SAINT DEICOLA

Saint Deicolus and the Boar

St. Deicola
Born . 530 Leinster
Died January 18, 625

Feast January 18

Feast day: January 18
Patron of childhood illnesses
530 - 625


Monk and companion of St. Columbanus, also called Deicolus, Desle, Dichul, Deel, Delle, or Deille. He was an elder brother of St. Gall, born in Leinster, Ireland. As one of St. Columbanus’ twelve disciples, Deicola accompanied him to France in 567 and worked with him in Austrasia and in Burgundy, France. In 610, St. Columbanus was exiled by Thierry II. Deicola, too old to accompany him, founded the monastery of Lure in the Vosges, France, and lived there as a hermit.

Saint Deicolus (Déicole, Dichuil, Deel, Deicola, Deicuil, Delle, Desle, Dichul, Dicuil) (ca. 530 – January 18, 625) is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. He was an elder brother of Saint Gall. Born in Leinster, Deicolus studied at Bangor.

He was selected as one of the twelve disciples to accompany St. Columbanus in his missionary enterprise. After a short stay in England he journeyed to Gaul, in 576, and laboured with St. Columbanus in Austrasia and Burgundy.

At Luxeuil he was unwearied in his ministrations, and yet was always serene and even joyous.

When St. Columbanus was expelled by Theuderic II, in 610, St. Deicolus, then eighty years of age, determined to follow his master, but was forced, after a short time, to give up the journey, and settled in a deserted place called Lutre, or Lure, in the Diocese of Besançon, to which he had been directed by a swineherd.

Until his death, he was thenceforth the apostle of this district, where he was given a little church and a tract of land by Berthelde, widow of Weifar, the lord of Lure. Soon a noble abbey was erected for his many disciples, and the Rule of St. Columbanus was adopted. Numerous miracles are recorded of St. Deicolus, including the suspension of his cloak on a sunbeam and the taming of wild beasts.

Clothaire II, King of Burgundy, recognised the virtues of the saint and considerably enriched the Abbey of Lure, also granting St. Deicolus the manor, woods, fisheries, etc., of the town which had grown around the monastery. Feeling his end approaching, St. Deicolus gave over the government of his abbey to Columbanus, one of his young monks, and spent his remaining days in prayer and meditation.

His feast is celebrated on 18 January. So revered was his memory that his name (Dichuil), under the slightly disguised form of Deel and Deela, is still borne by most of the children of the Lure district. His Acts were written by a monk of his own monastery in the tenth century.

His cultus was strong in the area of Lure well into the nineteenth century, when children's clothes were washed in a spring associated with St. Deicolus that was reputed to cure childhood illnesses.