Feastday: February 1
Patron: of Ivrea; Cogne; invoked in childbirth; children who die before baptism; invoked against faintness, kidney disease, and rheumatism
Death: 6th
Archdeacon of Aosta, Italy. Originally from Ireland, he journeyed to the Continent and spent years preaching against the Arian hertics.
Saint Ursus of Aosta (Italian: Sant'Orso d'Aosta; French: Saint Ours d'Aoste; fl. 6th century) was an Italian evangelist, today venerated as a saint.
Biography
Ursus is an Italian saint of the 6th century. His feast day is February 1 (June 17 in some areas). The collegiate church of Saint Ursus in Aosta is dedicated to him.
Said to have been of Irish origin, he evangelized the region of Digne. An opponent of Arianism, he served as archdeacon to Jucundus (in Italian, San Giocondo; in French, Saint Joconde), bishop of Aosta. When Plocean, an Arian, became bishop of Aosta, Ursus and several other canons left the cathedral of Aosta and established themselves at the present site of the collegiate church of Saint Ursus.
