ON ST. URSUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT TROYES IN GAUL,
From the Martyrologies. In the year 326.
CommentarySt. Ursus, bishop and confessor, at Troyes in Gaul.
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The memory of the holy Prelate is to be sought from no other source than the Martyrologies, since of his deeds, virtues, or miracles nothing at all written has come to us. That he was in order the seventh bishop of the city of Troyes, He is reported on this day in the Martyrologies, and so the predecessor of the most celebrated St. Lupus, in whose manuscript Life our Saint is praised, is agreed among all; nor is there doubt that he most holily instructed the flock committed to him, especially in that century in which the Gospel was preached in Gaul with the fullest liberty; for he is supposed to have departed from life in the year 426, on this very 25th of July, although his memory, on account of the more solemn feast of St. James intervening, is observed only the next day, or the 26th. To us it seemed good to prefer the birthday itself, with those Martyrologies which expressly treat of him on the said 25th, with, if I am not mistaken, at least in these parts, the manuscript Florary of the Saints leading, thus announcing on this day: "In the district of Meaux, the deposition of St. Ursus, bishop of Troyes and confessor"; which same words and on the same day are read in the Lübeck-Cologne edition, in Greven, Molanus, and Canisius: Saussay followed the day of the cult in the Supplement, finding nothing whence to compose a eulogy worthy of the Saint.
[2] The learned Camuzat also sufficiently professes his own want, in his Promptuary, page 153, when although he is venerated at Troyes the next day. concerning him he reports these few things: "The church of Troyes celebrates the feast of his birthday on the 26th of July, and in the most ancient Martyrology of Sens these things are read of him on the 6th of the Kalends (better, Desguerrois, the 8th of the Kalends) of August. In the district of Meaux, in the hundred of Cupeda, in a place which is called Cubtas, the deposition of St. Ursus, bishop of the church of Troyes and confessor. But his body, worthily buried in a marble sarcophagus, carved with wondrous work." A little more precisely Castellanus wished to designate the place, when he wrote also on this day: "In the district of Meaux (French, pays Mulcien), in a place of the diocese of Meaux, etc."; nor yet even so has it been found hitherto, being too confused by "in the hundred of Cupeda," which the praised Desguerrois asserts he sweated in vain to discover, at the year 426; nor does it please us to waste labor in seeking it. "Not the least portion of his relics," says Camuzat, "is now kept in the said church of Troyes; but the history of his life is nowhere to be found: but he breathed out his most holy soul about the year 426."
[3] The division of his relics I have already said that of the year of his happy death there is no controversy: of the time when his relics were carried from the first burial to Troyes, there is silence as deep as of the deeds themselves: but that they were translated is necessary, and indeed concerning their division a concord must be entered into between the cathedral church of St. Peter and the collegiate church
of St. Stephen, where at least some part of the body of St. Ursus is thought to be deposited, and that not of another of the same name, but of this St. Ursus, although this is not expressly added. Moreover, in the list of sacred relics which is accustomed to be recited on the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension in the Cathedral, these things are most expressly contained in that same Promptuary, page 121: "Let us venerate also the precious and inestimable pearls of the bodies of the blessed bishops of Troyes, Ursus, Camelian, Prudentius, and Paul, resting entire in the present church." Desguerrois tries to compose the suit amicably in that plain manner which has befallen us six hundred times, that at whatever time they were divided, a part is to be taken for the whole, and that meanwhile both churches remain in peaceful possession, each content with its treasure, such as it is. What Tamayo narrates of the Saint, do you see in his famous Martyrology at the 26th of July; but it wearies us to report things which rest on no appearance of truth: nor do we know why Castellanus thought St. Ursus should be omitted.