bailment were that the casket should be demanded by the two merchants coming together. Here is only one of them making demand. Where is the other? Let the plaintiff produce his partner!⁷

The judge agreed with Ives and suspected fraud. So, he ordered the trembling Doe arrested and Roe was tracked down and brought into court with the box. There the box was opened and found to be full of worthless junk. This story of the thwarting of the plot by the “two rascals” spread across France.⁸

Priesthood and Sainthood

In 1284 Ives was ordained to the priesthood and continued to serve as a judge, arbitrator and lawyer, being known as a powerful oral advocate. The same year, he accepted an offer to become an official for the Bishop of Tréguier, where he soon drew attention by resisting taxation of the church by the king. In 1285 he was appointed to the parish of Tredrez and eight years later to Louannec.

Ives was in great demand as a stirring preacher, giving as many as seven sermons a day as crowds followed him across the countryside⁹ Around 1297 he resigned his church offices to become a simple Franciscan and to devote full time to preaching and his pro bono law practice.¹⁰

Toward the end of his life, Ives was extremely ill and had to be supported as he preached. On his deathbed, his eyes remained fixed on a cross placed before a window in his room. When a bystander suggested calling for a doctor, Ives said his only doctor was Jesus. He died on May 19, 1303, and was canonized in 1347.¹¹ On his tomb was inscribed:

Saint Ives was a Breton
A lawyer and not a thief
A marvelous thing to the people¹²

The inscription proves lawyers have long had a PR problem. It also proves pro bono work is a cure. |||

RUSSELL FOWLER is director of litigation and advocacy at Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET), and since 1999 he has been adjunct professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He served as the law clerk to Chancellor C. Neal Small in Memphis and earned his law degree at the University of Memphis in 1987. Fowler has written many publications on law and legal history, and is a regular columnist for the Journal. He received the TBA’s Justice Joseph W. Henry Award for Outstanding Legal Writing for 2023.

NOTES

1. Elizabeth Hallam, Saints 66 (1994).
2. John H. Wigmore, St. Ives, Patron Saint of Lawyers, 5 Fordham Law Review 401, 402 (1936).
3. Id. at 403.
4. Hallam at 66.
5. Ann Lousin, The Patron Saints of Lawyers, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, May 19, 2010.
6. See Wigmore at 402.
7. Id. at 402-3.
8. See Id. at 403.
9. Wigmore at 404.
10. See Ann Lousin, The Patron Saints of Lawyers, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, May 19, 2010.
11. Hallam at 66.
12. See Ann Lousin, The Patron Saints of Lawyers, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, May 19, 2010.