{{Short description|Christian saint, brother of St. Gall}} {{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix = [[Saint]] |name=Deicolus |birth_date=c. 530 |death_date={{death date|625|1|18|df=y}} |feast_day=18 January |venerated_in={{ubl|[[Catholic Church]]|[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]}} |image=DeicolusandtheBoar.jpg |imagesize=300px |caption=''Saint Deicolus and the Boar'', [[Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner]] |birth_place=[[Leinster]] |death_place= |titles=Abbott |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date=[[Pre-congregation]] (and pre-East–West [[Schism of 1054]]) |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes=Ray of light; depicted as a hermit; a wild boar hunted by King Clothaire takes refuge at his feet |patronage=childhood illnesses |major_shrine=Lure, France |suppressed_date= |issues= |prayer= |prayer_attrib= }}

'''Deicolus''' (also '''Déicole''', '''Domgall''', other variations;{{efn|Variations of his name include: Dichuil, Deel, Deicola, Deicuil, Delle, Desle, Dichul, Dicuil}} {{circa|530}}{{snd}}January 18, 625) is venerated as a saint in both the [[Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]es. He was an elder brother of [[Saint Gall]].

==Life== Born in [[Leinster]], Deicolus and his brother, Gall, studied at [[Bangor Abbey]] in County Down. He was selected to be one of the twelve followers to accompany [[Columbanus]] on his missionary journey.<ref name=oneel>[https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/saint-who-deicolus-of-lure/ O'Neel, Brian. "Deicolus of Lure", Franciscan Media, May 19, 2020]</ref> After a short stay in [[Great Britain]] in 576 he journeyed to [[Gaul]] and laboured with Columbanus in [[Austrasia]] and [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]].<ref name=grattan>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04678b.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Deicolus|publisher=}}</ref> Deicolus is believed to have resided with Columbanus at [[Luxeuil Abbey|Luxeuil]] from c.590 onwards.<ref>[https://www.dib.ie/biography/deicolus-a2577 Breen, Aidan. "Deicolus", ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'', October 2009]</ref>

When Columbanus was expelled by [[Theuderic II]], in 610, Deicolus, then eighty years of age, determined to follow his master, but was forced, after a short time, to give up the journey, and remained behind alone, establishing a hermitage at a nearby church dedicated to Saint Martin in a place called Lutre, or [[Lure, Haute-Saône|Lure]], in the [[Archbishopric of Besançon|Diocese of Besançon]], to which he had been directed by a [[swineherd]].<ref name=grattan/>

Until his death, he became the apostle of this district, where he was given a church and a tract of land by Berthelde, widow of Weifar, the lord of Lure. Soon a noble [[Abbaye de Lure|abbey]] was erected for his many disciples, and the Rule of St. Columbanus was adopted. Numerous miracles are recorded of Deicolus, including the suspension of his cloak on a [[Sunlight|sunbeam]] and the taming of wild beasts.<ref name=grattan/>

[[Clothaire II]], King of Burgundy, recognised the virtues of Deicolus and considerably enriched the Abbey of Lure, also granting Deicolus the manor, woods, fisheries, etc., of the town which had grown around the monastery.<ref name=butler>[http://www.bartleby.com/210/1/184.html Butler, Alban. ''The Lives of the Saints'', Volume I, 1866]</ref> Feeling his end approaching, Deicolus gave over the government of his abbey to Columbanus, one of his young monks, and retreated to a little oratory he had built a small chapel in honor of the Holy Trinity, where he died on 18 January, about 625.<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7425, Ó Riain-Raedel, Dagmar. ‘Deicolus (d. c.625)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004]</ref>

==Veneration== 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 [[Abbey of Lure|Lure]] well into the nineteenth century, when children's clothes were washed in a spring associated with Deicolus that was reputed to cure childhood illnesses.<ref name=oneel/>

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=hallg&book=saints&story=deicolus Hall, Grace. "St. Deicolus and the Wild Boar", ''Stories of the Saints'', The Baldwin Project] *[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04678b.htm St. Deicolus]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Deicolus}} [[Category:530 births]] [[Category:625 deaths]] [[Category:7th-century Frankish saints]] [[Category:French hermits]] [[Category:Irish hermits]] [[Category:Medieval Irish saints]] [[Category:6th-century Irish Christian clergy]] [[Category:Irish expatriates in France]] [[Category:Irish expatriates in Italy]] [[Category:Colombanian saints]]