Synaxis of All the Saints of Switzerland
Prayers to Venerable Ursicinus
Troparion of the venerable Ursicinus, Tone 6
Not with awolf, but with a bear / you grazed together as a lamb, Ursicinus, / and took the name of your companion. / So you anticipated the kingdom as on a holy mountain of the Lord. / Pray to Christ our God // that He may also keep our souls in peace.
Kondakion of the Wandering Illuminators of Switzerland (8th tone)
In obedience to the word of the Lord, / you left your estate, house and homeland / to make disciples of the peoples of Europe/ o venerable companions of Columbanus. / From west to east you have established holy hermitages in our land. / Thus your word went out to the ends of Switzerland / and showed you to be like the apostles. / Venerable Gall, Ursicinus, Fromundus and Himerius // pray to the Lord that he will keep our country in the faith.
Prayer to Venerable Ursicinus
"Their sound goes out into all lands, their speech to the ends of the earth," is how the Psalmist sang of the deeds of the Holy Apostles. You, O Ursicinus, together with your teacher Columbanus and his disciples, took up the apostolic staff and enlightened Europe again after dark times. We faithful children of Switzerland thank you and all your companions, whose speech have reached the ends of Switzerland: Gallus from the east and you, Ursicinus, with your brothers Fromundus and Himerius from the west, made our country shine in the light of Christ. We ask you, Venerable Father, grant us to preserve and rekindle this light in our time.
You, O Ursicinus, also became an image of the paradise where "lions graze with lambs" to the Jura when you retired to a cave and shared it with a bear. Thus you placed yourself in a long line of venerable fathers whose godlike love restored nature to its origins. We ask you to help us to realize the love of God in our lives and to become whom the Lord created us to be.
O venerable father Ursicinus, you have become our light in the darkness. You preached the light of the gospel and transformed your environment in the light of the kingdom. Guide us to also transform our lives in the light of the Lord. Help us become laps ourselves and to shine with the light of the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto ages of ages. Amen
