Biography
Ursus of Auxerre
About Ursus of Auxerre
Ursus, also known as Urse or Ours, was a bishop of Auxerre at the beginning of the sixth century. The French bishops’ Nominis calendar places his service between 502 and 508 and remembers an earlier life as a hermit.
A ninth-century account by Heiric of Auxerre preserves the local tradition. Ursus lived as a recluse beside the church of Amator. When fire threatened the city, he sent his staff toward the danger and devoted himself to prayer. The fire ceased, and the people later brought him from his cell to succeed their deceased bishop. Heiric gives his episcopate as six years and four months. The account presents the fire and reluctant election as signs of holiness.
Heiric also describes the later placement of Ursus’s remains among the holy bishops gathered near Germanus’s tomb in the crypts at Saint-Germain. His account preserves a community’s memory of Ursus and its care for his burial.
The Catholic Church in Norway likewise remembers his hermitage at Saint-Amâtre and his succession after Censurius. His commemoration is kept on 30 July.
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