Saint Fursa of Burgh
Fursa of Burgh, one of Ireland’s an Ceathrar Álainn (‘four comely saints’) and evangelist of the East Saxons, is commemorated today on the Orthodox New Calendar.
Born about 567 to heathen noble parents, Fintan son of Finlog and Gelges daughter of Aed-Finn, Fursa was baptised by Saint Brendan as a youth. He took the tonsure as an adult at the same Clonfert Monastery which Saint Brendan had founded, and took up an intense study of Scripture. He sought after the ascetic and hesychastic disciplines then common among Gaelic monks; and later was ordained as a priestmonk. He founded a monastery at Rathmat, which has been identified with the old church of Killursa, at which he lived a simple and austere ascetic life alongside his brother monks, living in rough wooden dwellings, ploughing, farming and raising cattle.
The missionary work of Saint Fursa did not begin until later. Being both an ascetic and a visionary, he was famously given to see spiritually many things. He began to see visions of the future – both his mission work in England and France, and also the troubles and sicknesses that would visit Ireland after his death. He beheld in these visions both the blessed life in æternity, and the horrors of hell. He was visited both by angels and by unclean powers, who appeared to him arguing over the souls of the departed, and he was given to see the fates of both the righteous and the unrighteous. He saw four fiery trials that awaited the soul after death: the first would burn those given to falsehood; the second those given to greed and who desire worldly riches; the third those who spread discord and offence; and the fourth those who rob and defraud the weak. He was visited also by the souls of departed monastics who lectured him on the nature of the ascetic disciplines, and the pitfalls that await monks. One must fast – first from spite and from untruths; then from meat and wine, but only insofar as that fasting is directed against greed and envy.
At one time, Fursa came upon a man lately dead, who had been a sinner in life. He took something valuable from the dead man’s cote – and the demons, seeing this, scorched him on his shoulder and on his face where he had taken the bauble. However, the angels had seen that Saint Fursa had taken it not out of greed, but in order to let the sinful man’s soul pass through the fire unburdened. When Saint Fursa again appeared to his friends, the burn-marks on his shoulder and chin could be seen.
He left Ireland eventually, but not before wandering as a mendicant preacher around his own country first, healing the sick, exorcising the possessed and preaching the Gospel. He lived also as a hermit on an isolated island for several years before setting off for Wales and then England in the company of two companions and brothers, Saint Foillan and Saint Ultan, where Saint Bede the Venerable picks up his tale. Bede has it that Saint Fursa first came before Saint Sigeberht, King of the East Angles, as a wayfarer desiring to live among the East Angles as a stranger for the sake of Christ. Sigeberht welcomed Fursa with honours, and allowed the latter to preach the Gospel and do his good works among the East Angles, of whom a great many were converted by Fursa’s preaching, teaching, healing and charitable works. Having received the land from the pious king Sigeberht, Saint Fursa founded, together with Foillan and Ultan, a monastic house at Cnobheresburg – nowadays identified with Burgh Castle in Norfolk.
From this monastery, Saint Fursa did much to further and assist the missionary work which had been begun in East Anglia by Saint Felix of Burgundy, who had taken up residency in Suffolk. This he tried to do at some distance, since he shunned earthly glory – but this was difficult to do as Saint Fursa was much beloved by the East Angles who had come to Christ.
At some time after the pious king, Sigeberht, was martyred by the heathen in battle, Saint Fursa and his monastic brothers were threatened by the fierce heathen king Penda of Mercia. Saints Fursa, Ultan and Foillan left England, together with the holy relics and books they had brought with them, for Frankish Neustria. Welcomed by Clovis II of the Franks, Saint Fursa founded a monastery at some small remove from Paris, in Lagny, dedicated to Saint Peter. This monastery flourished as the result of the wonders Saint Fursa worked among the western French people, especially curing the sick and bringing robbers and murderers to repentance through his preaching – and as a result of the gifts bestowed upon it by Clovis II and later by his pious English wife, Bealdhild.
Saint Fursa lived to be a very old man. He reposed in the Lord, dying of a sudden illness while on one of his journeys in Mezerolles. For a full month, his body was not interred, for the thousands who had been brought to Christ and strengthened in Christ through him could bid him farewell. His relics remained incorrupt. When at last he was interred in the Abbey of Saint Peter at Lagny, his relics still produced a sweet fragrance for many years afterward.
Establishing thy monastery in a Roman fortress,
Thou didst teach men that the Orthodox Faith is a true bastion
Against the onslaughts of every evil force, O Father Fursa.
Wherefore pray to God for us,
That we may all be bastions of the Faith
Standing firm against the rising tide of falsehood,
That our souls may be saved.
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