When was Saint Jessica canonized?

Answer 1

I have never heard of a saint named Jessica. In older resources, the name is described as a variant of Joanna, and Joanna was the name of an early Christian disciple mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in The Bible. A scattered few saints reference works identify "Saint Jessica" with the disciple Joanna, but neither the Catholic Encycolpedia nor Butler's Lives of the Saints mentions her by that name. There is some historical mention of women named Jessica living in England during the 13th and 14th centuries; these were members of the Jewish community. The earliest appearance of the name in English literature occured in William Shakespeare's "A Merchant of Venice" (written around 1597); his character Jessica was a Jewish maiden. In checking the lists of given names in British royal and noble families, I found no Jessicas born before the 20th century. Whereas, from the time of William the Conqueror (1066), the British aristocracy have bestowed nearly every saints' name in existence on their daughters: Barbara, Elizabeth, Mary, Ursula, Agnes, Beatrice, Catherine, Margaret . . . the list goes on and on. But no Jessicas until the 20th century. I would conclude that Jessica is a lovely name traditionally borne by women from Jewish familes dating back to the Middle Ages, and in recent years by women from non-Jewish families, but that the Catholic Church has never honored a saint of that name.