Day: December 20, 2023

Saint of the Day – 20 December – Saint Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne (c552-c625) Abbot, Hermit, disciple of St Columban (543-615).  Born in c552 in either France or Ireland and died on 20 December in c625 near modern St-Ursanne, Jura, Switzerland of natural causes. Patronages – against stiff neck, Besançon in France, in Switzerland – Basel, Saint-Ursanne. Also known as – Ursicino del Giura, Ursan, Ursitz, Ursanne. Additional Memorial – 24 July in the Diocese of Basel, Switzerland.

The cult of St Ursicinus, a Hermit in the Jura, is attested in this Swiss region since the third part of the 7th Century. In fact, already before 67, the Abbot German of Moûtier-Grandval, had built a Church in our Saint’s honour near Grandval.

Furthermore, an ancient document reports that Abbot St Wandregisel (Died 668), built a Monastery around 630 in the same place where Ursicinus rested.

The Sarcophagus of the Hermit Saint, dating to the 7th Century, is still venerated in the beautiful Church of St Ursanne (Ursicinus), located in the bend of the Doubs river which rises in the French Jura and enters Swiss territory for a short stretch, forming the aforementioned bend, on whose shore the Church is located.

As regards the life of Ursicinus, everything that the Hagiographers have considered and spread, comes from an ancient document, first cited by the Jesuit Claudio Sudan (1579-1665) in his work “Sacred Basel” but which unfortunately, he did not transcribe verbatim. The document was a liturgical legend in 24 lessons, which was composed at the request of Bishop Hugh I of Besançon, the Diocese to which the Hermit Ursicinus then belonged.

This ‘Vita’ which was lost, said that Ursicinus was an Irish Monk, a companion of St Colomban (543-615), the Abbot who emigrated from Ireland to France and then to Italy, where he founded the Monastery of Bobbio in 614. Ursicinus, who had followed the Abbot Colomban, together with the Monks Gallus, Sigisbert, Fromond, in the Gaul of the time, when in 610, they had to leave Luxeuil in French territory, split from his master who was headed for Italy and with Fromond, he went up the mountain range of Franco-Swiss Jura, looking for a suitable place for a Hermit’s life.

Tradition says that Ursicinus proposed to his fellow Monk to throw their sticks into the air from the top of a mountain, thus letting Heaven decide the correct indication at the point of where they fell. The sticks fell in different places and the two companions were separated, Ursicinus’ fell near a cave, in the valley of the Doubs river, where he retired as a Hermit.

In this place he built a Chapel dedicated to St Peter and which would, in the future, take his name. Soon his fame attracted various disciples, so Ursicinus founded a Monastery for them, under the rule of his master, St Columban and under his governance.

After about ten years of an exemplary hmonastic life, Saint Ursicinus died around 625. Hhis name is found in the Litanies of the Saints venerated in Besançon since the 11th Century and in the Martyrology of the same Diocese today, 20 December.

The Monastery he founded in the Doubs valley underwent various changes over time, passed to the Benedictines, in 1040 it was dependent on that of Moûtier-Grandval, then in 1077 it was assigned to the Bishops of Basel. In 1119, one of these Bishops established a Collegiate Church there which lasted until 1793 when it was destroyed.

The Town of Saint Ursanne arose around the Monastery. He is venerated throughout the Northern Jura, in Besançon, Mainz, Basel. Images of him show him holding a book and lilies.