WAS abbot first of a monastery in his own country, in the diocese of
Tuam, near the lake of Orbsen, where now stands the church of
Kill-fursa, says Colgan. Afterwards, travelling with two of his
brothers, St. Foilan and St. Ultan, through England, he founded, by the
liberality of king Sigibert, the abbey of Cnobbersburg, now Burg-castle
in Suffolk. Saint Ultan retired into a desert, and St. Fursey, after
some time, followed him thither, leaving the government of his monastery
to St. Foilan. Being driven thence by the irruptions of king Penda, he
went into France, and, by the munificence of king Clovis II. and
Erconwald, the pious mayor of his palace, built the great monastery of
Latiniac, or Lagny, six leagues from Paris, on the Marne. He was deputed
by the bishop of Paris to govern that diocese in quality of his vicar;
on which account some have styled him bishop. He died in 650 at
Froheins, that is, Fursei-domus, in the diocese of Amiens, while he was
building another monastery at Peronne, to which church Erconwald removed
his body. His relics have been famous for miracles, and are still
preserved in the great church at Peronne, which was founded by Erconwald
to be served by a certain number of priests, and made a royal collegiate
church of canons by Lewis XI. Saint Fursey is honored as {164} patron of
that town. See his ancient life in Bollandus, from which Bede extracted
an account of his visions in a sickness in Ireland, l. 3, hist. c. 19.
See also his life by Bede in MS. in the king's library at the British
Museum, and Colgan, Jan. 16, p. 75, and Feb. 9, p. 282.