URSMARO, saint. – Born at Floyon (Avcentes) in the Thiérache, on 27 July 644, he was placed at a very early age in the monastery of Lobbes (diocese of Cambrai), founded by St. Landelino, who ordained him a priest and appointed him his successor when, in 686, he withdrew into solitude.
U. completed the abbey of Lobbes and endowed several others. He then became a missionary, after receiving episcopal consecration in 691. He evangelized the Thiérache, the Morinie, and part of Flanders. He died after nine years of illness, on 18 April 713; however, as early as 711 he had renounced the abbacy in favor of Irminone.
BIBL.: Ph. Schmitz, Ursuar, in Biographie nationale, XXV, p. 944; J. Warichez, L'abbaye de Lobbes, Lovanie 1909, pp. 16-19, 24-29; E. de Moreau, Histoire de l'Eglise en Belgique, I, Bruxelles 1940, pp. 120-21.
U.R.S.S.: V. UNIONE DELLE REPUBBLICHE SOCIALISTE SOVIETICHE (U.R.S.S.).