SAINT URSICINUS, BISHOP OF SENS - 24 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 24th of July

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SAINT URSICINUS, BISHOP OF SENS

It impossible that the Christian Faith was preached at Sens in the second century, but we know from Sidonius Apollinaris that in 475 the Church of Sens had its thirteenth bishop, and the list of bishops does not permit the supposition that the episcopal see existed prior to the second half of the third century or the beginning of the fourth. 

THE BISHOPS OF SENS IN THE FOURTH CENTURY

Among the bishops of Sens in the fourth century may be mentioned: St Severinus, present at the Council of Sardica in 344; St Ursicinus (356-87), exiled to Phrygia under Constantius through the influence of the Arians, visited by St Hilary on his return to Sens after three years of exile, and who about 386 founded at Sens the monastery of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. 

HEAVENLY VIRTUE AND ADMIRABLE PIETY

The rural apostle Ursicinus is praised in older editions of the Martyrologium Romanum as a man of heavenly virtues and admirable piety. He served as bishop of Sens until his death in 387 and was buried in his convent Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais. His remains were transferred in 876 to the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif to protect them from invasions. His relics are now in the treasury of the Cathedral of Sens. 

He was succeeded as bishop by Theodore.

His memorial day in the pre-conciliar Roman Martyrology is July 24, marked by this entry: In Sens, St Ursicinus, bishop and confessor. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 and other sources)