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 FURSTENBERG

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FURSTENBERG

ter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was liorn probably amongst the Hy-Briuin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his fa- ther's uncle, who then ruled a monastery in the Island of Oirbsen, now called Inisquin in Lough Corrib. He was educated by St. Brendan's monks, and when of proper age he embraced the religious life in the same monastery under the Abbot St. Meldan, his "soul- friend" {anam-cliara). His great sanctity was early discerned, and there is a legend that here, through his prayers, twin children of a chieftain related to King Brendinus were raised from the dead. After some years he founded a monastery at Rathmat on the shore of Lough Corrib which Colgan identifies as Ivill- ursa, in the deanery of Annadown. Aspirants came in numbers to place themselves under his rule, but he wished to secure also some of his own relatives for the new monastery. For this purpose he set out with some monks for Munster, but on coming near his fa- ther's home he was seized with an apparently mortal illness. He fell into a trance from the ninth hour of the day to cock-crow, and while in this state was favoured with the first of the ecstatic visions which have rendered him famous in medieval literature.

In this vision were revealed to him the state of man in sin, the remedies for sin, the beauty of virtue. He heard the angelic choirs singing "the saints shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of Gods will appear in Sion". An injunction was laid on him by the two an- gels who restored him to the body to become a more zealous labourer in the harvest of the Lord. Again, on the third night following, the ecstasy was renewed. He was rapt aloft by three angels w-ho contended six times with demons for his soul. He saw the fires of hell, the strife of demons, and then heard the angel hosts sing in four choirs " Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts". Among the spirits of the just made perfect he recognized Sts. Meldan and Beoan. They enter- tained him with much spiritual instruction concerning the duties of ecclesiastics and monks, the dreadful effects of pride and disobedience, the heinousness of spiritual and internal sins. They also predicted famine and pestilence. As he returned through the fire the demon hurled a tortured sinner at him, burn- ing him, and the angel of the Lord said to him: "be- cause thou didst receive the mantle of this man when dying in his sin the fire consuming him hath scarred thy body also." The body of Fursey bore the mark ever after. His brothers Foillan and LHtan then joined the community at Rathmat, but Fursey seems to have renounced the administration of that monas- tery and to have devoted himself to preaching throughout the land, frequently exorcising evil spirits. Exactly twelve months afterwards he was favoured with a third vision. The angel remained with him a whole day, instructed him for his preaching, and pre- scribed for him twelve years of apostolic labour. This he faithfully fulfilled in Ireland, and then stripping himself of all earthly goods he retired for a time to a small island in the ocean. Then he went with his brothers and other monks, bringing with him the rel- ics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan, through Britain (Wales) to East .\nglia where he was honourably received by King Sigebert in 633. The latter gave him a tract of land at Cnobheresburg on which he built a monastery within the enclosure of a Roman fort — Burghcastle in Suffolk — surrounded by woods and overlooking the sea. Here he laboured for some years converting the Picts and Saxons. He also received King Sigebert into the religious state. Three miracles are recorded of his life in this monastery. Again he retired for one year to live with Ultan the life of an anchorite.

When war threatened East Anglia, Fursey, disband- ing his monks until quieter times should come, sailed with his brothers and six other monks to Gaul. He arrived in Normandy in 648. Passing through Pon- thieu, in a village near M^^erolles he found grief and

lamentation on all sides, for the only son of Duke Hay- mon, the lord of that country, lay dead. .\t the prayer of Fursey the boy was restored. Pursuing his journey to Neustria he cured many infirmities on the way; by miracles he converted a robber and his family, who attacked the monks in the wood near Corbie, and also the inhospitable worldling Ermelinda, who had refused to harbour the weary travellers. His fame preceded him to Peronne, where he was joyfully re- ceived by Erkinoald, the Mayor of the Palace to Clovis II, who was then a minor. He baptized the son of Erkinoald, and through his prayers obtained the reprieve of six criminals. He was offered any site in the king's dominions for a monastery. He selected Latiniacum (Lagny), close to Chelles and about six miles from Paris, a spot beside the Marne, covered with shady woods and abounding in fruitful vine- yards. Here he built his monastery and three chap- els, one dedicated to the Saviour, one to St. Peter, and the third, an unpretending structure, afterwards dedi- cated to St. Fursey himself. Many of his countrymen were attracted to his rule at Lagny, among them Emi- lian, Eloquius, Mombulus, Adalgisius, Etto, Bertuin, Fredegand, Lactan, Malguil. Having certain pre- monitions of his end, he set out to visit his brothers Foillan and Ultan who had by this time recruited the scattered monks of Cnobheresburg and re-established that monastery, but his last illness struck him down in the very village in which his prayer had restored Duke HajTnon's son to life. The village was thence- forward called Forsheim, that is, the house of Fursey. In accordance with his own wish his remains were brought to Peronne, many prodigies attending their transmission, and deposited in the portico of the church of St. Peter to which he had consigned the rel- ics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan. His body lay unburied there for thirty days pending the dedication of the church, visited by pilgrims from all parts, incorrupt and exhaling a sweet odour. It was then deposited near the altar. Four years later, on 9 February, the remains were translated with great solemnity by St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, and Cuthbert, Bishop of Cambrai, to a chapel specially built for them to the east of the altar. In the " Annals of the F ^ur Mas- ters", Peronne is called Cathair Fursa.

In art St. Fursey is represented with two oxen at his feet in commemoration of the prodigy by which, according to legend, Erkinoald's claim to his body was made good; or he is represented striking water from the soil at Lagny with the point of his staff; or beholding a vision of angels, or gazing at the flames of purgatory and hell. It is disputed whether he w-as a bishop; he may have been a chorepiscopus. A litany attributed to him is among the JISS. in Trinity Col- lege, Dublin. An Irish prophecy is attributed to him by Harris.

Colgan, Acta SS. Hib.. 16 Jan.; 9 Feb.; Ada SS.. 16 Jan.; Bede, Ecc. Hist., Ill, xix; Mabillon, Annales Ord. S. Bened.; Annals of the Four Masters, ad an. 774; Marquess of Bute ed., Acta SS. Hib. ex Cod. Snh„',r', 1s-;s; T.knigan, Ecc. Hist., II, 448; O'Hanlon, Lives of I I r, Jan.; Atkinson, Es-

sni/s (Dublin, 1895). 241; ,-: ^ Months in the Forests of

France (London, 1895), M ■ i i : ^^ \hi:-Harris, Writers of Ireland, I, iv, 35; Butler, Lives oj the .■saints, 16 Jan.

C. MULCAHY.

Furstenberg, Fr.\nz Friedrich Wilhelm von, statesman and educator,b.7August, 1729, at Herd ringen inWestphalia;d. 16September, 1810, at Munster. .\fter receiving his early education from private tutors, and from the Jesuits at Cologne, he attended the university there, and at Salzburg, forthestudy of jurisprudence, which he completed at the Sapienza in Rome in 1753. In 1748 he had become canon at the cathedral of Mun- ster and, later, also at Paderborn, and received minor orders and subdeaconship, though he had no intention of entering the priesthood. During the Seven Years War (1756-176.'?) he rendered signal services to his country as intermediary between the opposing camps,