Ursicinus

ON BL. URSICINUS, BISHOP,

AT RAVENNA IN ITALY.

In the year DXXXVII or DXXXVIII.

A HISTORICAL COLLECTION.

On the cult, relics, deeds and age of the Blessed.

Ursicinus, bishop and confessor, at Ravenna in Italy (B.)

BY J. S.

Of St. Ursicinus the physician and martyr among the people of Ravenna, Papebroch treated in tom. III of June pag. 809 and following. What kind of cult Bl. Ursicinus has: But he in the same place at num. 6 indicates that at Ravenna Bl. Ursicinus the bishop also is honored with some kind of cult, writing thus: The same Ferretti wrote the Lives of the archbishops of Ravenna, which Fabri repeatedly alleges; and namely where he treats of St. Ursicinus, the XXVII bishop of Ravenna: and he asserts that he departed this life in the year DXLV, the III of his episcopate, on the day V of September, and that he too is held a Saint, which we also saw when passing through Ravenna. Girolamo Fabri, praised just now, in the Sacred Monuments of Ancient Ravenna part 2 pag. 427, in St. Ursicinus, has in Italian of his burial and cult what I render into Latin: His sacred body received burial in the basilica of St. Vitalis, near the body of St. Ecclesius his predecessor. His effigy is seen in the apse of the church of St. Apollinaris in Classe. And although our church does not celebrate his memory in the divine Offices, yet his sanctity is asserted by the praised Ferretti, by Girolamo Rossi in his Histories and in the manuscript index of relics, and by Filippo Ferrarius in the Life of St. Ursicinus the martyr: and near his tomb his name is read carved on the marble in the pavement with the title of Saint. Papebroch in his manuscript Roman Journey pag. 219 relates that the body of Bl. Ursicinus rests in the church of St. Vitalis, enclosed in a marble coffin inserted into the wall, and beneath the altar of a certain chapel on the right. More things pertaining to the cult I do not find. But since the cult seems to consist almost solely in the honorable preservation of the relics and in the title of Saint, I have preferred to use the title of Blessed rather than of Saint. Castellan, however, in the Universal Martyrology calls him a Saint with the others already praised, announcing him thus on this day: At Ravenna, of St. Ursicinus the bishop.

[2] his deeds briefly touched: Agnellus, a writer of the IX century, in the Pontifical, or in the Lives of the pontiffs of Ravenna, places Ursicinus as the twenty-fourth, and in his eulogy disputes more than he narrates of Ursicinus. What is related of him, the rest being omitted, I transfer hither: Ursicinus the XXIV, a humble man, having a ruddy face and large eyes, tall [] of stature, of slender body, holy from holy work; a builder of the tricolum, that is, of the archbishop's house, as Blanchini observes in the annotations; but he did not finish it … And this holy Man ordered and admonished that the church [] of Bl. Apollinaris, founded by Julian the Argentarius, should also be completed. And he, presently fulfilling the commands, God willing, it was built by that holy Man of stones precious in the regions of Italy. No church is like to it, in that by night as by day it is almost made to glow (perhaps he meant candefiat, for candeat). This holy Man therefore daily broke with his hands the sacred Body of the Lamb upon the Lord's altar (that is, daily offered the sacrifice of the Mass) and expiated the sins of the people with tears … While this blessed Ursicinus was performing these things in his own times, by the divine command his soul was separated from his body. His body went to its own place, and was buried in the basilica of Bl. Vitalis the martyr before the altar of St. Nazarius. And he sat III years, VI months, IX days. Thus far Agnellus, whose barbarous phrasing I do not everywhere correct, because it is enough if the reader grasp the sense.

[3] [St. Ursicinus the martyr is said to have appeared to the Blessed in a wonderful manner:] Of the church of St. Apollinaris in Classe, built at the urging of Bl. Ursicinus, many more things have been said in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Apollinaris §5, or tom. V of July pag. 335 and following, and thither I refer the reader, lest I do what has been done already. Further, to what is related by Agnellus Girolamo Rossi adds another deed in the History of the People of Ravenna book 1 pag. 25, where he has thus: When the memory of this admirable thing had plainly perished (he speaks of a certain popular tradition by which St. Ursicinus the martyr is believed to have carried his own head after death), tradition has it that to the divine Ursicinus, archbishop of the people of Ravenna, as he prayed at that martyr's tomb, this Ursicinus the martyr showed himself carrying his head in his hands, with three branches of palm coming forth from his neck: wherefore from that day the holy Archbishop ordered that his image should be painted in this manner, that the memory might be preserved perpetually: which is seen to this day. The same he repeats at book 3 pag. 157 in these words: And they relate, as we have taught above, that he took care to renew the memory of the divine Ursicinus, martyr of Ravenna, when, being beheaded, he rose from the ground and grasped his head with both hands, three branches of palm coming forth from his neck; because he had appeared to him in that manner as he prayed at the martyr's tomb. Papebroch treated of these things in St. Ursicinus the martyr at the XX of June, and sufficiently showed that that carrying of the head, and the three palm branches growing out of the martyr's neck, lack a fit foundation for producing belief. Nevertheless he did not on that account deny the vision of Bl. Ursicinus the bishop; nor did he wish to deny that a picture conformable to the vision was made at his command. But neither did he strongly assert that vision of Bl. Ursicinus, nor do I find reasons for that vision so firm as to believe it certain enough, since Rossi does not indicate whence he drew it, and Agnellus is altogether silent about it.

[4] How many-th among the bishops of Ravenna Ursicinus was, I shall not inquire too laboriously. the year of his death set by most at 545; Agnellus makes him the twenty-fourth, others the twenty-seventh, and finally Ughelli asserts that he was the twenty-eighth. But in designating the Saint's age most have erred, unless perhaps Agnellus erred, who cannot be reconciled with their opinion, as Bacchini has already shown in the fourth dissertation on Agnellus. Fabri, Ughelli and others attribute three years to his see, and begin these from the year 542 and carry them down to the year 545, in which they will have him die. To the three years six months and nine days must be added, if we prefer to follow Agnellus. The first chronological note in the praised Agnellus is this: Lastly, in the times of that Pontiff (Ursicinus) king Athalaric died at Ravenna on the VI of the Nones of October. But Athalaric, king of the Goths in Italy, died in the year 534, as writers everywhere acknowledge. And so, if we believe Agnellus, Ursicinus was bishop from the year 534, whether he was created in that same year, as Bacchini judges, or already earlier.

[5] but the Blessed more probably died in the year 538 Another note by which it can be shown that, according to Agnellus's opinion, Ursicinus presided over the church of Ravenna long before the year 542, is found in the eulogy of Ecclesius, who preceded Ursicinus. For he relates that there was a suit between Ecclesius the bishop and his clergy, and that it was settled by Felix IV the Supreme Pontiff. But since Felix IV died in the year 529 or 530, and since Agnellus attributes to Ecclesius no more than ten years of episcopate, it is clear that Ecclesius died, according to Agnellus's opinion, before the year 540, although the determined year of his death cannot be gathered from that reasoning. Thirdly and finally, what Agnellus narrates of Ursicinus's successors, Victor and Maximian, in no way agrees with Ursicinus's year of death, if he died in the year 545: for he attributes to Victor nearly seven years, and says that Maximian was ordained on the day before the Ides of October, Indiction X, in the fifth year after the consulate of Basil the younger. He says therefore that he was ordained in the year 546, so that, according to Agnellus's opinion, Ursicinus must necessarily have died before the year 540. Wherefore Bacchini's epoch cannot be far from the truth, who judges that Ursicinus was created bishop in the year 534, not long before the death of king Athalaric, but died in the earlier months of the year 538. Certainly if anyone believe that Agnellus alone is to be adhered to, he will not find a more probable epoch.

[6] or perhaps 537. But if the death-day, the V of September, established by Ferretti and Fabri, were sufficiently certain, Agnellus's statements would require us to believe that Ursicinus died in the year 537. For if he sat three years, six months and nine days, and died on the day V of September, he was made bishop a few days before the end of the month of February, and not after the year 534, in which Athalaric died: and so he died in the year 537, if the said day of death be certain enough. But I confess that Agnellus is not free of anachronisms and errors, nor do I know on how solid a foundation the aforesaid death-day rests: and for that cause I judge neither the year 537 nor 538 altogether certain. Yet since we have nothing better or more ancient than the little Work of Agnellus for fixing the age of Bl. Ursicinus, and since Bacchini has somehow confirmed the epoch alleged by other reasons also, I judge it more probable that Ursicinus died in the year 537 or 538; nor do I sufficiently perceive which of these years is to be preferred, since we do not know how long the see was vacant after the death of Bl. Ursicinus, and again after the death of Victor.

. procerus.*

. ecclesia.*