Ursicinus of Ravenna

Ursicinus was bishop and archbishop of Ravenna from 533 until his death, in 536, successor of Ecclesius. Our sources call him a saint of the Catholic Church, do not say that he has any Orthodox canonization and give him no day in the menaion. The Russian source remembers him on 5 September. He is not to be confused with Saint Ursicinus, a hieromartyr of the first century, of Ravenna.

The bishop and the basilica

Before him was Bishop Ecclesius of Ravenna (522 to 532), but Ursicinus may not have followed him directly, the see remaining vacant. Ursicinus was mandans, that is, the commissioner, for the basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, so famous today. This rests on an inscription in the narthex of the church, preserved by the church historian Andreas Agnellus in the ninth century and now lost: the basilica of the blessed Apollinaris the priest was built and adorned from the foundations, at the command of Bishop Ursicinus, by Julianus Argentarius, and consecrated by Bishop Maximian. His tomb is in Ravenna, in the basilica of San Vitale, in the chapel of Nazarius and Celsus.

His image in the basilica

His oldest image is in the mosaic of the apse of the basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe (sixth century), together with other locally venerated bishops: Severus, Ursus and Ecclesius. The bishops Severus and Ursus belong to earlier generations, Ecclesius and Ursicinus to the sixth century, the time of the mosaic. Above the bishops, shown without nimbus, diadems hang between gathered curtains. Ursicinus wears a white dalmatic, a planeta and a pallium, a vestment originally worn only by popes and archbishops, and special shoes, another garment of the upper class. In his left hand he holds Holy Scripture, shown as a richly ornamented codex. As in the ancient world, he does not touch the sacred object with bare hands, but covers them with the planeta. The images of the bishops Ecclesius and Ursicinus are painted as portraits of those of that time.