Feastday: December 20
Patron: invoked against stiff neck
Death: 625
Irish missionary and disciple of St. Coluinbanus at the monastery of Luxeuil, France. he accompanied St. Columbanus into exile (c. 610) after the abbot was banished from Burgundy, journeying with him to Switzerland and founding the monastery of St. Ursanne. Ursicinus used the community as the base for his missionary efforts among the local pagan tribes of the Alamanni.
Ursicinus (also Hursannus, Ursitz, Oschanne, fl. 620) was an Irish missionary and hermit in the Jura region.
Information
A vita of his is preserved in a redaction of the 11th century. According to this account, he was a disciple of Columbanus at Luxeuil who followed his master when he was banished from Burgundy in 610, but then retired as a hermit in the Doubs valley. Veneration of Ursicinus is attested since the 7th century. In Grandval, a church was dedicated to Ursicinus in 675. By the 11th century, he was part of the local canon of saints of the Besançon diocese. His feast day is on 20 December. Ursicinus' supposed sarcophagus is preserved in St-Ursanne in what is now the canton of Jura in Switzerland.
