Saint Ursula - Life

Life

The legend of Ursula is based on a 4th- or 5th-century inscription from the Church of St. Ursula (on the Ursulaplatz) in Cologne. It states that the ancient basilica had been restored on the site where some holy virgins were killed. The text of the inscription is:

DIVINIS FLAMMEIS VISIONIB. FREQVENTER / ADMONIT. ET VIRTVTIS MAGNÆ MAI / IESTATIS MARTYRII CAELESTIVM VIRGIN / IMMINENTIVM EX PARTIB. ORIENTIS / EXSIBITVS PRO VOTO CLEMATIVS V. C. DE / PROPRIO IN LOCO SVO HANC BASILICA / VOTO QVOD DEBEBAT A FVNDAMENTIS / RESTITVIT SI QVIS AVTEM SVPER TANTAM / MAIIESTATEM HVIIVS BASILICÆ VBI SANC / TAE VIRGINES PRO NOMINE. XPI. SAN / GVINEM SVVM FVDERVNT CORPVS ALICVIIVS / DEPOSVERIT EXCEPTIS VIRCINIB. SCIAT SE / SEMPITERNIS TARTARI IGNIB. PVNIENDVM /

The Catholic Encyclopedia 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 have been universally rejected." Neither Jerome nor Gregory of Tours refers to Ursula in their writings. Gregory of Tours mentions the legend of the Theban Legion, to whom a church that once stood in Cologne was dedicated. The most important hagiographers (Bede, Ado, Usuard, Notker the Stammerer, Rabanus Maurus) of the early Middle Ages also do not enter Ursula under 21 October, her feast day. A legend resembling Ursula's appeared in its full form between 731 and 839, but it does not mention the name of Ursula, but that of Pinnosa or Vinnosa as the leader of the martyred group.

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. One scholar has written that in the eighth century, the relics of virgin martyrs were found, among which were included those of a girl named Ursula, who was eleven years old-–in Latin, undecimilia. Undecimilia was subsequently misread or misinterpreted as undicimila (11,000), thus producing the legend of the 11,000 virgins. Another theory is that there was only one virgin martyr, named Undecimilla, "which by some blundering monk was changed into eleven thousand." It has also been suggested that cum militibus "with soldiers" was misread as cum millibus "with thousands".

The Basilica of St. Ursula in Cologne contains the alleged relics 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." 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, Hermann Joseph, a Praemonstratensian canon at Steinfeld, explained that these children 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 mastiffs. The relics may have come from a forgotten burial ground.

It has also been theorized that Ursula is a Christianized form of the goddess Freya, who welcomed the souls of dead maidens.

Nothing is known about the girls, if any, who are said to have been martyred at the spot. The commemoration, in the Mass of Saint Hilarion on 21 October, of Saint Ursula and her companions that was formerly in the Catholic calendar of saints for use wherever the Roman Rite is celebrated 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". The Roman Martyrology, the official but professedly incomplete list of saints recognized by the Catholic Church, speaks of these virgin saints 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." Their feast day remains 4 August.

There is one other Christian church dedicated to Saint Ursula. It is in the small village of Llangwyryfon, near Aberystwyth in west Wales. The village name translates as "Church of the virgins". The church is dedicated to her because she is believed to have originated from this area.