Difference between revisions of "Saint Ursula" - New World Encyclopedia
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| − | '''Ursula''' | + | '''Ursula''' is a [[Great Britain|British]] [[Christian]] [[saint]]. Her [[feast day]] in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] is October 21, although her feast was removed from the general [[calendar of saints]] in 1969. |
| + | |||
| + | According to legend, Ursula was a [[Romano-British]] princess who, at the request of her father King [[Dionotus|Donaut]] of [[Dumnonia]] in southwest England, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan Governor [[Conan Meriadoc]] of [[Armorica]] ([[Brittany]]), along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. However, a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, where Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European [[pilgrimage]]. She headed for [[Rome]], with her followers, and persuaded the [[pope]], "[[Cyriacus]]" (unknown in the pontifical records), and [[Bishop]] [[Sulpicius]] of [[Ravenna]], to join them. After setting out for [[Cologne]], which was being besieged by [[Huns]], all the virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader then shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Ursula and her fellow virgins were buried in [[Cologne]] where the [[Church of St. Ursula]] is dedicated to her. | ||
| + | ==Sources== | ||
| + | The story of Saint Ursula and the martyred virgins of Cologne rests on ten lines, although her legend and its many variants would fill more than a hundred pages. Her story originates from a stone inscription relating to a man called Clematius and a few meager details furnished by ancient liturgical books. The Clematius stone, which still may be seen at the Church of St. Ursula in Cologne, states: | ||
| + | |||
| + | <blockquote>A certain Clematius, a man of senatorial rank, who seems to have lived in the Orient before going to Cologne, was led by frequent visions to rebuild in this city, on land belonging to him, a basilica which had fallen into ruins, in honor of the virgins who had suffered martyrdom on that spot.</blockquote> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Even the authenticity of this inscription is debated, but there is no reason to doubt that the tradition of Saint Ursula and the virgins is quite ancient. Although the text hardly proof of the legend of Saint Ursula, it at least testifies to the existence of a previous basilica, dating perhaps from the beginning of the fourth century. The inscription does not indicate the number of the virgins, their names, or the time and circumstances of their martyrdom. | ||
| + | |||
| + | No other written trace of these martyrs is found again until the ninth century, when several thousand martyrs are said to have suffered persecution during the reign of [[Diocletian]] and [[Maximian]] (late third century). On of these martyrs is name, Pinnosa. The martyrology of Wandalbert of Prüm, compiled about 850, speaks of several thousand virgins, while the martyrology of Usuard, written around 875, mentions "Martha and Saula with several others." By the beginning of the tenth century, the phrase "11,000 virgins" begins to appear. Thereafter this number is accepted, as is the British origin of the saints, while Ursula become their most important member instead of Pinnosa. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==The legend of Ursula== | ||
| + | |||
| + | The experiences of Ursula and her eleven thousand companions soon became the subject of a pious romance which acquired considerable celebrity. Two ancient versions of the legend are known, both originating at Cologne. One of these (''Fuit tempore pervetusto'') dates from the second half of the ninth century (969-76), but was only rarely copied during the Middle Ages. The other (''Regnante Domino''), also compiled in the ninth century, had a wide circulation. The author claims to have received it from one who in turn heard it from the lips of St. [[Dunstan of Canterbury]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | According to this account Ursula, the daughter of a Christian king of Great Britain, was betrothed in marriage to the son of a great pagan king. Desiring to remain a virgin, she obtained a delay of three years. At her request she was given as companions ten young women of noble birth. She and each of the ten were accompanied by a thousand other virgins, and the whole company, embarking in 11 ships, sailed for three years. When the appointed time was come, and Ursula's betrothed was about to claim her, a gale carried the 11,000 virgins first by water to [[Cologne]] and then to [[Basel]], then to Rome. They finally returned to Cologne, where they were slain by the Huns in hatred of the their Catholic faith. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The writer of this version seems to be aware of Gallic legend found in the writings of [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], according to which the Emperor Maximian, having conquered Brittany, sent 100,000 colonists there Great Britain together with 30,000 soldiers, placed the territory under the government of the Breton prince [[Conanus Meriadocus]]. Conanus decided to bring women from Great Britain to marry his subjects, and he appealed to King Dionotus of Cornwall, who sent him his daughter Ursula, accompanied by 11,000 noble virgins and 60,000 other young women. A violent storm destroyed some of the ships and drove them to barbarian islands of the coast of northern Germany, where they slain by the Huns and the Picts. Geoffrey's account is considered by modern scholars to be inaccurate and anachronistic, but it may in fact be the origin of the legend of Saint Ursula. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In the twelfth century, not far from the Church of St. Ursula in Cologne, skeletons of women, children, and men which gave rise to various local legends, some of which seems to have played a role in connecting the story of Ursula and her 11,000 virgins to Cologne. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The absence of a Pope Cyriacus in the pontifical records, meanwhile, was explained by Ursula's supported by the supposed fact that his name cardinals was erased from the records by his cardinals, who were displeased by his abdication to follow Ursula on her pilgrimage. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Although the history of these saints of Cologne is obscure and very short, their cult was very widespread, and it would require a volume to relate in detail its many and remarkable manifestations. To mention only two characteristics, since the twelfth century a large number of relics have been sent from Cologne, not only to neighbouring countries but throughout Western Christendom, and even India and China. The legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins has inspired a host of works of art, several of them of the highest merit, the most famous being the paintings of the old masters of Cologne, those of Memling at Bruges, and of Carpaccio at Venice. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The Order of Ursulines, founded in 1535 by St. Angela de Merici, and especially devoted to the education of young girls, has also helped to spread throughout the world the name and the cult of St. Ursula. | ||
| + | Sources | ||
| + | |||
| + | For the inscription of Clematius, often published and commentated see KRAUS, Die Christliche Inshriften der Rheinlande, I (1890), 143-47. The Latin accounts of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, with mention of all editions, have been catalogued by the Bollandists in Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, no. 8426-51. See also KROMBACH, S. Ursula vindicata (Cologne, 1847), a large but uncritical compilation; RETTBERG, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, I (1846), III, 23; SCHADE, Die Sage von der heiligen Ursula (Hanover, 1854), an essay in which the exegesis is unfortunately mythological; DE BUCK in Acta SS., Oct. III, 73-303; FRIEDRICH, Kirchengeshichte Deutschlands, I (1867), 141-66; KLINKENBERG in Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinland, LXXXVIII (1889), 79- 95; LXXXIX (1890), 105-34; XCIII (1892), 130-79; DÜNTZER, ibidem (1890), 150-63; DELPY, Die Legende von der heiligen Ursula in der Kölner Malerschule (Cologne, 1901); TOUT, Legend of St. Ursula in Historical Essays, by members of Owens College, Manchester (London, 1902), 17-56; MAIN, L'inscription de Clematius in Mélanges Paul Fabre (Paris, 1902), 51-64; HAUCK, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, I (1887), 24-25 (3rd-4th ed., 1904), 25; REISE, Die Inschrift des Clematius in Bonner Jahrbücher, CXVIII (1909), 236-45; ZILLIKEN, ibid., CXIX (1910) 108-09; cf. Analecta bollandiana, X, 476; XVI, 97-99; XXII, 109-11; XXIII, 351-55; XXX, 339; 362-63. | ||
| + | About this page | ||
| + | |||
| + | APA citation. Poncelet, A. (1912). St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved August 19, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15225d.htm | ||
| + | |||
| + | MLA citation. Poncelet, Albert. "St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 19 Aug. 2008 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15225d.htm>. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert B. Olson. Offered to Almighty God for the virtue of courage to defend their Faith for all members of the Holy Catholic Church. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. | ||
| − | + | Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads. | |
| − | + | ==Legacy== | |
| + | The [[Order of Ursulines]], founded in 1535 by [[Angela Merici]], and especially devoted to the [[education of young girls]], has also helped to spread throughout the world the name and the cult of St. Ursula. St. Ursula was named the patron saint of students. | ||
While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the [[5th century]], this was limited to a small number between two and eleven according to different sources. The 11,000 were first mentioned in the [[9th century]]; suggestions as to where this came from have included reading the name "Undecimillia" or "Ximillia" as a number, or reading the abbreviation "XI. M. V." as ''eleven thousand (in [[Roman numeral]]s) virgins'' rather than ''eleven martyred virgins''. Another theory however is that the number 11,000 originated in the middle ages, when bones of dubious origin were being sold as relics of Martyrs. St. Ursula and her virgins were very popular, and according to the (rather cynical) theory, people sold so many bones of the Saint and the virgins that people invented the 11,000 virgins as an explanation for the ample supply of bones (which in fact were the remains of people buried in a churchyard dating back to Roman times). | While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the [[5th century]], this was limited to a small number between two and eleven according to different sources. The 11,000 were first mentioned in the [[9th century]]; suggestions as to where this came from have included reading the name "Undecimillia" or "Ximillia" as a number, or reading the abbreviation "XI. M. V." as ''eleven thousand (in [[Roman numeral]]s) virgins'' rather than ''eleven martyred virgins''. Another theory however is that the number 11,000 originated in the middle ages, when bones of dubious origin were being sold as relics of Martyrs. St. Ursula and her virgins were very popular, and according to the (rather cynical) theory, people sold so many bones of the Saint and the virgins that people invented the 11,000 virgins as an explanation for the ample supply of bones (which in fact were the remains of people buried in a churchyard dating back to Roman times). | ||
Revision as of 03:19, 20 August 2008
| Saint Ursula | |
|---|---|
| Virgin and Martyr | |
| Died | A.D. 383 |
| Major shrine | Cologne |
| Feast | October 21 |
| Attributes | Eleven thousand companions, banner, cloak |
| Patronage | Cologne, Delphi, England, archers, orphans, students |
| Catholic cult suppressed | 1969 |
Ursula is a British Christian saint. Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is October 21, although her feast was removed from the general calendar of saints in 1969.
According to legend, Ursula was a Romano-British princess who, at the request of her father King Donaut of Dumnonia in southwest England, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan Governor Conan Meriadoc of Armorica (Brittany), along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. However, a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, where Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European pilgrimage. She headed for Rome, with her followers, and persuaded the pope, "Cyriacus" (unknown in the pontifical records), and Bishop Sulpicius of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader then shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383.
Ursula and her fellow virgins were buried in Cologne where the Church of St. Ursula is dedicated to her.
Sources
The story of Saint Ursula and the martyred virgins of Cologne rests on ten lines, although her legend and its many variants would fill more than a hundred pages. Her story originates from a stone inscription relating to a man called Clematius and a few meager details furnished by ancient liturgical books. The Clematius stone, which still may be seen at the Church of St. Ursula in Cologne, states:
A certain Clematius, a man of senatorial rank, who seems to have lived in the Orient before going to Cologne, was led by frequent visions to rebuild in this city, on land belonging to him, a basilica which had fallen into ruins, in honor of the virgins who had suffered martyrdom on that spot.
Even the authenticity of this inscription is debated, but there is no reason to doubt that the tradition of Saint Ursula and the virgins is quite ancient. Although the text hardly proof of the legend of Saint Ursula, it at least testifies to the existence of a previous basilica, dating perhaps from the beginning of the fourth century. The inscription does not indicate the number of the virgins, their names, or the time and circumstances of their martyrdom.
No other written trace of these martyrs is found again until the ninth century, when several thousand martyrs are said to have suffered persecution during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian (late third century). On of these martyrs is name, Pinnosa. The martyrology of Wandalbert of Prüm, compiled about 850, speaks of several thousand virgins, while the martyrology of Usuard, written around 875, mentions "Martha and Saula with several others." By the beginning of the tenth century, the phrase "11,000 virgins" begins to appear. Thereafter this number is accepted, as is the British origin of the saints, while Ursula become their most important member instead of Pinnosa.
The legend of Ursula
The experiences of Ursula and her eleven thousand companions soon became the subject of a pious romance which acquired considerable celebrity. Two ancient versions of the legend are known, both originating at Cologne. One of these (Fuit tempore pervetusto) dates from the second half of the ninth century (969-76), but was only rarely copied during the Middle Ages. The other (Regnante Domino), also compiled in the ninth century, had a wide circulation. The author claims to have received it from one who in turn heard it from the lips of St. Dunstan of Canterbury.
According to this account Ursula, the daughter of a Christian king of Great Britain, was betrothed in marriage to the son of a great pagan king. Desiring to remain a virgin, she obtained a delay of three years. At her request she was given as companions ten young women of noble birth. She and each of the ten were accompanied by a thousand other virgins, and the whole company, embarking in 11 ships, sailed for three years. When the appointed time was come, and Ursula's betrothed was about to claim her, a gale carried the 11,000 virgins first by water to Cologne and then to Basel, then to Rome. They finally returned to Cologne, where they were slain by the Huns in hatred of the their Catholic faith.
The writer of this version seems to be aware of Gallic legend found in the writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth, according to which the Emperor Maximian, having conquered Brittany, sent 100,000 colonists there Great Britain together with 30,000 soldiers, placed the territory under the government of the Breton prince Conanus Meriadocus. Conanus decided to bring women from Great Britain to marry his subjects, and he appealed to King Dionotus of Cornwall, who sent him his daughter Ursula, accompanied by 11,000 noble virgins and 60,000 other young women. A violent storm destroyed some of the ships and drove them to barbarian islands of the coast of northern Germany, where they slain by the Huns and the Picts. Geoffrey's account is considered by modern scholars to be inaccurate and anachronistic, but it may in fact be the origin of the legend of Saint Ursula.
In the twelfth century, not far from the Church of St. Ursula in Cologne, skeletons of women, children, and men which gave rise to various local legends, some of which seems to have played a role in connecting the story of Ursula and her 11,000 virgins to Cologne.
The absence of a Pope Cyriacus in the pontifical records, meanwhile, was explained by Ursula's supported by the supposed fact that his name cardinals was erased from the records by his cardinals, who were displeased by his abdication to follow Ursula on her pilgrimage.
Although the history of these saints of Cologne is obscure and very short, their cult was very widespread, and it would require a volume to relate in detail its many and remarkable manifestations. To mention only two characteristics, since the twelfth century a large number of relics have been sent from Cologne, not only to neighbouring countries but throughout Western Christendom, and even India and China. The legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins has inspired a host of works of art, several of them of the highest merit, the most famous being the paintings of the old masters of Cologne, those of Memling at Bruges, and of Carpaccio at Venice.
The Order of Ursulines, founded in 1535 by St. Angela de Merici, and especially devoted to the education of young girls, has also helped to spread throughout the world the name and the cult of St. Ursula. Sources
For the inscription of Clematius, often published and commentated see KRAUS, Die Christliche Inshriften der Rheinlande, I (1890), 143-47. The Latin accounts of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, with mention of all editions, have been catalogued by the Bollandists in Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, no. 8426-51. See also KROMBACH, S. Ursula vindicata (Cologne, 1847), a large but uncritical compilation; RETTBERG, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, I (1846), III, 23; SCHADE, Die Sage von der heiligen Ursula (Hanover, 1854), an essay in which the exegesis is unfortunately mythological; DE BUCK in Acta SS., Oct. III, 73-303; FRIEDRICH, Kirchengeshichte Deutschlands, I (1867), 141-66; KLINKENBERG in Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinland, LXXXVIII (1889), 79- 95; LXXXIX (1890), 105-34; XCIII (1892), 130-79; DÜNTZER, ibidem (1890), 150-63; DELPY, Die Legende von der heiligen Ursula in der Kölner Malerschule (Cologne, 1901); TOUT, Legend of St. Ursula in Historical Essays, by members of Owens College, Manchester (London, 1902), 17-56; MAIN, L'inscription de Clematius in Mélanges Paul Fabre (Paris, 1902), 51-64; HAUCK, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, I (1887), 24-25 (3rd-4th ed., 1904), 25; REISE, Die Inschrift des Clematius in Bonner Jahrbücher, CXVIII (1909), 236-45; ZILLIKEN, ibid., CXIX (1910) 108-09; cf. Analecta bollandiana, X, 476; XVI, 97-99; XXII, 109-11; XXIII, 351-55; XXX, 339; 362-63. About this page
APA citation. Poncelet, A. (1912). St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved August 19, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15225d.htm
MLA citation. Poncelet, Albert. "St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 19 Aug. 2008 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15225d.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Robert B. Olson. Offered to Almighty God for the virtue of courage to defend their Faith for all members of the Holy Catholic Church.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
Legacy
The Order of Ursulines, founded in 1535 by Angela Merici, and especially devoted to the education of young girls, has also helped to spread throughout the world the name and the cult of St. Ursula. St. Ursula was named the patron saint of students.
While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the 5th century, this was limited to a small number between two and eleven according to different sources. The 11,000 were first mentioned in the 9th century; suggestions as to where this came from have included reading the name "Undecimillia" or "Ximillia" as a number, or reading the abbreviation "XI. M. V." as eleven thousand (in Roman numerals) virgins rather than eleven martyred virgins. Another theory however is that the number 11,000 originated in the middle ages, when bones of dubious origin were being sold as relics of Martyrs. St. Ursula and her virgins were very popular, and according to the (rather cynical) theory, people sold so many bones of the Saint and the virgins that people invented the 11,000 virgins as an explanation for the ample supply of bones (which in fact were the remains of people buried in a churchyard dating back to Roman times).
Today the story of Saint Ursula is overwhelmingly considered to be fiction, and as a result in 1969 Pope Paul VI suppressed her cult as part of a larger revision of the Catholic canon of saints.
Christopher Columbus named the Virgin Islands after her and her virgins. On 21 October 1521, Ferdinand Magellan rounded Cape Virgenes and entered the Straits of Magellan, naming the cape after Ursula's virgins. Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes in 1521 named 'Eleven Thousand Virgins' what is now known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.
Interesting facts
- The name "Ursula" means "Little she-bear" (diminutive of Latin "ursa").
- Hildegard of Bingen composed many chants in honour of virgins. An entire album of songs for St Ursula has been issued on CD by the a cappella group Anonymous 4: 11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula, Harmonia Mundi, 1997
- The street in London called St Mary Axe is sometimes said to be derived from a church, now demolished, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. It was said to located where the skyscraper informally known as "the Gherkin" is now located. The church contained a holy relic: an axe used by the Huns to execute the virgins. However, this legend cannot be dated any earlier than 1514.[1]
- Ursula K. Le Guin, the noted science fiction writer, was born on October 21, 1929, in Berkeley, California and named for St. Ursula.
See also
- Ursula Julia Ledochowska (Canonised 2005)
Notes
External links
- Patron Saints: Ursula
- Early British Kingdoms: St. Ursula
- 'The life of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins' in the Lady Lever Art Gallery
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Saints of Cornwall
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