Fursa

St. Fursa and a monk from a 14th century manuscript

Fursa (also Fursus, Furseus , English: Saint Fursey , Latin: Sanctus Furseus ; * 567 near Lough Corrib in Ireland ; † January 16, around 649 in Ponthieu , France ) was an Irish clergyman and missionary of noble descent.

Life

Fursa was the son of Fintan, an Irish ruler of Munster , and his wife Gelgesia, but never assumed the dignity of rulers themselves and so remained in the rank of prince. Saint Ultanus and Saint Foillan were his brothers.

Fursa was a pupil of St. Brendan the Traveler , an uncle of his father's, until he joined a monk in Clonfert as a monk , where his piety was noticed at an early age, and there he was trained as a priest. Legend has it that two twin sons of King Brendinus rose from the dead during Fursa's prayers. In the course of his life, Fursa founded a monastery in Rathmat , which later rose to become one of the monastic centers of the island of Ireland and received numerous followers early on. He also did missionary work on his home island and exerted a strong influence on the literature of the Middle Ages.

King Sigebert of East Anglia was very keen to Christianize his country. The Irish missionaries Fursa and Foillan were also welcomed by Sigebert around 630. Sigebert made land available for the establishment of the Cnobheresburg monastery . The location of the now defunct monastery complex may have been at the former Caister-on-Sea or Burgh-Castle near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. Beda Venerabilis reported in detail about Fursa's visions in which angels and devils fought for souls.

In the 640s Fursa went to Franconia , where he worked successfully with Saint Blitharius. Clovis II supported him in the construction of the Saint-Pierre monastery in Latiniacum ( Lagny Abbey ). He died there in 649. His body was transferred from Erchinoald to Péronne and buried there. A little later, the Saint-Fursy church was built over his grave .

Adoration

When his body was transferred to a chapel built for him in 654, it was not decayed. In 1056 and 1256 the relics were reburied again. Numerous miracles are said to have occurred at his grave. Most of his relics were destroyed during the French Revolution .

Fursa is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church . His feast day is January 16. In art he is shown with two oxen. Other depictions show him with angels or how he looks at purgatory and hell.

reception

Irish writer Mervyn Wall referred to fursa in his novels The Unholy Fursey or Ireland of the Pious ("The unfortunate Fursey", 1946) and Fursey's Return to Ireland of the Pious ("The return of Fursey", 1948).

swell

• Beda Venerabilis : Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , Online in the Medieval Sourcebook (English)

literature

• Ann Williams, Alfred P. Smyth, DP Kirby: A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain. Seaby, 1991, ISBN 1-85264-047-2
• Donald Attwater, Catherine Rachel John: The Penguin Dictionary of Saints , 3rd edition, Penguin Books, New York 1993, ISBN 0-14-051312-4 .
• LH Dahl: The Roman Camp and the Irish Saint at Burgh Castle , Jarrold, London 1913.
• SJ Plunkett: Suffolk in Anglo-Saxon Times , Tempus, Stroud 2005, ISBN 0-7524-3139-0 .
• O. Rackham: Transitus Beati Fursei - A Translation of the 8th Century Manuscript Life of Saint Fursey , Fursey Pilgrims, Norwich 2007.
• Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, Donald Scragg (Eds.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England . Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford et al. a. 2001, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1 .
• Ekkart Sauser :  Fursa (Furseus). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 422-424.
• St. Fursey . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , 1913; on Wikisource

Web links

Commons : Fursa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Fursa 1 in Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)
• St. Fursa at Britannica

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} St. Fursey . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , 1913; on Wikisource
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Beda, HE 3,19
3. ^ Richard Hoggett: The Archeology of the East Anglian Conversion (Anglo-Saxon Studies) , Boydell & Brewer, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84383-595-0 , pp. 31-32.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Lapidge: Fursa In: Michael Lapidge et al. (Ed.): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England , Wiley-Blackwell, 2001, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1 , p. 198.
5. ^ ^{A b} Saint Fursey of Péronne at Saints.SQPN.com
6. ↑ Fursa 1  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)