Saint Ursula

Saint Ursula
100 px
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 evolution of Ursula's legend

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 and seem to have played an important role in connecting the story of Ursula and her 11,000 virgins to Cologne. These skeletons are now thought to be merely the remains of people buried in a churchyard dating back to Roman times.

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.

Legacy

Hans Memling's Ursula

The Order of Ursulines, founded in 1535 by Angela Merici, and especially devoted to the education of young girls, has helped to spread throughout the world the name and the veneration of St. Ursula. As a result, St. Ursula was named the patron saint of students.

File:Islands.svg

Saint Ursula on the coat-of-arms of British Virgin Islands

The cult of Ursula and the 11,000 virgins was widespread, reaching as far as India and China. The legend inspired a host of works of art, several of them of the high artistic value, the most famous being the paintings of Hans Memling, Carpaccio, and the old masters of Cologne.

Christopher Columbus named the Virgin Islands after Ursula 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.

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.

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.

• Ursula K. Le Guin, the noted science fiction writer, was born on October 21, 1929, in Berkeley, California and named for St. Ursula.

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Saint Ursula

See also

• Ursula Julia Ledochowska (Canonised 2005)

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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