ON ST. URSICINUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AMONG THE PEOPLE OF SENS IN GAUL.
Perhaps 4th Century.
CommentaryUrsicinus, bishop and confessor, among the Senones in Gaul (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Of this pontiff of Sens the Roman Martyrology makes mention on this day in these words: At Sens, of St. Ursicinus, bishop and confessor. Whether Baronius first marked him, or received him from Galesinius, Marked in the Roman Martyrology, is made doubtful by another such phrase used by the latter: At Sens, of St. Ursicinus, bishop and confessor, a man of divine power and admirable piety. This at least is certain, that in the more ancient Calendars the memory of this St. Ursicinus is nowhere observed; nor indeed did Baronius indicate any Martyrology whence he drew him. His notice today is this: He succeeded St. Polycarp, and is assigned tenth in order in the series of the bishops of Sens; he flourished about the year of the Lord 310, as appears from the tables of Demochares in his book On the Sacrifice of the Mass: add chapter 17, where he weaves the series of the archbishops of Sens in his own manner, and so arranges the chronology as if all the times had been most fully ascertained by him: inserting Polycarp in the ninth place, whom you would not find at all in other better catalogues, nay, attributing to Polycarp those things,
which can conveniently be ascribed neither to him Polycarp, nor to our St. Ursicinus, if the things which are handed down about him be exacted to historical credit.
[2] he is adorned with a eulogy by Saussay, All things, therefore, being set aside which Demochares there arbitrarily determined, even those which Ghini drew from him, I subjoin here Saussay's eulogy, such as it is, who both wrongly substituted "Ursinus" for "Ursicinus," and reported other things more ornate than well-proven. We shall hear him: At Sens, of St. Ursinus, bishop and confessor, who, after Severinus, a supporter of the councils of Sardica and Cologne, sitting in that metropolis, governed it with admirable praise of sanctity: and, desirous of enlarging religion, built a monastery of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius; in which he gathered a copious company of the servants of Christ. Hence, on account of his zeal for the orthodox faith, which he built up with all priestly vigor, being held in grave hatred by the Arians who were defiling the Gauls, he was by them, from the synod of Béziers, together with St. Hilary and other strenuous combatants of Christian piety, cast down from his see, and driven into exile. But afterward, the faith being equally strongly defended in the East, when the glorious Athlete of Christ could by no terror or pressure be led away from the constancy of asserting it, being sent back from this struggle into Gaul, he recovered his see, and shone forth more than before by the examples of a most holy life, and by unwearied preachings of the Catholic truth: and thus, consummated in all perfection, he migrated to the seats of eternal felicity, to be beatified for his merits. This blessed Prelate St. Hilary, also on his return from exile, visited at Sens; and was received by him in that house which afterward the devotion of the people, on account of the dear and illustrious memory of so great a guest, changed into a sacred building, which still stands, distinguished by the title of St. Hilary.
[3] What Saussay here narrates and embellishes I would not indeed assert or vouch for, no more sincere or true, let the credit rest with himself; this at least must be confessed, that they are, to say the least, uncertain, both those things which regard the series and age of the first bishops of Sens, and those which are recorded of their deeds, so that here at least Tillemont rightly pronounced, in volume 10, page 460, that he found nothing about St. Ursinus, except what is commonly reported, that the church of the holy Gervasius and Protasius was built by him, which will be most difficultly reconciled with his age, since he is supposed to have flourished at the beginning of the fourth century, and to have held the see from the year 310 to 356, in which hypothesis I do not at all see what knowledge of those holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius St. Ursicinus could in any way have had, since before the year 386 the sacred bodies were not found, whence we showed that their cult was then first propagated through the universal Church, on their natal day, June 19. And hence you may conjecture, a fortiori, how ineptly Demochares ascribed the building of that church to Polycarp.
[4] To Polycarp, I say, the alleged predecessor of St. Ursicinus, what the other things are that are handed down about the Saint, whom neither the manuscript Catalogues which are in our possession, nor the most approved editions, recount among the prelates of Sens: let it be enough for us to have reported St. Ursicinus, not on the following day, or July 25, as Tillemont wrongly noted, but in this his place, with the proper lessons of the ecclesiastical Office from the very Breviary of the year 1625, which nevertheless I would not dare to assert are today approved by the people of Sens. There are among our manuscripts short Lives, not much unlike each other, commendable only for their longer verbosity, from which you would draw not a whit that could be reduced to historical truth, so that hence it is easy to determine also about the whole eulogy of Saussay. Of the monastery of the holy Gervasius and Protasius we have already spoken. Constantine is everywhere wrongly built in, for whom Constantius must certainly be substituted. The exile into Phrygia rests on no authority, nor indeed is a suitable time found, unless his life be extended beyond the year 356, which the people of Sens would not, I think, easily admit. What he did at Jerusalem, what with St. Basil, is as ambiguous as that Jovinian succeeded Constantine. If I am not mistaken, all these things have been corrected in the more recent Sens Breviary; yet it will not be unwelcome to have here transcribed them, according to our practice.
[5] also in the lessons of the Breviary. Lesson I. At that time, in which blessed Ursicinus took up the see of the pontificate of Sens, in certain places an inestimable multitude of pagans, still envying the Christians, lay hidden, and slew in secret the men of the Catholic rule whom it was able to find. Whose cowardice of stolid mind the holy Man made void, by praying to God for their afflictions: and as many of those same pagans as he could find in his own pontificate, he straightway acquired for perennial life by baptizing them. But thou O Lord, have mercy on us. Lesson II. But when peace had established his borders, he built one monastery in honor of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, and endowed it with possessions, and gathered monks there: who, visiting those same brethren, stood among them as one of them. Then by Constantine the emperor then reigning, obeying the machinations of the heretics, he was ordered to be relegated into exile in Phrygia with several others. But St. Ursicinus, after some journeys of labors, went to Jerusalem, to the sepulchre of the holy resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of visiting [it]. But thou. Lesson III. And when he had stayed for a short time with the bishop of Jerusalem, he asked of him the relics of the Holy Innocents, and departed. Thence, coming to Caesarea of Cappadocia, he asked of St. Basil the bishop for some of the relics of blessed Mamertus the martyr. Afterward he came to Constantinople, and again came into Phrygia. For Constantine being dead, Jovinian follows in the empire: who, for love of the Christian law, straightway caused those very Saints, relegated into exile, to be recalled; and blessed Ursicinus, coming to Sens, and being received into the episcopal see, afterward lived many years in peace, and went to the Lord, to whom is honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. But thou.