Education
Born in Leinster, Deicolus studied at Bangor.
Born in Leinster, Deicolus studied at Bangor.
He was an elder brother of Saint Gallery He was selected as one of the twelve disciples to accompany Saint Columbanus in his missionary enterprise. After a short stay in England he journeyed to Gaul, in 576, and laboured with Saint Columbanus in Austrasia and Burgundy.
At Luxeuil he was unwearied in his ministrations, and yet was always serene and even joyous.
When Saint Columbanus was expelled by Theuderic II, in 610, Saint Deicolus, then eighty years of age, determined to follow his master, but was forced, after a short time, to give up the journey, and established a hermitage at a nearby church dedicated to Street Martin in a 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 Saint Columbanus was adopted. Numerous miracles are recorded of Saint 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 Saint Deicolus the manor, woods, fisheries, et cetera, of the town which had grown around the monastery.
Feeling his end approaching, Saint Deicolus gave over the government of his abbey to Columbanus, one of his young monks, and retreated to a little oratory where he died on 18 January, about 625. 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 Saint Deicolus that was reputed to cure childhood illnesses.
