Saint Ursula (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for 'little female bear', german: link=no, Heilige Ursula) is a legendary
Romano-British
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...
Christian saint who died on 21 October 383. Her
feast day in the pre-1970
General Roman Calendar
The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These cele ...
is 21 October. There is little information about her and the anonymous group of holy virgins who accompanied and, on an uncertain date, were killed along with her at
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
. They remain in the
Roman Martyrology
The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved ...
, although their commemoration does not appear in the simplified Calendarium Romanum Generale (
General Roman Calendar
The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These cele ...
) of the 1970 Missale Romanum.
The earliest evidence of a cult of martyred virgins at Cologne is an inscription from c. 400 in the
Church of St. Ursula, located on Ursulaplatz in Cologne which states that the ancient basilica had been restored on the site where some holy virgins were killed. The earliest source to name one of these virgins Ursula is from the 10th century.
Her legendary status comes from a medieval story
in which she was a princess who, at the request of her father King
Dionotus
Dionotus was a legendary king of Cornwall in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia regum Britanniae'', an account of the rulers of Britain based on ancient Welsh sources and disputed by many historians. Dionotus succeeding his brother Caradocus, and wa ...
of
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, ...
in south-west Britain, set sail along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens to join her future husband, the pagan governor
Conan Meriadoc
Conan Meriadoc (; Welsh: Cynan Meriadog; Breton: Konan Meriadeg) is a legendary Celtic leader credited with founding Brittany. Versions of his story circulated in both Brittany and Great Britain from at least the early 12th century, and supplan ...
of
Armorica
Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...
. After a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
. She headed for Rome with her followers and persuaded the Pope, Cyriacus (unknown in the pontifical records, though from late 384 AD there was a
Pope Siricius
Pope Siricius (334 – 26 November 399) was the bishop of Rome from December 384 to his death. In response to inquiries from Bishop Himerius of Tarragona, Siricius issued the ''Directa'' decretal, containing decrees of baptism, church discipline ...
), and Sulpicius,
bishop of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
, all the virgins were beheaded in a massacre. The Huns' leader fatally shot Ursula with an arrow in about 383 AD (the date varies).
There is only one church dedicated to Saint Ursula in the United Kingdom. It is located in Wales at
Llangwyryfon
Llangwyryfon is a village and community in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. It lies on the B4576 about 8 miles to the south and east of Aberystwyth. The village lies in the valley of the River Wyre and contains the roadbridge where the B4576 cross ...
,
Ceredigion
Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...
.
The
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...
and the
Ursulines
The Ursulines, also known as the Order of Saint Ursula (post-nominals: OSU), is an enclosed religious order of consecrated women that branched off from the Angelines, also known as the Company of Saint Ursula, in 1572. Like the Angelines, they ...
are named in her honor.
Legend of the Eleven Thousand Companions
Lack of historical credibility
The ''
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
'' (1912) article on Saint Ursula states that "this legend, with its countless variants and increasingly fabulous developments, would fill more than a hundred pages. Various characteristics of it were already regarded with suspicion by certain medieval writers, and since
Baronius">aesarBaronius have been universally rejected".
Neither
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
nor
Gregory of Tours refers to Ursula in his writings. Gregory of Tours mentions the legend of the
Theban Legion
The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Egypt—"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men"—who converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286, a ...
, to whom a church that once stood in Cologne was dedicated. The most important hagiographers (
Bede,
Ado,
Usuard Usuard (died 23 January, 875) was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and a Carolingian scholar.
His name appears in a list of monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés written around 841/847 (a declaration of spiritual association wi ...
,
Notker the Stammerer
Notker the Stammerer ( – 6 April 912), Notker Balbulus, or simply Notker, was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall active as a poet, scholar and (probably) composer. Described as "a significant figure in the Western Church", Notker m ...
,
Hrabanus Maurus) of the early
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
also do not enter Ursula under 21 October, her feast day.
Tenth-century legend
A legend resembling Ursula's appeared in the first half of the tenth century; it does not mention the name ''Ursula'', but rather gives the leader of the martyred group as ''Pinnosa'' or ''Vinnosa''. Pinnosa's relics were transferred about 947 from Cologne to Essen,
and from this point forward Ursula's role was emphasised. In 970, for example, the first ''Passio Ursulae'' was written, naming Ursula rather than Pinnosa as the group's leader (although Pinnosa is mentioned as one of the group's members). This change might also be due in part to the discovery at this time of an epitaph speaking of Ursula, the "innocent virgin".
Misreading of Latin
![StaUrsulaCepleanu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/StaUrsulaCepleanu.jpg)
According to
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...
, a 12th-century British cleric and writer, Ursula was the daughter of
Dionotus
Dionotus was a legendary king of Cornwall in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia regum Britanniae'', an account of the rulers of Britain based on ancient Welsh sources and disputed by many historians. Dionotus succeeding his brother Caradocus, and wa ...
, ruler of Cornwall. However, this may have been based on his misreading of the words ''Deo notus'' in the second ''Passio Ursulae'', written about 1105. The plot may have been influenced by a story told by the 6th-century writer
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...
about a British queen sailing with 100,000 soldiers to the mouth of the Rhine in order to compel her unwilling groom Radigis, king of the
Varni, to marry her.
While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the fifth century, their number may have been limited to between two and eleven, according to different sources. Yet the cleric
Wandelbert of the
Abbey of Prüm
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
stated in his
martyrology
A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by n ...
in 848 that the number of martyrs counted "thousands of saints" who were slaughtered on the boards of the River Rhine. The figure of 11,000 first appears in the late-9th century; suggestions as to where this number came from have included the reading of a name ''Undecimillia'' or ''Ximillia'' as a number, or reading the letters ''XI. M. V.'' as 'eleven thousand
n Roman numeralsvirgins' rather than as 'eleven martyred virgins'. One scholar has suggested that in the eighth or ninth century, when the relics of virgin martyrs were found, they included those of a girl named Ursula, who was eleven years old—in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, ''undecimilia''. This was subsequently misread or misinterpreted as ''undicimila'' ('eleven thousand'), thus producing the legend of the 11,000 virgins. In fact, the stone bearing the virgin Ursula's name states that she lived eight years and two months. Another theory suggests that there was only one virgin martyr, named Undecimilla, "which by some blundering monk was changed into eleven thousand".
[''The Penny Magazine'': Cologne]
It has also been suggested that ''cum
..militibus'', "with
..soldiers", was misread as ''cum
..millibus'', "with
..thousands". Most contemporary sources, however, cling to the number 11,000. The ''Passio'' from the 970s tries to bridge conflicting traditions by stating that the eleven maidens each commanded a ship containing one thousand virgins. Implicitly, the legend also refers to the twelve heavenly legions, mentioned in Matthew 26:53.
Skeletal remains
![St Ursula bones](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/St_Ursula_bones.jpg)
The
Basilica of St. Ursula in Cologne holds the alleged
relics
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...
of Ursula and her 11,000 companions.
It contains what has been described as a "veritable tsunami of ribs, shoulder blades, and femurs ... arranged in zigzags and swirls and even in the shapes of Latin words".
[Quigley, Christine (2001) ''Skulls and Skeletons: Human Bone Collections and Accumulations'', Jefferson, N.C.; London: McFarland; p. 169.] The Goldene Kammer (Golden Chamber), a 17th-century chapel attached to the Basilica of St. Ursula, contains sculptures of their heads and torsos, "some of the heads encased in silver, others covered with stuff of gold and caps of cloth of gold and velvet; loose bones thickly texture the upper walls".
The peculiarities of the relics themselves have thrown doubt upon the historicity of Ursula and her 11,000 maidens. When skeletons of little children ranging in age from two months to seven years were found buried with one of the sacred virgins in 1183,
Saint Hermann Joseph, a
Praemonstratensian canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
at Steinfeld, explained that they were distant relatives of the eleven thousand. A surgeon of eminence was once banished from Cologne for suggesting that, among the collection of bones which are said to pertain to the heads, there were several belonging to full-grown
mastiff
A mastiff is a large and powerful type of dog. Mastiffs are among the largest dogs, and typically have a short coat, a long low-set tail and large feet; the skull is large and bulky, the muzzle broad and short ( brachycephalic) and the ears dr ...
s.
The relics may have come from a forgotten burial ground.
[The Ecole Glossary: Ursula]
Catholic official stance
Nothing reliable is known about the girls said to have been martyred at the spot. A
commemoration
Commemoration may refer to:
*Commemoration (Anglicanism), a religious observance in Churches of the Anglican Communion
*Commemoration (liturgy)
In the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church, a commemoration is the recital, within the Li ...
of Saint Ursula and her companions in the
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
of Saint
Hilarion
Hilarion the Great (291–371) was an anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great (c. 251–356). While St Anthony is considered to have established Christian monasticism in the Egyptian de ...
, formerly in the
General Roman Calendar
The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgical rite is in use. These cele ...
on 21 October, was removed in 1969, because "their ''Passio'' is entirely fabulous: nothing, not even their names, is known about the virgin saints who were killed at Cologne at some uncertain time". However, they are still mentioned in the
Roman Martyrology
The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved ...
, the official but professedly incomplete list of saints recognised by the Catholic Church, which speaks of them as follows: "At Cologne in Germany, commemoration of virgin saints who ended their life in martyrdom for Christ in the place where afterwards the city's basilica was built, dedicated in honour of the innocent young girl Ursula who is looked on as their leader".
Veneration
Catholic order
* The
Order of Ursulines, founded in 1535 by
Angela Merici
Angela Merici or Angela de Merici ( , ; 21 March 1474 – 27 January 1540) was an Italian religious educator, who is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She founded the Company of St. Ursula in 1535 in Brescia, in which women ded ...
, and devoted to the
education of young girls, has also helped to spread Ursula's name throughout the world.
St. Ursula was named the patron saint of school girls.
Celebrations
* The town of
Binangonan
Binangonan, officially the Municipality of Binangonan ( tgl, Bayan ng Binangonan) is a 1st class municipality in the province of Rizal, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 313,631 people.
A thriving fish port an ...
in the province of Rizal in the Philippines also has a church dedicated to St. Ursula, where her feast is celebrated on 21 October. A fluvial procession at Laguna Lake is carried out to commemorate Ursula's journey. It is made up of a group of men and women in colourful, traditional Filipino costumes dancing in the streets with the image of Ursula and chanting joyfully. Prior to her feast day, a nine-day
novena
A novena (from Latin: ''novem'', "nine") is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks. The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pe ...
is held at the 224-year-old Santa Ursula Church. During this novena, a woman is assigned as cantor to sing a chant in honour of Ursula.
* The town of
Valls
Valls () is a city and municipality in the province of Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. According to the 2014 census it has a population of 24,570.
Valls is known for its calçots – a type of scallion or green onion – and the human towers tradi ...
, Catalonia, Spain, celebrates the "" in the days around 21 October.
The fair concludes on the Sunday after 21 October with "one of the most important"
castell (human tower) competitions.
Church music and art
*
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...
composed many chants in honour of Ursula.
*
Michael Haydn wrote the
Missa in honorem Sanctae Ursulae to commemorate the day Ursula Oswald joined a Benedictine Abbey.
*
Hans Memling
Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...
fashioned during the 1480s a
wooden shrine that contained the relics of Ursula, which is now at the
Hans Memling Museum in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
The area of the whole city a ...
. It tells the story of Ursula in six bow-arched panels, with the two front panels showing Ursula accompanied by 10 virgins, each representing 1,000 virgins.
* There is also a painting by
Caravaggio "The Martyrdom of St Ursula" in the Gallaria d'italia in Naples. His last known work.
Places named after her companions
*
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
named the
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...
in the
Caribbean in her honour when sailing past them in 1493.
*
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the Eas ...
rounded
Cape Virgenes
Capes in the Americas
Cape Virgenes ( es, Cabo Vírgenes, lit=Cape Virgins) is the southeastern tip of continental Argentina in South America. The southern one, a little to the south-west, is Punta Dungeness. Ferdinand Magellan reached it on 21 Oc ...
on 21 October 1520, and entered the
Straits of Magellan
The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural pas ...
, naming the cape after Ursula's virgins.
*
João Álvares Fagundes
João Álvares Fagundes (born c. 1460, Kingdom of Portugal – died 1522, Kingdom of Portugal) was an explorer and ship owner from Viana do Castelo in Northern Portugal. He organized several expeditions to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia around 152 ...
, a Portuguese explorer, gave in 1521 the name ''Eleven Thousand Virgins'' to what is now known as
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...
.
*
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, a Swiss city about 400 km south of Cologne, has tradition of Ursula and her companions passing through Basel intending to go to Rome. The legend gave name to the Eleven Thousand Virgins Alley (''Elftausendjungfern-Gässlein''), which climbs one side of the Münsterberg, a hill in the center of the city.
UK and Anglican Church
* The small village of
Llangwyryfon
Llangwyryfon is a village and community in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. It lies on the B4576 about 8 miles to the south and east of Aberystwyth. The village lies in the valley of the River Wyre and contains the roadbridge where the B4576 cross ...
, near
Aberystwyth in west Wales, has a church dedicated to Ursula. The village name translates as 'Church of the Virgins'. She is believed to have come from this area.
* There are Anglican churches dedicated to St. Ursula in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States and the Caribbean.
* The street in London called
St Mary Axe is named after the
Church of St Mary Axe, originally dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, St. Ursula and the 11,000 virgins. It was demolished in the late 16th century; the site is located close to where the skyscraper informally known as ''
The Gherkin
30 St Mary Axe (previously known as the Swiss Re Building and informally known as the Gherkin) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. W ...
'' now stands. A manuscript dated 1514 claims that the church contained a
holy relic: an
axe
An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...
used by the Huns to execute the virgins.
*
Whitelands College
Whitelands College is the oldest of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton.
History
Whitelands College is one of the oldest higher education institutions in England (predating every university except Oxford, Cambridge, Lo ...
in
Roehampton
Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...
, London, the oldest educational institution of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
, has been under the patronage of St. Ursula since its formation. She is the patron saint of the college's chapel.
Visions
* It was recorded that
Elizabeth of Schönau
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sc ...
experienced a vision that revealed to her the martyrdom of Ursula and her companions.
[
File:Dlieja Sacun Santa Ursula.JPG, Saint Ursula in a 15th-century fresco on St. Jacob church in ]Urtijëi
Urtijëi (; german: St. Ulrich in Gröden ; it, Ortisei ) is a town of 4,637 inhabitants in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It occupies the Val Gardena within the Dolomites, a mountain chain that is part of the Alps.
Geography
Urtijëi borders th ...
in Val Gardena
Val Gardena (; german: Gröden ; lld, Gherdëina ) is a valley in Northern Italy, in the Dolomites of South Tyrol. It is best known as a tourist skiing, rock climbing, and woodcarving area.
Geography
The valley's main river is the Derjon, a ...
File:Sta.UrsulaParishChurchjf5008 11.JPG, Venerated image of St. Ursula in Binangonan, Rizal, Philippines.
Image:Accademia - Sogno di sant'Orsola - Vittore Carpaccio.jpg, ''The Dream of St. Ursula'', Vittore Carpaccio
Vittore Carpaccio ( UK: /kɑːrˈpætʃ(i)oʊ/, US: /-ˈpɑːtʃ-/, Italian: itˈtoːre karˈpattʃo c. 1460/66 – 1525/26) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school who studied under Gentile Bellini. Carpaccio was largely influence ...
, 1495; tempera on canvas, 274 × 267 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
Cordula, Ursula's companion
Cordula was, according to a legend in an edition of the ''Roman Martyrology
The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved ...
'' presented in an English translation on a traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions, and presentations of Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church before the liberal reforms of the Second Vatican Council ( ...
website, one of Ursula's companions: "Being terrified by the punishments and slaughter of the others, Cordula hid herself, but repenting her deed, on the next day she declared herself to the Huns of her own accord, and thus was the last of them all to receive the crown of martyrdom". In his ''Albert the Great'', Joachim Sighart recounts that, on 14 February 1277, while work was being done at the church of St John the Baptist (''Johanniterkirche'') in Cologne, Cordula's body was discovered; it was fragrant and on her forehead was written: ''Cordula, Queen and Virgin''. When Albert the Great
Albertus Magnus (c. 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop. Later canonised as a Catholic saint, he was known during his life ...
heard of the finding, he sang mass and transferred the relics. Later, Cordula's supposed remains were moved to Königswinter
Königswinter ( ksh, Köningkswinte; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at t ...
and Rimini
Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...
. Cordula's head was claimed by the Cathedral of Palencia
Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia.
Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...
. She is listed in the ''Roman Martyrology'' on 22 October.
Similarities with Sunniva
There are striking parallels between the 11th-century legend of Ursula and the story of Sunniva of Selje. Their names were sometimes confused by contemporaries. Both saints were considered to be Christian princesses who fled their homeland by ship in order to postpone or avert an undesired marriage with a pagan king. Both were accompanied by a large group of associates, both became victims of hostile foes. The development of their legends may have been interdependent. The martyrdom of Sunniva, however, took place after the first draft of the ''Passio Ursulae''.
References
External links
*
Sant' Orsola e compagne
Saint Ursula and the 11,000 British Virgins
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ursula
383 deaths
4th-century Christian saints
4th-century Roman women
Christian child saints
Christian royal saints
Christianity in Cologne
Late Ancient Christian female saints
Medieval legends
Romano-British saints
Year of birth unknown
Legendary Romans