ON SAINT URBICIUS, BISHOP OF METZ ON THE MOSELLE.
AROUND THE YEAR 420.
CommentaryUrbicius, Bishop of Metz on the Moselle (Saint)
[1] Paul Warnefrid, son of a Lombard, Deacon of Friuli, in his booklet on the number or order of the Bishops of Metz, establishes Urbicius as the fifteenth, whom we read to have been inscribed already long ago in the manuscript Martyrology of the Church of Prague. Many others have followed, among whom the author of the manuscript Florarium has the following: Sacred veneration "At the city of Metz, of Blessed Urbicius, Bishop and Confessor, in the year of salvation 428." But Saint Urbicius is called Bishop and --
Confessor by Greven, Canisius, Ferrarius, and with a lengthy encomium by Saussaye in the Gallican Martyrology in these words: "At Metz, the deposition of Saint Urbicius, Bishop and Confessor, who after Expletius held the helm of this most noble See, and governed it with such renown of prudence and religion that, happily departing, he guided the people entrusted to him to the harbor of salvation; and by the merit of his labor and vigilance he was Blessed, having attained the reward of eternal glory." So Saussaye, words which could be attributed to any holy Bishop. In the ancient Martyrology of Metz, these words are recited concerning him: "At Metz, the deposition of Saint Urbicius, the first Archbishop and Confessor." Meurisse in his history of the Bishops of Metz investigates at greater length the reason why he was called Archbishop, which the Reader may consult; we more safely call him Bishop, as do other writers.
[2] Meurisse assigns the year of his death as the nineteenth above four hundred, and adds that his sacred body was first buried in the church of Saint Maximinus in Vinea, time of death which was the first erected of all the churches that are on the other side of the river Seille. But thence it was afterwards carried outside the city gate by which one departs toward Germany, and deposited in a small chapel dedicated to God under the invocation of the holy Bishop Urbicius, burial in which it was discovered in the year 1516. discovery Up to that time, the blessed memory and reputation of his sanctity had persisted among the citizens of Metz by continuous tradition; whence, both on the day of the discovery and in the following time, the people flocked with such fervor to honor the sacred relics that the Bishops were compelled to impose a limit with some prohibition, until what pertained to due veneration should be sufficiently examined and declared with proper formality. When afterwards, on account of the wars, this chapel along with many other monasteries and churches had to be destroyed in the year 1552, translation the body of Saint Urbicius was brought back into the city to the church of Saint Eucharius, where it is deposited and preserved in a small case which the Cantor of the Cathedral Church ordered to be made, when he was visiting the entire diocese in the name and by the authority of Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, Bishop of the city of Metz.
[3] So much for Saint Urbicius, Bishop of Metz, from whom Ferrarius distinguishes another Saint Urbicius, Bishop of Mainz, citing the German Martyrology of Canisius. But he was deceived by the small difference between these cities in the German language, Is there another Saint Urbicius, Bishop of Mainz? in which for this day one reads "Metz," by which the city of Metz is signified, but elsewhere "Meintz" is more often written, by which Mainz is indicated. Ferrarius adds meanwhile that Nicholas Serarius treats of him in his History of Mainz -- which he would without doubt have done, if he had learned from any source that such a person had ever existed among the Bishops of Mainz. Finally he notes that he is not venerated with an ecclesiastical Office, which seems to apply to Saint Urbicius of Metz.