Ursus

ON SAINT URSUS,

BISHOP OF FANO IN ITALY.

7TH CENT.

Ursus, Bishop of Fano, in Italy (S.)

G. H.

The Church of Fano with solemn rite venerates four Bishops of its city and its Protectors: of whom was S. Eusebius, of whom we treated on the XVIII day of April, where we related very many things of the situation of that city and the benefits bestowed on us there, which there can be read. Another of the Protectors is S. Ursus, whose birthday falls on this XV of May. Of him Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy writes these things: Ursus Bishop of Fano on this day is celebrated at Fano, whose body together with the body of S. Eusebius, Bishop of the same city, in the same marble ark, in its own altar and chapel of the greater Church, rests. The same Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, At Fano Fortunae, he says, of S. Ursus, Bishop of the same city and Protector: and annotates that the Acts are contained in a certain MS. codex, woven rather from the common than from the proper. Ughello in volume I of Sacred Italy among the Bishops of Fano, numbers him the sixth Bishop of the said city. But, he says, it is not sufficiently established whether he flourished before or after S. Fortunatus, although in the tables of the same Church he is said to have lived in the year 625. Meanwhile with Ughello after S. Fortunatus places S. Ursus Vincent Nolfi, in the Lives of the four holy Bishops and Protectors of Fano, printed in the year 1641, of S. Ursus bringing forth these few things from the tradition of the elders alone.

[2] S. Ursus born at Rome, had Patrician parents, whose ancestors are believed to have held the Magistracy, and to have been honored with the Consular dignity. A compendium of his Life, But he himself, worldly pomp being spurned, applied his mind to divine service, and by Honorius the first Roman Pontiff, in the year of Christ six hundred and twenty-five, in the time of the Emperor Heraclius, was elected Bishop of the Church of Fano: in which dignity he labored strenuously, to eliminate whatever traces of ancient idolatry there were, and the superstition thence born, by which all religious piety is violated, utterly to extirpate. But how long he lived, and as a true Pastor fed his flock in sanctity of life and miraculous works, is unknown: yet it seems to be believed of him, what of Abraham sacred Scripture asserts, namely that full of days and merits from this vale of tears he departed to the heavenly joy, on the fifteenth day of May. Gen. 25, 8

[3] Afterwards in the year one thousand one hundred and thirteen, as the Acts of S. Fortunatus have it, when the people of Fano sought, where the bones of this their Pontiff rested; it pleased at last, that they should break that pyramid, in which the sacred body with its coffin they had learned by the ordinance of the elders to be contained. The body found in the year 1113. Therefore the pyramid is overturned, the stone ark is uncovered, uncovered it is opened, that venerable treasure, which was sought, is beheld within: and since the charity of the Elect ever rejoices in holy society, because charity cannot be singular, two others were found with him, whose sacred names the inscribed writings declare, while they announce one to be called Eusebius, the other Ursus. And deservedly those three Pontiffs are enclosed in one mausoleum, who instructed by the same faith of the Trinity and Unity, sublime by the same Pontifical dignity, sacred Rectors of the same Church of Fano, arrived alike at the same perpetual glory of felicity. But the venerable Relics being uncovered, thou wouldst behold the whiteness of snow in the bones, so that now in them the glorification of the resurrection was presignified: a fragrance also of odor so great flowed, that it transcended the perfumes of myrrh and balsam and all unguents with incomparable sweetness. These things Ughello from the Life of S. Fortunatus the Bishop, written by John of Nonantola, but it entire is to be given on his birthday June VIII. Of the worship of S. Ursus, and the punishment divinely following its contempt, these things adds Vincent Nolfi.

[4] A certain rustic in the territory of Fano, when on the birthday of S. Ursus there was to be abstaining from all servile work, A blasphemer violating the feast is punished, either by the instinct of avarice or by the defect of due piety, dared in a field not far from the city to labor with a plough. But it happened that about noon he was admonished by some man more pious with kind words, that it was not fitting on this feast that servile work then to be performed, that some misfortune could threaten him or his family. Which or other words of this kind the rustic received with laughter, saying, that to that Ursus he would oppose a Dog, for by that name he was commonly called. Scarcely had he finished the blasphemous words, when the oxen with the plough, fallen into a most deep abyss, perished. That very abyss even now is called the Pit of S. Ursus.

ON S. BRITHUNUS OR BERETHUNUS,

ABBOT OF BEVERLEY IN ENGLAND.

A.D. 733.

Brythunus, or Berethunus, Abbot of Beverley, in England (S.)

BHL Number: 1465

G. H.

The monastery of Beverley in the Eastern part of the Duchy of York S. John Archbishop of York constructed, thence called of Beverley, as more at length on his Life on May VII it was said. The first Abbot there constituted was S. Brithunus, of whom still living S. Bede in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation, chapter 2, gave this testimony. Of John more miracles of virtues, Deacon of S. John of Beverley, those who knew him are wont to tell, and especially the most reverend and most truthful Berethun, formerly his Deacon, but now Abbot of the monastery, which is called Inderawood, that is the Wood of the Deirans; in which namely the monastery itself of Beverley is situated. The Life of S. John we gave, written by Folcard a monk of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Canterbury in the XI century, in which it is said that S. John, the Pontificate of York being left, with whom he buries him: by the counsel of S. Brithunus his Abbot, sought Beverley, and there long persisting in the service of God, on the Nones of May happily ended his life, and so ascending to the heavenly kingdoms, was buried in the porch of S. John the Evangelist in his monastery, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord seven hundred twenty-one. And this is the second testimony, in which with the title of Saint Brithunus is honored. The third is suggested by John of Tynemouth in Capgrave in the Legend of the Saints of England, in which an illustrious compendium of his life is had under this title, On S. Brithunus the Abbot and Confessor.

[2] The venerable Confessor of Christ Brithunus, deriving his origin from the progeny of the Angles, long remained Deacon of S. John Bishop of Beverley: Abbot famous for virtues, whom for the sanctity of his life and laudable conversation of morals he held before the rest more familiar and ever dear, and in the monastery of Deirwood, that is of the wood of the Deirans (which now is called Beverley, from the same

S. John constructed from the foundations) constituted him Abbot. For S. John, weighed down by old age, the Bishopric being dismissed, in his aforesaid monastery, by the counsel of the venerable Abbot Brithunus, living for four years in an Angelic conversation, ended his life. He being translated to the heavens, the venerable Abbot Brithunus at all the time of his life, as a good foster-son, made an imitator of his Master, in all purity of life, vigils, fasts, prayers, and the other good works persevered even to the end of his life. For he was a lover of virtues, a persecutor of vices, a despiser of this world, a desirer of the heavenly kingdom, a faithful guardian and instructor of the flock committed to him: an untiring executor of justice and piety, given to the bestowal of alms and to hospitality: and in those things in which he knew to please God, he took care diligently to minister and give his labor. And when in all good works even to a decrepit age serving God, he had completed his most holy life with a laudable end; on the Ides of May the world being left he ascended to the heavenly things, and in his monastery with great honor received burial. dead May 15, he works miracles: But in the process of time, his merits growing clear and by frequent signs of miracles, with the consent of the Clergy and people his holy body was translated from the earth: whose Relics beside the bier of his Master and instructor, S. John the Bishop, at his own altar in the church of Beverley divided into two biers are laid up.

[3] Thus far the compendium of the Life: from which also his birthday is known to be May XV, inscribed in the sacred calendars, on which day with an illustrious eulogy from these Acts his feast is indicated by Richard Whitford, in a Martyrology printed in English at London about the year 1526. On the same day he is referred by Edward Maihew, in the English Trophies of the Benedictine Order: likewise by Hugh Menard and Gabriel Bucelin in their Benedictine calendars, Wilson in the Martyrology of the English of the second, and Michael Alford in the Annals of the English Church at the year 721 number 8. In the first volume of the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 170, these things are handed down: Brithunus the first Abbot of Beverley died on the Ides of May, in the year of the Lord 733, and was buried beside S. John. And in the 2nd column, In the year of the Lord 1088, the church of S. John was burned, on the following night after the feast of Matthew the Apostle. he is translated in the year 1088. There were translated at the same time the bones of S. Brithunus, Abbot of Beverley. Some works of mercy performed by S. Brithunus to Druchwald the Presbyter, are narrated in the Life of S. John number 18, which there can be read.