Vittore CARPACCIO. Apothéose de Sainte Ursule et de ses multiples compagnes, Vierges et Martyres, 1491, Venise, Gallerie dell'Accademia
Sainte Ursule
et ses compagnes,
martyres à Cologne (IVe siècle)
Que n'a-t-on pas dit de
ces jeunes femmes chrétiennes, vierges et martyres à Cologne. La piété
populaire a brodé sur leur existence bien des détails éloignés de l'histoire qu'on
suppose être la leur, jusqu'à porter leur nombre jusqu'à 11.000. Selon cette
'Passion' peu fiable et, en termes actuels, on pourrait dire que ces jeunes
filles écossaises furent réunies à Londres pour être conduites de force afin de
les marier aux soldats romains cantonnés en Armorique, ce dont les parents
tiraient quelque profit. Les bateaux qui les y menaient furent détournés par la
tempête et échouèrent en Germanie où des hordes d'Attila les
capturèrent. Devant leur refus de céder à leurs passions, elles furent
massacrées. Il est plus vraisemblable qu'elles soient des martyres durant une
persécution romaine si on se réfère à l'inscription qui date d'avant les
invasions germaniques de 406 et qui fut découverte au IXe siècle dans une
église de Cologne. L'épigraphe portait: XI M qu'on pouvait lire 'Onze martyres'
ou 'Onze mille'. Quoi qu'il en soit, le culte de sainte Ursule et de ses
compagnes se répandit très vite et de nombreuses églises furent élevées en leur
honneur. Au XIIIe siècle la Sorbonne l'adopta comme patronne, imitée en cela
par l'université de Coimbra au Portugal et celle de Vienne en Autriche.
À Cologne, commémoraison
des saintes vierges qui achevèrent leur vie par le martyre, vers le IVe siècle.
Par la suite, une basilique fut construite à cet endroit, portant le nom de la
jeune Ursule, vierge innocente, considérée comme la première du groupe.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/2055/Sainte-Ursule.html
Benozzo Gozzoli (1420–1497). Sainte
Ursule, circa 1455, 44.5 x 28.5, Washington, National Gallery of Art
Sainte Ursule et ses
compagnes
Martyres
(† 383)
Ursule était fille d'un
prince écossais. Sa beauté et ses vertus attiraient sur elle tous les regards,
mais elle répudia toute alliance humaine pour appartenir à Jésus-Christ. Elle
fut embarquée avec un grand nombre de vierges et de femmes chrétiennes, qu'un
conquérant romain voulait donner pour épouses à ses soldats. Mais une tempête
s'étant élevée, par la permission de Dieu, pendant la traversée, les navires,
au lieu d'atteindre l'Armorique, leur destination, allèrent s'échouer jusqu'à
l'embouchure du Rhin.
Les Huns, qui ravageaient
alors l'Europe, rencontrèrent ces vaisseaux et se préparaient à les piller et à
infliger à ces vierges et à ces femmes un déshonneur pire pour elles que la
mort. Commandées par Ursule, elles résistent avec héroïsme, si bien que, les
sentiments des barbares changeant tout à coup, ils saisissent leurs armes et se
précipitent sur cette armée pacifique; bientôt les victimes tombent en foule
sous les coups des bourreaux, et leurs âmes s'envolent au Ciel. Le prince des
Huns, frappé de la beauté d'Ursule, l'épargne d'abord; il essaye de la consoler
de la mort de ses compagnes et lui promet de l'épouser. Ursule repoussant cette
parole avec horreur, le barbare la perce d'un coup de flèche. Ainsi tomba cette
vierge, que la tradition nous montre comme le chef des onze mille vierges ou
femmes amenées par les Romains de la Grande-Bretagne.
Beaucoup d'églises
possèdent des reliques de cette armée de martyres; mais aucune n'est aussi
richement partagée que la ville de Cologne; car c'est dans cette cité, voisine
du lieu du supplice, que les chrétiens de l'endroit portèrent avec dévotion les
restes sacrés des saintes martyres. Une magnifique église s'éleva bientôt sur
leur tombeau, illustré déjà par des miracles. On y accourait de toutes parts;
les jeunes filles surtout venaient en foule recommander à sainte Ursule et à
ses compagnes leur virginité.
Un religieux, qui avait
pour les saintes martyres une grande dévotion, étant tombé dangereusement
malade, vit apparaître près de lui une vierge qui lui dit: "Je suis une de
ces vierges que tu honores; en récompense des onze mille Pater que tu as
récités pour nous honorer, tu auras notre assistance à l'heure de la
mort." La troupe glorieuse vint bientôt, en effet, chercher son âme.
Sainte Ursule est
regardée comme le modèle et la patronne des personnes qui s'appliquent à
instruire chrétiennement la jeunesse. Plusieurs congrégations de religieuses
sont placées sous son invocation.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_ursule_vierge_et_martyre_et_ses_compagnes.html
Badia
a Settimo, Refettorio dell'Abate, busto-reliquiario di una compagna di
Sant'Orsola, XIV-XV secolo
LES ONZE MILLE VIERGES
Les onze mille vierges
furent martyrisées ainsi qu'il suit : Il y avait en Bretagne un roi fort
chrétien nommé Notlhus, ou Maurus, dont la fille s'appelait Ursule. Elle se
faisait distinguer par la douceur admirable de ses mœurs, sa sagesse et sa
beauté; de sorte que sa renommée était répandue en tout lieu. Or, le roi
d'Angleterre, prince fort puissant, qui avait subjugué à ses lois une quantité
de nations, en entendant parler de cette jeune vierge, avouait qu'il serait le
plus heureux des hommes si elle épousait son fils unique. Le jeune homme en
témoignait aussi un ardent désir. On envoie donc une ambassade solennelle au
père de la jeune fille; à des flatteries et à de grandes promesses on ajoute
des menaces, si les ambassadeurs reviennent sans une réponse favorable. Le roi
de Bretagne se trouva dans une extrême anxiété. Il regardait comme une
indignité de donner à un adorateur des idoles une personne qui s'était rangée
sous la foi de J.-C. ; il savait bien d'ailleurs qu'elle n'y consentirait
jamais ; enfin, il redoutait singulièrement la férocité du roi anglais. Mais
Ursule, inspirée de Dieu, conseilla à son père d'accéder à la demande du prince
à condition toutefois que le roi son père, de concert avec son futur époux, lui
donnerait dix vierges très distinguées pour la consoler; qu'on lui confierait à
elle et aux autres, mille vierges ; qu'on équiperait des vaisseaux ; qu'on lui
accorderait un délai de trois ans pour faire le sacrifice de sa virginité, et
due le jeune homme lui-même se ferait baptiser et instruire dans la foi, dans
le même espace de trois ans. C'était prendre un sage parti en effet, ou bien
détourner le jeune homme de son dessein car les conditions qu'elle mettait
devaient sembler difficiles à accepter, ou bien pour avoir le moyen de pouvoir
consacrer à Dieu toutes ces vierges avec elle. Mais le jeune homme souscrivit
de bon coeur à ces conditions, insista lui-même auprès de son père; et s'étant
fait baptiser, il commanda de hâter l’exécution de tout ce que la jeune vierge
avait exigé. Le père d'Ursule régla que cette fille chérie eût aussi pour
cortège des hommes qui la protégeraient elle-même et ses compagnes. De toutes
parts donc les vierges s'empressent, de toutes parts les hommes accourent à un
si grand spectacle. Grand nombre d'évêques se joignent à Ursule et à ses compagnes
qu'ils veulent suivre; parmi eux se trouvait Pantulus, évêque de Bâle, qui les
conduisit jusqu'à Rome, et qui, à son retour, reçut avec elles le martyre.
Sur l’avis officiel que
lui en avait donné par lettres le père de sainte Ursule, sainte Gérasime, reine
de Sicile (dont le mari, fort cruel, était devenu, grâce à elle, un agneau pour
ainsi dire, de loup qu'il était), soeur de l’évêque Marcirisus et de Daria,
mère de sainte Ursule, suivit l’inspiration divine, laissa le royaume à un de
ses fils et mit à la voile pour la Bretagne avec ses quatre filles, Babille,
Julienne, Victoire et Aurée. Hadrien, un de ses enfants encore tout petit, se
mit aussi de lui-même, en pèlerinage, par amour pour ses soeurs. De l’avis de
sainte Gérasime se rassemblèrent des vierges de différents royaumes : elle fut
constamment leur conductrice et souffrit enfin le martyre avec elles. D'après
ce dont il avait été convenu, la reine s'étant procuré des trirèmes bien
approvisionnées, dévoile aux vierges qui devaient l’accompagner le secret de
son dessein, et toutes jurent d'être fidèles à ce nouveau genre de milice.
Bientôt, en effet, elles préludent aux exercices de la guerre ; tantôt elles
courent ici, tantôt là. Quelquefois elles font semblant de fuir; tout ce qui se
peut présenter à leur esprit pour s'exercer à tous les genres de jeux, elles
l’exécutent; quelquefois elles revenaient à midi, quelquefois à peine au soir.
Il y avait affluence de princes, de seigneurs pour jouir d'un pareil spectacle
et tous en étaient comblés d'admiration et de joie. Enfin, quand Ursule eut
converti toutes les vierges à la foi, après un jour de traversée et sous un
vent favorable, elles abordèrent à un port de la Gaule nommé Tyelle, et de là à
Cologne, où un ange apparut à Ursule et lui prédit qu'elles reviendraient
toutes ensemble en ce lieu où elles recevraient la couronne du martyre. Sur
l’avis de l’ange, et se dirigeant vers Rome, elles abordèrent à Bâle, où, ayant
quitté leurs navires, elles vinrent à pied à Rome. A leur arrivée, le pape Cyriaque
fut tout joyeux ; il était originaire lui-même de la Bretagne, et comptait
parmi elles beaucoup de parentes. Il les reçut avec tout son clergé en grande
pompe. Cette nuit-là même, le pape eut du ciel révélation qu'il devait recevoir
la couronne du martyre avec les vierges. Il ne parla de cela à qui que ce fut,
et conféra le baptême à beaucoup de ces jeunes personnes qui n'avaient point
encore reçu ce sacrement. Voyant une circonstance si favorable, après avoir
gouverné l’église, le 19° après saint Pierre (Ce fut saint Antère qui régna un
an et le 19e après saint Pierre, 235-236), pendant un an et onze semaines, il
découvrit son projet au public, et devant tout le monde, il résigna sa dignité
et son office. Les réclamations furent unanimes surtout de la part des
cardinaux qui pensaient que le pape était dans le délire pour vouloir quitter
les honneurs du pontificat afin de suivre quelques petites femmes folles; il ne
tint cependant aucun compte de leurs observations; mais il ordonna pontife à sa
place un saint homme qui fut nommé Amétus. Et pour avoir quitté le siège
apostolique malgré le clergé, celui-ci effaça son nom du catalogue des
pontifes, et cette sainte compagnie de vierges perdit dès ce moment tous les
égards qu'on avait eus pour elles à la cour de Rome. Il v avait alors à la tête
des armées romaines deus mauvais princes, Maxime et Africanus, qui, en voyant
cette multitude de vierges accompagnées de beaucoup d'hommes et de femmes,
craignirent que, par elles, la religion des chrétiens ne prit trop
d'accroissements. Ils eurent donc soin de s'informer exactement du chemin.
qu'elles devaient prendre, et envoyèrent des députés à Jules, leur parent, et
prince de la nation des Huns, afin que, marchant contre elles avec une armée,
il les massacrât à leur arrivée à Cologne, parce qu'elles étaient chrétiennes.
Alors le bienheureux Cyriaque sortit de Rome avec cette illustre multitude de
vierges. Il fut suivi par Vincent, cardinal-prêtre et par Jacques qui, de la
Bretagne, sa patrie, venu à Antioche, y avait exercé la dignité archiépiscopale
pendant sept ans. Il était à cette époque en visite auprès du pape, et déjà il
avait quitté la ville, lorsqu'il entendit parler de l’arrivée des vierges ; il
se hâta de revenir et il fut le compagnon de leur route et de leur martyre.
Maurice, évêque de Lévicane, oncle de Babile et de Julienne, Foillau, évêque de
Lucques, et Sulpice, évêque de Ravenne, alors à Rome, se joignirent encore à
ces vierges. Ethéré, époux de sainte Ursule, qui était resté en Bretagne, avait
été averti du Seigneur, par l’entremise d'un ange, d'exhorter sa mère à se
faire chrétienne. Car son,père était mort un an après avoir été converti à la
foi, et Ethéré lui avait succédé dans le gouvernement du royaume. Quand les
vierges sacrées revinrent de Rome avec les évêques, (221) dont il a été parlé,
Ethéré reçut du Seigneur l’avertissement d'aller de suite à la rencontre de sa
fiancée, afin de recevoir avec elle, dans Cologne, la palme du martyre. Il
acquiesça aux avertissements de Dieu, fit baptiser sa mère et, avec elle, une
toute petite soeur nommée Florentine déjà chrétienne; accompagné de l’évêque
Clément, il alla au-devant des vierges pour s'associer à leur martyre.
Marculus, évêque de Grèce et sa nièce Constance, fille de Dorothée; roi de
Constantinople, qui avait fait voeu de virginité après la mort de son fiancé,
un fils de roi, prévenus par une vision, vinrent à Rome et se joignirent aussi
à ces vierges pour avoir part à leur martyre. Toutes donc, et ces évêques
revinrent à Cologne alors assiégée par les Huns. Quand ces barbares les virent,
ils se jetèrent sur elles en poussant des cris affreux et comme des loups qui
se jettent sur des brebis, ils massacrèrent toute la multitude. Quand, après le
massacre des autres, on arriva au tour de sainte Ursule, le chef, voyant sa
merveilleuse beauté, resta stupéfait, et en la consolant de la mort de ses
compagnes, il lui promit de s'unir à elle par le mariage. Mais comme elle
rejeta sa proposition bien loin, cet homme, se voyant méprisé, prit une flèche
et en perça Ursule qui consomma ainsi son martyre. — Une des vierges, nommée
Cordula, saisie de frayeur, se cacha, cette nuit-là, dans le vaisseau ; mais le
lendemain, elle s'offrit de plein gré à la mort et reçut la couronne du
martyre. Or, comme ou ne faisait pas sa fête parce qu'elle n'avait pas souffert
avec les autres, elle apparut longtemps après à une recluse, en lui (222)
ordonnant de célébrer sa fête le lendemain de celle des vierges. Elles
souffrirent l’an du Seigneur 238. La supputation des époques, d'après l’opinion
de quelques-uns, ne permet pas de penser que ces choses se soient passées
alors. La Sicile, ni Constantinople n'étaient pas des royaumes, et cependant on
dit ici que les reines de ces pays accompagnèrent ces vierges: Il vaut mieux
croire que ce fut après Constantin, au moment où les Huns et les Goths
exerçaient leurs ravages, que ce martyre eut lieu, c'est-à-dire, du temps de
l’empereur Martien (selon qu'on le lit dans une chronique) qui régna l’an du
Seigneur 352. — Un abbé avait demandé. à l’abbesse de Cologne le corps d'une
vierge, avec promesse de le placer en son église dans une châsse d'argent; mais
l’ayant laissé, une année entière, sur un autel, dans une châsse de bois, une
nuit, que l’abbé de ce monastère chantait matines avec sa communauté, cette
vierge descendit corporellement de dessus l’autel et après avoir fait une
profonde révérence devant l’autel, elle passa, en présence de tous les moines
effrayés, à travers le choeur et se retira. L'abbé courut alors à la châsse
qu'il trouva vide. Il vint en toute hâte à Cologne et exposa la chose en détail
à l’abbesse. Ils allèrent à l’endroit Où ils avaient pris le corps et l’y,
trouvèrent. L'abbé, après avoir fait ses excuses, demanda le même corps ou au
moins un autre, avec les promesses les plus certaines de faire confectionner au
plus tôt fine châsse précieuse ; mais il ne put l’obtenir. — Un religieux, qui
avait une grande dévotion pour, ces saintes vierges, vit, un jour qu'il était
gravement malade, une vierge d'une grande beauté, lui (223) apparaître et lui
demander s'il la connaissait. Comme il était surpris de cette vision, et
avouait qu'il ne la connaissait aucunement, elle lui dit : « Je suis une des
vierges, à l’égard desquelles vous avez une touchante dévotion ; et afin de
vous en récompenser, si par amour et par honneur pour nous, vous récitez onze
mille fois l’oraison dominicale, vous éprouverez, à l’heure de votre mort, les
effets de notre protection et de notre consolation. » Alors elle disparut, et
le religieux accomplit ce qu'on lui avait demandé le plus tôt qu'il put; et
aussitôt après il fit appeler l’abbé pour recevoir l’extrême-onction. Au milieu
de la cérémonie, ce religieux s'adressa tout à coup aux assistants en leur
criant de se retirer, pour faire place aux vierges saintes qui arrivaient.
L'abbé lui ayant demandé ce que cela signifiait, le religieux lui raconta la
promesse qu'il avait faite à la vierge, alors tous se retirèrent, et revenant
un moment après, ils trouvèrent que le religieux avait rendu son âme a Dieu.
La Légende dorée de Jacques de Voragine nouvellement traduite en français avec introduction, notices, notes et recherches sur les sources par l'abbé J.-B. M. Roze, chanoine honoraire de la Cathédrale d'Amiens, Édouard Rouveyre, éditeur, 76, rue de Seine, 76, Paris mdccccii
SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/voragine/tome03/159.htm
Busti
di sant'Orsola e quattro compagne, nel Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro de Álava
Ursule, l’étonnante
patronne de la Sorbonne
Valdemar
de Vaux - publié le 20/10/22
Malheureusement fermée au
public, la chapelle de la Sorbonne est dédiée à une sainte un peu oubliée mais
fêtée le 21 octobre. La dévotion qui l’entourait, jusqu’à ce que la légende de
son martyre soit nuancée, était pourtant importante. Que dit sainte Ursule aux
actuels étudiants et futurs saints ?
ÀCologne, elle est sainte
patronne. La ville en a même gardé une mention discrète dans ses armoiries. Les
onze flammes de sable sur fond d’argent viennent en effet de sainte Ursule et
de ses compagnes, fêtées le 21 octobre. Cette cité germanique a, en effet, été
le siège de plusieurs légendes autour d’un martyre de plusieurs jeunes femmes,
avéré, perpétré par les Huns à la fin du IVe siècle. Même si les versions
divergent, on en trouve notamment une dans la fameuse Légende
dorée de Jacques de Voragine, il semble que le nombre de 11.000 – auquel
se rapportent les flammes des armoiries – est le fruit de l’imagination.
Sainte Ursule donc, jeune
fille chrétienne, est envoyée avec d’autres compagnes, pour être mariée de
force. Parties de Londres, les concernées débarquent en Germanie à la suite
d’une tempête. Là, les Huns qui les ont capturées, voudraient profiter d’elles.
Ayant refusé de céder au plaisir de leurs geôliers, elles sont
massacrées.
Comme une Maria Goretti
au début du XXe siècle, l’Église vénère en ces martyrs de la pureté la force
d’une vie sans accommodement.
Comme une Maria Goretti
au début du XXe siècle, l’Église vénère en ces martyrs de la pureté la force
d’une vie sans accommodement. Le saint pape Jean Paul II l’a bien résumé (il
parlait de Maria Goretti, mais sainte Ursule ne rougirait pas) : « [Elle]
rappelle aux jeunes du troisième millénaire que le véritable bonheur exige du
courage et un esprit de sacrifice, le refus de tout compromis et d’être disposé
à payer en personne, même par la mort, la fidélité à Dieu et à ses
commandements. »
Patronne de la Sorbonne
dès sa fondation
Est-ce pour cette raison
que la sainte de Cologne est devenue une figure tutélaire de l’éducation des
jeunes gens ? À vrai dire, voilà encore un mystère d’Ursule… Si la
Sorbonne, dès sa fondation au XIIIe siècle, l’adopte pour patronne, ce qu’elle
est encore aujourd’hui, c’est avant tout parce que l’inscription évoquant le
martyre de sainte Ursule est découverte un peu plus tôt à Cologne. Dès lors, la
dévotion pour cette jeune fille, dont le courage ne peut venir que de Dieu, se
répand dans l’Europe tout entière.
Quand, en 1535, Angèle
Mérici crée son ordre à Brescia, en Italie, elle choisit aussi la bienheureuse
Ursule pour protéger sa compagnie de jeunes femmes qui donnent leur vie pour
les autres. Un nouvel ordre sans habit ni vœu ni cloître, des laïques à la
recherche de la sainteté. Les Ursulines, depuis devenues religieuses, se
consacreront à l’éducation.
Aujourd’hui encore, dans
le monde entier, de nombreux jeunes vivent donc sous le patronage de
l’étonnante et méconnue sainte de Cologne. Pour apprendre d’elle, et confier à
son intercession, le désir de se donner entièrement à Dieu, sans regarder en
arrière. En particulier dans les études, qui demandent persévérance et
fidélité. Mais tout le travail fourni ne doit pas faire oublier que seul le
Sauveur donne la victoire. Celle qu’il a donnée à sainte Ursule et à ses
compagnes, pleines de courage et désormais auprès de Lui.
Maître de la Légende de sainte Ursule Volets
avec la Légende de sainte Ursule (Bruges, Hôpital Saint Jean) 1482
Master of the Bruges
Legend of St. Ursula (1436–1504/1505), Four episodes from the
life of Saint Ursula - The Legend of Saint Ursula, 1482, 96 x 60, Groeningemuseum
Maître de la Légende de sainte Ursule Volets
avec la Légende de sainte Ursule (Bruges, Hôpital Saint Jean) 1482
Master of the Bruges
Legend of St. Ursula (1436–1504/1505), Four episodes from the
life of Saint Ursula - The Legend of Saint Ursula, 1482, 96 x 60, Groeningemuseum
La légende de sainte
Ursule et des Onze Mille Vierges
1 Sainte Ursule
L’histoire relative à
sainte Ursule est difficile à vérifier en raison de témoignages écrits fiables.
On sait qu’une jeune fille nommée Ursule, fille d’un roi chrétien breton, vécut
à la toute fin du IIIe et au début du IVe siècle. On sait également
que cette jeune fille, ainsi que plusieurs autres, aurait été demandée en
mariage par un prince païen d’origine germanique. Mais comme Ursule voulait
demeurer vierge et chrétienne, son refus pouvait attirer des représailles
graves pour son père. Ursule et ses amis — dix vierges — décidèrent donc de
s’enfuir et de partir à l’aventure. Les jeunes filles se seraient rendues en
pèlerinage à Rome, puis se seraient embarquées sur un navire sur le Rhin à
destination de Cologne (Allemagne). Une tempête aurait les aurait jetées sur
les rives du Rhin où elle auraient été capturées à Cologne par les Huns, puis
martyrisées et mises à mort parce qu’elles ne voulaient pas trahir leur foi.
Les jeunes filles furent enterrées dans une église de Cologne.
2 L’épopée d’Ursule et de
ses compagnes
La légende d’Ursule et de
ses compagnes ne débuta qu’en 1155 lorsqu’on découvrit dans une église (appelée
maintenant Sainte-Ursule) une petite inscription latine gravée sur une pierre
et datant du début du Ve siècle. Il était écrit: XIMV. Cette
inscription référait au massacre de plusieurs vierges martyres au IIIe siècle.
Toutefois, comme il ne subsistait aucun nom sur l’inscription, l'Église ne
pouvait honorer aucune de ces martyres en particulier. Les fouilles archéologiques
permirent de découvrir des ossements de jeunes femmes décédées quelques siècles
plus tôt; la croyance populaire les attribua aussitôt à Ursule et à ses
compagnes.
3 La légende des 11 000
vierges
C’est au XIe siècle
que le nombre des compagnes d’Ursule, les vierges martyres, fut fixé à 11 000.
Il n’existe aucun fait vérifiable démontrant que les compagnes d’Ursule était
dix ou 11 000. Cependant, on croit que les gens de l’époque auraient
probablement mal interprété la numération romaine trouvée près des ossements
attribués aux saintes vierges martyres. En effet, on pouvait lire XIMV, ce
qui signifie plutôt XI pour «onze», M pour «martyres»
et V pour «vierges». Autrement dit, l’inscription «XI Martyres et
Vierges» aurait été interprétée comme étant «XI Mille Vierges».
Le culte d'Ursule et des
Onze Mille Vierges a connu un immense succès au Moyen Âge, surtout en
Allemagne, aux Pays-Bas, dans le nord de la France et en Italie. Ursule et ses
compagnes furent canonisées, une «confrérie de pieuses gens» nommée La
nacelle de Sainte-Ursule fut fondée, des artistes et des églises
célébrèrent l’épopée de sainte Ursule et ses compagnes. Sainte Ursule fut reconnue
comme la patronne des jeunes filles et des drapiers, car elle aurait été
protégée par un manteau miraculeux. La légende n’explique pas comment la sainte
a pu être martyrisée et tuée malgré son manteau miraculeux.
Le calendrier grégorien a
fixé la date d’anniversaire de sainte Ursule et de ses Onze Mille Vierges au 21
octobre. Lorsque le navigateur portugais José Alvarez Faguendes découvrit
officiellement, le 21 octobre 1520, l’archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, il
constata que ce jour était celui de la fête de sainte Ursule et des Onze Mille
Vierges. Christophe Colomb avait fait de même en 1493 en découvrant les îles
Vierges (nommées Las Vírgenes).
SOURCE: D’après Christian
Vanden BERGHEN, "Sainte Ursule et les Onze Mille Vierges" dans Bienvenue
sur le site de Rota Solis.
SOURCE : http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/amnord/legende-Ste-Ursule.htm
Caravage. Le Martyre de sainte Ursule (Martirio
di sant'Orsola), 1610, 154 x 178, Naples, palais Zevallos Stigliano
The Martyrdom of St Ursula, by Caravaggio, 1610, generally believed to be his last work. The Saint is shown at the very moment she is struck in the breast by an arrow, an example of the vivid realism for which Caravaggio was praised by many as the greatest painter of his times.
Sainte Ursule et ses
Compagnes, martyres.
Les soldats huns sont
habillés comme ceux du temps des contemporains du peintre.
Sous l’empire de Gratien,
Flavius-Clemens Maximus, commandant l’armée romaine en Bretagne, ayant saisi le
pouvoir, fut proclamé empereur par ses soldats. Envoyant des troupes en Gaules,
il fut reçu avec faveur par les légions, que Gratien s’était aliénées, et
fortifia son autorité.
Comme il avait partagé à
ses légions bretonnes une riche contrée de l’Armorique, de laquelle il avait
expulsé les anciens habitants, il demanda, afin d’assurer la perpétuité de sa
colonie, et par le conseil de Conan, petit roi de Bretagne qui avait un
commandement dans son armée, de faire venir de Bretagne des jeunes filles qu’il
destinait pour épouses à ses colons militaires.
« La demande, dit le
Bréviaire romain, ne parut pas aux petits rois bretons de nature à être
rejetée. Comme ils savaient que, par la faveur du nouvel empereur, leurs filles
ne devaient être mariées qu’à leurs compatriotes et aux plus riches, ils
choisirent autant de jeunes vierges qu’il y avait de soldats.
« À leur tête était la
princesse Ursule, fille de Dionoc, roi de Cornouailles, fiancée à Conan,
général des Bretons qui faisaient partie de l’armée de Maxime. Réunies à
Londres, elles furent embarquées malgré elles sur des navires ; on lève l’ancre
et pendant que les matelots se dirigent vers l’Armorique, une violente tempête
les jette sur les rivages de la Germanie.
« Il arriva qu’alors, les
hordes des Huns, appelées par Gratien contre Maxime, occupaient ce littoral.
Ayant rencontré cette belle troupe de jeunes filles, ils se précipitèrent sur
elles pour assouvir leurs brutales passions. Mais sainte Ursule exhorte ses
compagnes à subir la mort plutôt que le déshonneur, et elles se déterminent
toutes à résister aux barbares.
« Les Huns, transportés
de fureur, les massacrèrent toutes sans exception. Sainte Ursule, victime
illustre, succombe la dernière, couchée sur ses compagnes comme sur un précieux
monceau de perles précieuses ; puis elle leur sert de guide au Ciel, où elle
entre victorieuse avec elles, ornée de la pourpre d’un sang virginal, et
conduisant cette armée de jeunes Saintes couronnées du double laurier de la
virginité et du martyre.
« Leurs corps furent
ensevelis à Cologne avec les plus grands honneurs, et la Chrétienté entière
célèbre, avec une mémoire toujours présente, le triomphe de ces Vierges
héroïques. » C’était l’an 383, saint Damase Ier étant pape et Gratien empereur
romain.
Sainte Ursule est patronne de la ville de Cologne.
Hans
Memling, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula / Ursulaschrein,
Szene: Das Martyrium der Hl. Ursula, 1489, 37.5 x 35.5, Memling in
Sint-Jan, Sint-Janshospitaal
_16-08-2019_11-47-32.jpg)
Hans Memling. Châsse de Sainte Ursule, 1489
(statement with Gregorian date earlier than 1584), St. John's Hospital, Bruges, West Flanders. La Châsse se de sainte Ursule
- Panneau latéral : cette scène figure le pape Cyriaque qui après une
vision se joint au voyage de retour et rembarque à Bâle avec sainte Ursule et
sa suite. Puis à Cologne, elles sont massacrées par les païens. Leur chef roi
des Huns, ému par la beauté d’Ursule, lui promet la vie sauve si elle l’épouse.
Suite à son refus, elle est tuée par un archer.
Sainte Ursule
L’histoire de sainte
Ursule est issue de différentes légendes. On sait qu’une jeune fille
nommée Ursule (la petite ourse), fille d’un roi chrétien breton, vécut à la
toute fin du IIIe et au début du IVe siècle. On sait également que cette jeune
fille, ainsi que plusieurs autres, aurait été demandée en mariage par un prince
païen d’origine germanique. Mais comme Ursule voulait demeurer vierge et
chrétienne, son refus pouvait attirer des représailles graves pour son père.
Ursule et ses amis - dix vierges - décidèrent donc de s’enfuir et de partir à l’aventure.
Les jeunes filles se seraient rendues en pèlerinage à Rome, puis se seraient
embarquées sur un navire sur le Rhin à destination de Cologne. Une tempête les
aurait jetées sur les rives du Rhin où elle auraient été capturées à Cologne
par les Huns, puis martyrisées et mises à mort parce qu’elles ne voulaient pas
trahir leur foi. Les jeunes filles furent enterrées dans une église de Cologne.
La légende d’Ursule et de
ses compagnes ne débuta qu’en 1155 lorsqu’on découvrit dans une église une
petite inscription latine gravée sur une pierre et datant du début du Ve
siècle. Il était écrit : XIMV. Cette inscription référait au massacre de
plusieurs vierges martyres au IIIe siècle. Toutefois, comme il ne subsistait
aucun nom sur l’inscription, l’Église ne pouvait honorer aucune de ces martyres
en particulier. Les fouilles archéologiques permirent de découvrir des
ossements de jeunes femmes décédées quelques siècles plus tôt ; la croyance
populaire les attribua aussitôt à Ursule et à ses compagnes.
C’est au XIe siècle que
le nombre des compagnes d’Ursule, les vierges martyres, fut fixé à 11 000. Il
n’existe aucun fait vérifiable démontrant que les compagnes d’Ursule étaient
dix ou 11’000. Cependant, on croit que les gens de l’époque auraient probablement
mal interprété la numération romaine trouvée près des ossements attribués aux
saintes vierges martyres. En effet, on pouvait lire XIMV, ce qui signifie
plutôt XI pour « onze », M pour « martyres » et V pour « vierges ». Autrement
dit, l’inscription « XI Martyres et Vierges » aurait été interprétée comme
étant « XI Mille Vierges ».
Aujourd’hui encore, les onze flammes ornant les armoiries de la ville de Cologne témoignent de l’importance de sainte Ursule en tant que patronne de la ville. Ses reliques sont vénérées à la basilique qui porte son nom.
SOURCE : http://www.pasaj.ch/sainte-ursule-article267.html
Profile
Legendary princess,
the daughter of a Christian British king and Saint Daria.
She travelled Europe in
company of either 11 or 11,000 fellow maidens; the 11,000 number probably
resulted from a misreading of the term “11M” which indicated 11 Martyrs,
but which a copyist took for a Roman numeral. Ursula and her company were tortured to death to
get them to renounce their faith, and old
paintings of them show many of the women being killed in
various painful ways. Namesake for the Ursuline Order, founded for
the education of
young Catholic girls and women.
There are other saints closely
associated with Ursula and her story –
travelling companions
who were martyred with
her
travelling companion,
but escaped the massacre
led by a dove to the lost
tomb of Ursula
her mother
21 October 238 in Cologne, Germany
unmarried
girls and young women
Catholic
education (especially of girls)
young woman shot with arrows, often
accompanied by a varied number of companions, male and female, who are
being martyred in
assorted, often creative ways
Additional
Information
A
Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Saint Ursula
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Society of the Sisters of Saint Ursula of the Blessed Virgin
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Ursulines
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Ursulines of Quebec
In
God’s Garden, by Amy Steedman
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Francis
Xavier Weninger
Saints
and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie
Cormier, O.P.
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
Short
Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly
The
Dream of Saint Ursula, by John Ruskin
The
Story of Saint Ursula, by John Ruskin
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer
Sacred
and Legendary Art, by Anna Jameson
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
Some Patron Saints, by
Padraic Gregory
other
sites in english
1001 Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, Australian
Catholic Truth Society
Dictionary
of National Biography
Miniature
Stories of the Saints
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
Santi e Beati:
Ursula
Santi e Beati:
Cordula
Santi e Beati:
Odila
Santi e Beati:
Artemia and Isala
MLA
Citation
“Saint Ursula“. CatholicSaints.Info.
17 June 2024. Web. 26 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ursula/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ursula/
Reliquiary of Saint Ursula, Church of Sant'Angelo, Castiglion Fiorentino, Province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Manifattura renana o francese, busto-reliquiario di Sant'Orsola, in argento, smalti, pietre e paste vitree, 1330-1360 ca.
Reliquiary of Saint Ursula, Church of Sant'Angelo, Castiglion Fiorentino, Province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Manifattura renana o francese, busto-reliquiario di Sant'Orsola, in argento,
smalti, pietre e paste vitree, 1330-1360 ca.
Reliquiary of Saint Ursula, Church of Sant'Angelo, Castiglion Fiorentino, Province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Manifattura renana o francese, busto-reliquiario di Sant'Orsola, in argento,
smalti, pietre e paste vitree, 1330-1360 ca.
Book of
Saints – Ursula and Her Companions
Article
(October
21) (Saints) Virgin Martyrs (5th
century) The tradition concerning these Saints is
that when the Britons fled from the South of England before
the invading Saxons, while many took refuge in Armorica (Bretagne), others fled
to the Continental shores about the mouth of the Rhine, but were there done
to death by
the heathen Huns, then ravaging the country. They are reputed to have numbered
many thousands (11,000, according to the Mediaeval legend). That a Princess or
chieftain’s daughter, Ursula by
name, was their leader is generally accepted; but other details are quite
uncertain. Their shrine in
one of the churches of Cologne (with
its vast collection of their bones) is celebrated all over the Christian world.
The Mediaeval belief that all these Martyrs were
young girls need
not be insisted upon.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Ursula and Her Companions”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
21 October 2016. Web. 27 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-ursula-and-her-companions/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-ursula-and-her-companions/
Jean
Bourdichon, Grandes Heures Anne de Bretagne Folio 199v. Le massacre de sainte
Ursule et des onze mille vierges, circa 1503
St. Ursula
Feastday: October 21
According to a legend
that appeared in the tenth century, Ursula was the daughter of a Christian king
in Britain and was granted a three year postponement of a marriage she did not
wish, to a pagan prince.
With ten ladies in waiting, each attended by a thousand maidens, she embarked
on a voyage across the North sea, sailed up the Rhine to Basle, Switzerland,
and then went to Rome. On their way back, they were all massacred by pagan Huns
at Cologne in
about 451 when Ursula refused to marry their chieftain. According to another
legend, Amorica was settled by British colonizers and soldiers after Emporer
Magnus Clemens Maximus conquered Britain and Gaul in 383. The ruler of the
settlers, Cynan Meiriadog, called on King Dionotus of Cornwall for wives for
the settlers, whereupon Dionotus sent his daughter Ursula, who was to marry
Cynan, with eleven thousand maidens and sixty thousand common women. Their
fleet was shipwrecked and all the women were enslaved or murdered. The legends
are pious fictions, but what is true is that one Clematius, a senator, rebuilt
a basilica in Cologne that
had originally been built, probably at the beginning of the fourth century, to
honor a group of virgins who had been martyred at Cologne. They were evidently
venerated enough to have had a church built in their honor, but who they were
and how many of them there were, are unknown. From these meager facts, the
legend of Ursula grew and developed. Feast day October 21.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=325
Golden
Legend – Story of Saint Ursula and the Virgins
Here followeth the
Passion of Eleven Thousand Virgins.
The passion of eleven
thousand virgins was hallowed in this manner. In Britain was a christian king
named Notus or Maurus, which engendered a daughter named Ursula. This daughter
shone full of marvellous honesty, wisdom, and beauty, and her fame and renomee
was borne all about. And the king of England which then was right mighty, and
subdued many nations to his empire, heard the renomee of her, and said that he
would be well happy if this virgin might be coupled to his son by marriage. And
the young man had great desire and will to have her. And there was a solemn
embassy to the father of Ursula, and promised great promises, and said many
fair words for to have her; and also made many menaces if they returned vainly
to their lord. And then the king of Britain began to be much anxious, because
that she that was ennobled in the faith of Jesu Christ should be wedded to him
that adored idols, because that he wist well she would not consent in no
manner, and also because he doubted much the cruelty of the king. And she, that
was divinely inspired, did so much to her father that she consented to the
marriage by such a condition, that for to solace her he should send to her
father ten virgins, and to herself, and to those ten other virgins, he should send
to each a thousand virgins, and should give to her space of three years for to
dedicate her virginity, and the young man should be baptized, and in these
three years he should be informed in the faith sufficiently, so that by wise
counsel, and by virtue of the condition made, he should withdraw from her his
courage. But this youngling received this condition gladly, and hasted his
father and was baptized and commanded all that Ursula had required should be
done. And the father of the virgin ordained that his daughter, whom he most
loved, and the others that had need of the comfort of men and service, ordained
in their company good men for to serve them.
Then virgins came from
all parts, and men came for to see this great company, and many bishops came
for to go with them in their pilgrimage, among whom was Pantulus, bishop of
Basle, which went with them to Rome, and returned from thence with them and
received martyrdom. Saint Gerasine, queen of Sicily, which had made of her
husband that was a cruel tyrant a meek lamb, and was sister of Maurice the
bishop, and of Daria, mother of Saint Ursula, to whom the father of Saint
Ursula had signified by secret letters. She, by the inspiration of God, put
herself in the way with her four daughters, Babilla, Juliana, Victoria and
Aurea, and her little son Adrian, which, for love of his sisters, went in the
same pilgrimage, and left all in the hands of his own son, and came into
Britain, and sailed over sea into England. And by the counsel of this queen the
virgins were gathered together from divers realms, and she was leader of them,
and at the last she suffered martyrdom with them. And then, the condition made,
all things were made ready. Then the queen showed her counsel to the knights of
her company, and made them all to swear this new chivalry; and then began they
to make divers plays and games of battle, as to run here and there, and feigned
many manner of plays. And for all that they left not their purpose, and
sometimes they returned from this play at midday and sometimes unnethe at evensong time. And the
barons and great lords assembled them to see the fair games and disports, and
all had joy and pleasure in beholding them, and also marvel.
And at the last, when
Ursula had converted all these virgins unto the faith of Christ, they went all
to the sea, and in the space of a day, they sailed over the sea, having so good
wind that they arrived at a port of Gaul, named Tielle, and from thence came
to Cologne, where an angel of our Lord
appeared to Ursula, and told her that they should return again, the whole
number to that place, and there receive the crown of martyrdom. And from
thence, by the monition of the angel, they went towards Rome. And when they
came to Basle they left there their ships and went to Rome afoot. At the coming
of whom the pope Ciriacus was much glad, because he was born in Britain and had
many cousins among them, and he with his clerks received them with all honour.
And that same night it was showed to the pope that he should receive with them
the crown of martyrdom, which thing he hid in himself, and baptized many of
them that were not then baptized. And when he saw time convenable, when he had
governed the church one year and eleven weeks, and was the nineteenth pope after
Peter, he purposed tofore all the people, and showed to them his purpose, and
resigned his office and his dignity. But all men gainsaid it, and especially
the cardinals,
which supposed that he trespassed, leaving the glory of the papacy and would go
after these foolish virgins, but he would not agree to abide, but ordained an
holy man to occupy in his place, which was named Ametus. And because he left
the see apostolic against the will of the clergy, the clerks put out his name
of the catalogue of popes. And all the grace that he had gotten in his time,
this holy company of women made him for to leave it.
And then two felon
princes of the chivalry of Rome, Maximus and Africanus, saw this great company
of virgins, and that many men and women assembled to them, doubted that
christian religion should much be increased by them, wherefore they required
diligently of their voyage. And then sent they messengers to Julian, their
cousin, prince of the lineage of the Huns, that he should bring his host
against them, and should assemble at Cologne, and there behead them because
they were christian. And the blessed Ciriacus issued out of the city of Rome
with this blessed company of virgins, and Vincent, priest cardinal,
and Jacobus that was come from Britain into Antioch, and had held there seven
years the dignity of the bishop, which then had visited the pope, and was gone
out of his city and held company with these virgins, when he heard of their
coming, and suffered martyrdom with them. And Maurice, bishop of Levicana, the
city, uncle of Babilla and Juliana, and Follarius, bishop of Lucca, with
Sulpitius, bishop of Ravenna, which then were come to Rome,
put them in the company of these virgins.
Ethereus, the husband of
Ursula, abiding in Britain, was warned of our Lord by a vision of an angel that
he should exhort his mother to be christian. For his father died the first year
that he was christened, and Ethereus, his son, succeeded after him in his
reign. And then when these holy virgins returned from Rome with the bishops,
Ethereus was warned of our Lord that he should anon arise and go to meet his
wife at Cologne, and there receive with her the
crown of martyrdom, the which anon obeyed to admonishments divine, and did do
baptize his mother and came with her and his little sister Florence, then also
baptized, and with the bishop Clement, meeting the holy virgins, and
accompanied them unto martyrdom. And Marculus, bishop of Greece, and his niece
Constance, daughter of Dorotheus, king of Constantinople, which was married to
the son of a king, but he died tofore the wedding, and she avowed to our Lord
her virginity; they were also warned by a vision, and came to Rome and joined
them to these virgins unto the martyrdom. And then all these virgins came with
the bishops to Cologne, and found that it was besieged
with the Huns. And when the Huns saw them they began to run upon them with a
great cry, and araged like wolves on sheep, and slew all this great multitude.
And when they were all beheaded, they came to the blessed Ursula, and the prince
of them, seeing her beauty so marvellous, was abashed, and began to comfort her
upon the death of the virgins, and promised to her to take her to his wife. And
when she had refused him and despised him at all, he shot at her an arrow, and
pierced her through the body, and so accomplished her martyrdom. And one of the
virgins, which was named Cordula, was sore afeared, and hid herself all that
night in a ship, but on the morn she suffered death by her free will, and took
the crown of martyrdom. And because her feast was not held with the other
virgins, she appeared long after to a recluse, and commanded him that the next
day following the feast of the virgins, her feast should be remembered. They
suffered death the year of our Lord two hundred and thirty-eight. But some hold
opinion that the reason of the time showeth that they suffered not death in
that time, for Sicily ne Constantinople were then no realms, but it is supposed
that they suffered death long time after, when Constans was emperor, and that
the Huns and Goths enforced them against christian men in the time of the
emperor Marcian, that reigned in the year of our Lord four hundred and
fifty-two. It is to be remembered that among these eleven thousand virgins were
many men, for the pope Cyriacus and other bishops, and Ethereus king, with
other lords and knights, had much people to serve them. And as I have been
informed in Cologne that there were men
besides women that thilke time suffered martyrdom, fifteen thousand. So the
number of this holy multitude, as of the holy virgins and men, were twenty-six
thousand, to whom let us pray to our Lord that he have mercy on us. There was
an abbot that impetred of the abbess of the place where these holy virgins rest
in Cologne, a body of one of these
virgins, and promised that he would set it in his church in a fair shrine of
silver, but when he had it, he kept it a year upon the altar in a chest of
tree. And in a night as the abbot sang matins, the said virgin descended from
the altar bodily, and inclined honourably tofore the altar, and went through
the choir, seeing all the monks which, were thereof sore abashed, and then the
abbot ran and found it all void and nothing therein. Then the abbot went to Cologne and told to the abbess all
the thing by order. Then went they to the place where they had taken the body,
and found the same there again. And then the abbot required pardon, and prayed
the abbess that he might have again the same body or another, promising right
certainly to make hastily a precious shrine, but he could none have in no
manner. There was a religious monk which had great devotion to these holy
virgins, and it happed that he was on a day sick, and saw a right fair and
noble virgin appear to him, and demanded him if he knew her. And he was
amarvelled of this vision, and said he knew her not. And she said: I am one of
the virgins to whom thou hast such great devotion, and thereof thou shalt have
a reward. If thou say eleven thousand paternosters for the love and honour of
us, we shall come unto thine aid and comfort at the hour of thy death, and then
she vanished away. And he accomplished her request as soon as he might, and
anon after he did do call his abbot, and did him to be annealed or anointed.
And as they anointed him he cried suddenly: Make ye place to the holy virgins,
and go out of the way that they may come to me. And when the abbot demanded him
what it was, and what he meant, he told to him by order the promise of the
virgin. Then all they withdrew them a little after, and soon came again and
found him departed out of this world unto our Lord. Then let us devoutly give
laud and praising unto the blessed Trinity and pray him that by the merits of
this great multitude of martyrs he will forgive and pardon us of our sins, that
after this life we may come unto this holy company in heaven Amen.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-story-of-saint-ursula-and-the-virgins/
Allerheiligenretabel, circa 1500, Heiligen-Geist-Hospital, Lübeck
Weninger’s
Lives of the Saints – Saint Ursula and Her Compansions, Virgins and Martyrs
Article
Today we commemorate the
festival of Saint Ursula and her companions. Although her life and martyrdom
are variously described by different historians, we cannot therefore conclude
with some heretical writers, that she never existed, and that all that has been
told of her are fables; for, although historians differ in some points, yet all
unanimously declare that Saint Ursula and her companions sacrificed their lives
for their faith, and in defense of their virginity. The short sketch we give of
this Saint is partly taken from the works of the celebrated Baronius, and
partly from the Roman Breviary.
The Roman General,
Maximus, surnamed Flavius Magnus Clemens, who commanded the Imperial armies in
Great Britain, caused himself, in 383, to be proclaimed Emperor by his
soldiers, while the lawful Emperor Gratian was still alive. After this, he
crossed the sea, landed on the shores of France, took possession of a large
portion of it, drove the inhabitants away, and occupied the land with his
soldiers, among whom he divided the conquered towns and villages. Conanus, a
tributary king in Great Britain, who commanded one part of the army of this new
Emperor, advised him to bring from England virgins, who might be given in
marriage to the new inhabitants of the conquered land, in order to keep them in
obedience and fidelity to their master. Maximus, pleased with this advice, sent
an embassy to Great Britain, and stating his reasons, demanded a great number
of maidens. The Britons hesitated not to consent to the new Emperor’s demand,
because many of his soldiers were Britons and because Maximus had given them
considerable property. They, therefore, assembled the desired number of
virgins, placed them in several boats, and sent them to France. The noblest
among them was Ursula, daughter of the king of Wales, who was to become the
spouse of Conanus. The wisdom of the Almighty, however, had decreed otherwise;
for, whilst the ships sailed from England to France, contrary winds arose,
which drove them all to the shores of Germany. It is believed that they went up
the Rhine, and landed in the neighborhood of Cologne. At that period, the wild
Huns happened to be there, whom the Emperor Gratian had called to his aid
against Maximus, who resided for some time at Treves. When these heathens
beheld this large number of virgins, they forced them to land and would have
sacrificed them to their lust. Ursula, however, the Christian heroine, exhorted
all, rather to suffer the most bitter death than consent to evil. All followed
her admonition, and courageously resisted the savages, who, in their furious
rage, killed the defenseless virgins with swords, arrows and clubs. Only one of
the maidens, Cordula, had escaped and concealed herself during the massacre;
but repenting of her timidity, she revealed herself on the following day, and
last of all, she received the crown of martyrdom. The bodies of the holy
virgins were buried, with great solemnities, by the inhabitants of Cologne.
Their memory, however, and the veneration with which they were regarded, were
not confined within the wall’s of this town, but spread over the whole
Christian world.
Practical Considerations
• Saint Ursula encouraged
and exhorted her companions to preserve their purity, and to give up life
rather than lose it. Heed it well: the Saints advise and exhort others to
preserve purity. Who, therefore, are those that tempt others to violate it?
Saint Bonaventure says: “The mouth of him who tempts others to impurity, is the
mouth of a devil!” Hence, those who tempt to impurity are incarnate devils, or
the devil speaks through their mouths. How senseless are you, therefore, when
you listen to them and follow their advice. Saint Ursula and her companions did
not listen to the savage Huns and followed them not. Thus must you act, and
neither listen to them nor obey them who would tempt you to the least sin
against purity. “Shun and abhor,” says Saint Nilus, “all those who would
prevent you from the practice of virtue, and who tempt you to violate the laws
of God and to sin against purity.” Detest them as you would the Evil One
himself; for, in truth, “There is no difference between an evil spirit and a
human being tempting you to impurity,” says Saint Cyril of Alexandria.
MLA
Citation
Father Francis Xavier
Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Ursula and Her Compansions, Virgins and
Martyrs”. Lives of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info.
20 May 2018. Web. 27 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-ursula-and-her-compansions-virgins-and-martyrs/>
Statue
dans l'église Sainte-Ursule de Cologne en Allemagne.
St. Ursula and the Eleven
Thousand Virgins
The history of
these celebrated virgins of Cologne rests on ten lines, and
these are open to question. 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. Subsequently, despite efforts more ingenious
than scientific to save at least a part, the apocryphal character of
the whole has been recognized by degrees. Briefly, for the solid reconstruction
of the true history of
the virgin martyrs,
there is only the inscription of Clematius and some details
furnished by ancient liturgical
books. Unfortunately, these latter are very meager, and the inscription is
in part extremely obscure. This document, carved on a stone which may
be seen in the choir of the Church of St. Ursula at Cologne,
is couched in the following terms:
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
Its authenticity, which
is accepted beyond the shadow of a doubt by
the most eminent epigraphists (de Rossi, Ritschl),
has sometimes been suspected without good reason, and Domaszewski (C. I. L.,
XIII, ii, 2, no. 1313) is mistaken in asserting that the stone was
not carved until the fifteenth century. It belongs indisputably to the fifth century
at the latest, and very probably to the fourth. The recent hypothesis
of Reise, according to which the first eight lines, as far as RESTITVIT,
belong to the fourth century, while the rest were added in the ninth, is more
elegant than solid. With still greater reason must we reject as
purely arbitrary that of J.
Ficker, which divides the first eight lines into two parts, the first being
of pagan origin
and dating from
before the Christian
Era, the second dating from
the second century. But despite
its authenticity the inscription is far from clear. Many
attempts have been made to interpret it, none of them satisfactory, but at
least the following import may be gathered: 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 honour of virgins who
had suffered martyrdom on
that spot.
This brief text
is very important, for it testifies to the existence of a
previous basilica, dating perhaps from the beginning of the
fourth century, if not from the pre-Constantinian period. For
the authentic cult and hence for the actual existence of
the virgin martyrs,
it is a guarantee of great value, but it must be added that the exact date of
the inscription is unknown, and the information it gives is very
vague. It does not indicate the number of the virgins, their names, or the
period of their martyrdom.
Nor does any other document supply any probable details on the last point.
Our ignorance on
the first two is lessened to a certain extent by the mention on 21 Oct. in
various liturgical texts
(martyrologies, calendars, litanies)
of virgins of Cologne, now five, now eight, now eleven, for
example: Ursula, Sencia, Gregoria, Pinnosa, Martha, Saula,
Britula, Saturnina, Rabacia, Saturia, and Palladia. Without doubt none
of these documents is prior to the ninth century, but they are independent of
the legend, which already began to circulate, and their evidence must not
be entirely overlooked. It is noteworthy that in only one of these lists Ursula
ranks first.
After
the inscription of Clematius there is a gap of nearly five
hundred years in our documents, for no trace of the martyrs is
found again until the ninth century. The oldest written text, "Sermo in
natali sanctarum Coloniensium virginum", which seems to date
from this period, serves to prove that there was
at Cologne no precise tradition relating to
the virgin martyrs.
According to this, they were several thousand in number, and suffered persecution during
the reign of Diocletian and Maximian.
The names of only a few of them were known, and of these the writer gives
only one, that of Pinnosa, who was then regarded as the most important of
the number. Some persons,
probably in accordance with an
interpretation, certainly questionable, of
the inscription of Clematius, considered them as coming from the
East, and connected them with the martyrs of
the Theban Legion; others held them to be natives of Great
Britain, and this was the opinion shared by the authors of the
"Sermo". Apparently some time after the "Sermo"
we find the martyrology of Wandalbert of Prüm,
compiled about 850, which speaks of several thousand virgins. On the other
hand Usuard, in his martyrology dating from
about 875, mentions only "Martha and Saula with several
others". But as early as the end of the ninth century or the beginning of
the tenth, the phrase "the eleven thousand virgins" is admitted
without dispute. How was this number reached? All sorts of explanations have
been offered, some more ingenious than others. The chief and rather
gratuitous suppositions have been various errors of
reading or interpretation, e.g., "Ursula and her eleven thousand
companions" comes from the two names Ursula and Undecimillia (Sirmond),
or from Ursula and Ximillia (Leibniz), or from the abbreviation XI.
M. V. (undecim martyres virgines), misinterpreted as undecim millia
virginum, etc. It has been conjectured, and this is less arbitrary, that it is
the combination of the eleven virgins mentioned in the ancient liturgical
books with the figure of several thousand (millia) given
by Wandalbert. However it may be, this number is henceforth accepted, as
is also the British origin of the saints,
while Ursula is substituted for Pinnosa and takes the foremost place
among the virgins of Cologne.
The experiences of Ursula
and her eleven thousand companions became the subject of a pious romance
which acquired considerable celebrity. Besides the subsequent revisions of this
story there are two ancient versions, both originating at Cologne. One of
these (Fuit tempore pervetusto) dates from the second half of the ninth century
(969-76), and was only rarely copied during the Middle
Ages. The other (Regnante Domino), also compiled in the ninth century, had
a wide circulation, but adds little of importance to the first. The author of
the latter, probably in order to win more credence for his account,
claims to have received it from one who in turn heard it from the lips of St.
Dunstan of Canterbury, but the serious anachronisms which he commits in
saying this place it under suspicion. This legendary account is well
known: Ursula, the daughter of a Christian king
of Great Britain, was asked in marriage by 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, and she and each of the ten were accompanied by a
thousand virgins, and the whole company, embarking in eleven ships sailed
for three years. When the appointed time was come,
and Ursula's betrothed was
about to claim her, a gale of wind carried the eleven
thousand virgins far from the shores of England,
and they went first by water to Cologne and thence to Basle,
then by land from Basle to Rome.
They finally returned to Cologne,
where they were slain by the Huns in hatred of
the Faith.
The literary origin
of this romance is not easy to determine. Apart from
the inscription of Clematius, transcribed in
the Passion "Fuit tempore" and paraphrased in the
"Regnante Domino" Passion and the "Sermo in
natali", the writers seem to have been aware of
a Gallic legend of which a late version is found in Geoffrey
of Monmouth: the usurper Maximus (as Geoffrey calls
the Emperor
Maximian), having conquered British Armorica, sent there from
Great Britain 100,000 colonists and 30,000 soldiers, and committed the
government of Armorica to his former enemy, now his friend,
the Breton prince, Conanus Meriadocus. The latter decided
to bring women from
Great Britain to marry them to his subjects, to which end
he appealed to Dionotus, King of Cornwall, who sent him his
daughter Ursula, accompanied by 11,000 noble virgins and 60,000 other
young women.
As the fleet which carried them sailed towards Armorica, a violent storm
destroyed some of the ships and drove the rest of them to barbarian islands
in Germany,
where the virgins were slain by the Huns and the Picts. The
improbabilities, inconsistencies, and anachronisms
of Geoffrey's account are obvious, and have often been dealt with in
detail: moreover the story of Ursula and her companions is clothed with a less
ideal character than in the Passions of Cologne.
However, this account has been regarded by several writers since Baronius as
containing a summary of the true history of
the holy martyrs.
Like the Passions of Cologne, it has been subjected to
the anti-scientific method, which consists in setting aside as false the
improbabilities, impossibilities, and manifest fables, and regarding the rest
as authentic history. As a consequence two essential traits
remain: the English origin of the saints and
their massacre by the Huns; and then, according as adherence is given to the
"Sermo in natali", Geoffrey
of Monmouth, or the Passion "Regnante Domino",
the martyrdom of St.
Ursula is placed in the third, fourth, or fifth century. In order to account
for all the details, two massacres of virgins at Cologne have
been accepted, one in the third century, the other in the fifth. The different
solutions with their variations suggested by scholars, sometimes with levity,
sometimes with considerable learning, all share the important defect of being
based on relatively late documents, unauthoritative and disfigured by manifest
fables.
No conclusion can be
drawn from these texts. Nevertheless, the fables they contain are insignificant
in comparison with those which were invented and propagated later. As they are
now unhesitatingly rejected by everyone, it suffices to treat them briefly. In
the twelfth century there were discovered in the Ager Ursulanus at Cologne,
some distance from the Church of St. Ursula, skeletons not only
of women,
but of little children, and even of men, and with
them inscriptions which it is impossible not to recognize as
gross forgeries. All this gave rise to a number of fantastic legends,
which are contained in the accounts of the vision of St.
Elizabeth of Schonau, and of a religious who has been
regarded as identical with Blessed Hermann Joseph of
Steinfeld. It may be remarked in passing that visions have played an
important part in the question of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, as may
be seen in those of Clematius and of the nun Helintrude
contained in the Passion "Regnante Domino". Those of the
twelfth century, in combination with the inscriptions of the Ager
Ursulanus, resulted in furnishing the names of a great many of the male
and female companions
of Ursula, in particular — and this will suffice to give an idea of
the rest — that of a Pope Cyriacus, a native of Great Britain, said to
have received the virgins at the time of their pilgrimage to Rome,
to have abdicated the papal chair
in order to follow them, and to have been martyred with
them at Cologne. No doubt it
was readily acknowledged that this Pope Cyriacus was unknown in
the pontifical records, but this, it was said, was because the cardinals,
displeased with his abdication, erased his name from all the books.
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.
Poncelet,
Albert. "St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1912. 21 Oct.
2015 <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.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15225d.htm
Moretto da Brescia, Sant'Orsola e le compagne,
1537, da S.M. Maddalena a Brescia, Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco,
Milano.
Ursula and the 11,000
Virgins of Cologne (RM)
A group of virgins who were martyred at Cologne, Germany, perhaps under
Diocletian in the 4th c. Their number probably 11 rather than 11,000, an
exaggeration due to a misreading of Roman numerals and letters (Encyclopedia),
or because of later events. During the 12th century a pious romance was
preposterously elaborated through the mistakes of imaginative visionaries; a
public burial ground uncovered at Cologne was taken to be the grave of the
martyrs, false relics came into circulation, and forged epitaphs of non-
existent persons were produced (Attwater).
There are two forms of
the legend: one in Cologne and another Gallic. The legend says that Ursula was
the daughter of a Christian king of Britain, who was granted a three-year
postponement of a marriage she did not wish to a pagan prince, set sail with 10
companions in 11 ships. Each of her companions travelled with 1,000
maid-servants. They sailed to Cologne and then along the Rhein to Basel. At
Basel they moored their ships and crossed the Alps in order to visit Rome.
Ursula decided to lead her companions back to Cologne. There the leader of the
Huns fell in love with her, was spurned, and massacred both the British princess
and her 11,000 companions.
According to another
legend, Amorica was settled by British colonizers and soldiers after Emperor
Magnus Clemens Maximu conquered Britain and Gaul in 383. The ruler of the
settlers, Cynan Meiriadog, called on King Dionotus of Cornwall for wives for
the settlers, whereupon Dionotus sent his daughter Ursula, who was to marry
Cynan, with 11,000 noble maidens and 60,000 common women. Their fleet was
shipwrecked and all the women were enslaved or murdered (Delaney).
The story is difficult to
believe as it stands. The earliest reference to the legend of her speaks only
of 10 companions. The present story began to be told only in the 8th or 9th
century. Yet some truth attaches itself to the tale, as is generally the case.
An ancient stone let into the wall of Saint Ursula's Church in Cologne records
that a certain senator Clematius rebuilt a memorial church in the 4th century
over on the site of the martyrdom of a number of maidens. Nothing more is said
about them for another 400 years, when in the ninth century the ramifying
legend appears as taking shape (Attwater).
Baring-Gould suggests
that Saint Ursula with her bow and arrow, her ship and company of maidens,
sails up the Rhine as Urschel, the Teutonic moon goddess, sailed before her,
with all the graceful attributes of Isis and Diana. She is likely to be one of
the saints who has become confused with the old gods, that is, a real martyr's
story has been embellished with that particulars of an old myth (Roeder).
Saint Ursula is
represented as a princess holding an arrow. Sometimes (1) with maidens under
her mantle; (2) an angel comes to her as she sleeps (Vittore Carpaccio's The
Dream of St. Ursula); (3) she takes leave of her royal parents; (4) in a boat
surrounded by maidens and ecclesiastics, as she sails down the Rhein; or (5)
she and her companions massacred by bowmen (Roeder).
Other images include:
Giovanni Bellini's Virgin
with Saints Mary Magdalene and Ursula
Vittore Carpaccio's The
Apotheosis of St. Ursula, 1491, Venice.
Claude Lorrain's The
Embarkation of St. Ursula.
Saint Ursula is venerated
at Cologne. She is considered the patroness of maidens, drapers, and teachers;
invoked for chastity and holy wedlock, and against the plague (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1021.shtml
Meister
der geschürzten Lippen, Nürnberg, 1510: Martyrium der hl. Ursula; Germanisches
Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. Im Zentrum steht die Prinzessin Ursula, neben ihr mit
Hörnerhaube die hl. Cordula. Eine weitere Gefährtin stürzt soeben sterbend in
den Rhein. Zur Gesellschaft Ursulas zählen ferner Papst Cyriakus und ein
Bischof. Seitlich sind Henker mit Pfeil und Bogen zu ergänzen
Germanisches Nationalmuseum
SS. Ursula and Her
Companions, Virgins and Martyrs
Middle of the Fifth Age.
WHEN the pagan Saxons laid waste our island from sea to sea, many of its old
British inhabitants fled into Gaul, and settled in Armorica, since called, from
them, Little Britain. Others took shelter in the Netherlands, and had a
settlement near the mouth of the Rhine, at a castle called Brittenburgh, as
appears from ancient monuments and Belgic historians produced by Usher. These
holy martyrs seem to have left Britain about that time, and to have met a
glorious death in defence of their virginity from the army of the Huns, which
in the fifth age plundered that country, and carried fire and the sword
wherever they came. It is agreed that they came originally from Britain, and
Ursula was the conductor and encourager of this holy troop. 1 Though
their leaders were certainly virgins, it is not improbable that some of this
company had been engaged in a married state. Sigebert’s Chronicle 2 places
their martyrdom in 453. It happened near the Lower Rhine, and they were buried
at Cologne, where, according to the custom of those early ages, a great church
was built over their tombs, which was very famous in 643, when St. Cunibert was
chosen archbishop in it. St. Anno, who was bishop of Cologne in the eleventh
age, out of devotion to these holy martyrs, was wont to watch whole nights in
this church in prayer at their tombs, which have been illustrated by many
miracles. These martyrs have been honoured by the faithful for many ages, with
extraordinary devotion in this part of Christendom. St. Ursula, who was the
mistress and guide to heaven to so many holy maidens, whom she animated to the
heroic practice of virtue, conducted to the glorious crown of martyrdom, and
presented spotless to Christ, is regarded as a model and patroness by those who
undertake to train up youth in the sentiments and practice of piety and
religion. She is patroness of the famous college of Sarbonne, and titular saint
of that church. Several religious establishments have been erected under her
name and patronage for the virtuous education of young ladies. The Ursulines
were instituted in Italy for this great and important end, by B. Angela of
Brescia, in 1537, approved by Paul III. in 1544, and obliged to inclosure and
declared a religious Order under the rule of St. Austin, by Gregory XIII., in
1572, at the solicitation of St. Charles Borromeo, who exceedingly promoted
this holy institute. The first monastery of this Order in France was founded at
Paris, in 1611, by Madame Magdalen l’Huillier, by marriage, de Sainte-Beuve.
Before this, the pious mother, Anne de Xaintonge of Dijon, had instituted in Franche-Compte,
in 1606, a religious congregation of Ursulines for the like purpose, which is
settled in many parts of France, in which strict inclosure is not commanded.
Nothing, whether in a civil or religious view, is more important in the
republic of mankind than a proper and religious education of youth, nor do any
establishments deserve equal attention and encouragement among men with those
which are religiously and wisely calculated for this great end. Yet, alas! is
anything in the world more neglected either by parents at home, or by the wrong
methods which are too frequently pursued in the very nurseries which are
founded for training up youth? A detail would be too long for this place. There
is certainly no duty which requires more virtue, prudence, and experience, or
which parents, tutors, masters, mistresses, and others are bound more
diligently to study in its numberless branches. 3 But
it is the height of our misfortune, that there is scarcely a person in the
world, howsoever unqualified, who does not think it an easy task, and look upon
himself as equal to it; who is not ready to undertake it without reflection;
and who consequently is not supinely careless both in studying and discharging
its obligations; though no employment more essentially requires an extensive
knowledge of all duties, of human nature, and its necessary accomplishments;
the utmost application, attention, and patience; the most consummate prudence
and virtue, and an extraordinary succour of divine light and grace.
Note 1. Ancient calendars, copied by Usuard, mentions SS. Saula, Martha,
and Companions, Virgins and Martyrs, at Cologne, on the 20th of October.
Natalis, Alexander, and the authors of the New Paris Breviary take this Saula
to be the same with Ursula. The Bollandists promise new memoirs relating to
these martyrs; all the acts which have been published are universally rejected.
Baronius thinks the ground of the account given of them by Geoffrey of
Monmouth, in his MS. history of the British affairs, kept in the Vatican
library, preferable to the rest. This author tells us, that Ursula was daughter
to Dionoc, king or prince of Cornwall; and that she was sent by her father to
Conan, a British prince who had followed the tyrant Maximus, who had commanded
the imperial forces in Britain under Gratian, and assuming the imperial diadem,
in 382, had passed into Gaul. But several circumstances in this relation show
it to be of no better a stamp than the rest. It appears by the tombs of these
martyrs at Cologne, that their number was very great. Wandelbert, a monk of
Pruin, in Ardenne, in a private Martyrology which he compiled in verse, in 850,
makes their number to amount to thousands; but he had seen their false acts.
Sigebert, in 1111, makes them eleven thousand. Some think this a mistake
arising from the abbreviation XI. MV. for eleven martyrs and virgins: for the
chronicle of St. Tron’s seems to count eleven companions. (Spicileg. t. 7, p.
475.) The Roman Martyrology mentions only St. Ursula and her companions; nor is
their number determined in any authentic records. Geoffrey of Monmouth places
their martyrdom in the reign of Maximus, towards the close of the fourth age:
but Otho of Frisingen, (l. 4, c. 28,) the interpolator of Sigebert’s Chronicle,
and Bishop Usher, in the middle of the fifth. As to the fancy, that Undecimilla
might have been the name of one of these virgins, (see Valesiana, p. 49,) it is
destitute of all shadow of the least foundation, and exploded by all
critics. [back]
Note 2. Chron. Usher Ant. Britan. c. 8, p. 108, and c. 12, p. 224. [back]
Note 3. Read Fenelon, Sur l’Education des Filles; and another older French
book, printed in English, in 1678, under this title, The Christian Education of
Children; and Dr. Gobinet’s Instructions of Youth; also, his treatise of The
Imitation of the holy Youth of J. C. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives
of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/lives-of-the-saints/volume-x-october/ss-ursula-and-her-companions-virgins-and-martyrs/
Hans
Memling, La Châsse de sainte
Ursule, châsse en chêne doré, tableaux en huile sur bois, 1489, Musée
Memling, Bruges :
Sainte Ursule protectrice.
Hans Memling, La Châsse de sainte Ursule, châsse en chêne doré,huile sur bois, 1489, Musée Memling, Bruges : 1. Arrivée à Cologne.
Hans Memling, La Châsse de sainte Ursule, châsse en chêne doré, huile sur bois, 1489, Musée Memling, Bruges : 1. Arrivée à Bâle
Hans
Memling, La Châsse de sainte
Ursule, châsse en chêne doré, huile sur bois, 1489, Musée
Memling, Bruges :
1. Arrivée à Rome
Hans
Memling, La Châsse de sainte
Ursule, châsse en chêne doré, tableaux en huile sur bois, 1489, Musée
Memling, Bruges :
4. Retour de Bâle.
Hans
Memling, La Châsse de sainte
Ursule, châsse en chêne doré, tableaux en huile sur bois, 1489, Musée
Memling, Bruges :
5. Martyre des Onze Mille Vierges.
Hans
Memling, La Châsse de sainte
Ursule, châsse en chêne doré, tableaux en huile sur bois, 1489, Musée
Memling, Bruges :
6. Martyre de saint Ursule.
Thursday, October 21,
2021
Gregory DiPippo
The annals of Catholic
hagiography contain many legends which are recorded in documents written long
after the lifetimes of various Saints, but which per se present no
particular challenge to the credulity of anyone who believes in a personal God
and the reality of miracles. Many Saints have lived in such a way that we would
not expect to find material proof of their doings, any more than we
would expect to find a first-century shop with a sign over the door reading
“Joseph son of Jacob, Carpenter.” For such as these, we must trust to
Providence, the good faith of their biographers, and the Church’s tradition.
There are others, however, which even a very basic knowledge of history
demonstrates cannot be accepted as reliable; such a one is the legend of St Ursula
and Companions, Virgins and Martyrs at Cologne in Germany. The vast collection
of hagiographical learning known as the Acta Sanctorum devotes 230
pages of small type to parsing out how their legend developed from a single
inscription in a church in that city into a famously extravagant story. Here we
can give only a brief summary of the case; a fairly thorough account is given
in the relevant
article in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
The inscription in question, made in the later
fourth or early fifth century, states that a man of senatorial rank named
Clematius restored a basilica in Cologne “in the place where the holy virgins
shed their blood,” with no further details. The fact that it was “restored”
should be taken as an indication that a martyrdom of some Christian virgins did
take place before that period. Five centuries later, an anonymous sermon says
that nothing was known of them for certain, but gives the local tradition that
they were a large company, and their leader’s name was “Pinnosa.” They are
absent from many early liturgical manuscripts where one would reasonably expect
to find record of a martyrdom as spectacular as the later legend tells it, but
an early martyrology mentions Saints Martha, Saula and companions at Cologne on
October 20th. Other documents give a variety of names and numbers, including
“Ursula”; it is not known how she came to be thought of as the foremost among
them, nor how the number 11,000 was eventually settled on as the size of the
group. It is possible that an abbreviation such as “XI M.V.” for “undecim
martyrum virginum – eleven virgin martyrs” was misunderstood as “undecim millia
virginum – eleven-thousand virgins.”
Their passion as told in
the later tenth century is summarized as follows in the revised Butler’s
Lives of the Saints. “Ursula, the daughter of a Christian king in Britain, was
asked in marriage by the son of a pagan king. She, desiring to remain unwed, got
a delay of three years, which time she spent on shipboard, sailing about the
seas; she had ten noble ladies-in-waiting, each of whom, and Ursula, had a
thousand companions, and they were accommodated in eleven vessels. At the end
of the period of grace, contrary winds drove them into the mouth of the Rhine,
they sailed up to Cologne and then on to Bâle (Basle in Switzerland), where
they disembarked and then went over the Alps to visit the tombs of the apostles
at Rome. They returned by the same way to Cologne, where they were set upon and
massacred for their Christianity by the heathen Huns, Ursula having refused to
marry their chief. The barbarians were dispersed by angels, the citizens buried
the martyrs and a church was built in their honor by Clematius.”
The inherent logistic improbabilities of assembling and moving such a company
are obvious, especially given the chaos of the mid-5th century, to which the
medieval legend assigns their martyrdom at the hands of the Huns. In the year
1155, a large cemetery was discovered at Cologne, and the remains therein were
accepted as the relics of the 11,000, notwithstanding the presence of many men
and children among them. A later elaboration identified both the epitaph and
relics of “Pope Cyriacus”, who, after receiving the future martyrs in Rome,
abdicated the papacy in order to accompany them back north, where he shared in
their martyrdom. This version goes on to say that the cardinals, displeased at
the abdication, later expunged his name from the catalog of the Popes, bringing
the story down to the grotesque level of the Pope Joan legend; but the story is
even found in a breviary printed in 1529 for the use of the Franciscans.
Devotion to these Saints
was very strong in the Middle Ages, despite the reservations of scholars who
identified the incongruities and anachronisms in their legend. Among the
Premonstratensians, who took their liturgical use from the area around Cologne,
their feast was celebrated with an octave until the early 20th century. St
Angela Merici gave the name “Ursulines” to the religious congregation she
founded in 1535, the very first women’s teaching order, and before that,
Christopher Columbus chose to honor them in the naming of the Virgin Islands.
In the Tridentine liturgical books, however, they are treated with great
reserve, kept only as a commemoration on October 21, the feast of the abbot St
Hilarion; St Ursula is mentioned by name, but no number of her companions is
given. It is supremely ironic that they should share their feast day with a
Saint whose life is quite well documented, by no less a personage than St
Jerome; however, neither feast was retained on the Calendar of the
post-Conciliar reform.
Numbering as they do in the thousands, their putative relics have been given to churches all over the world. In 1489, the Hospital of St John in the city of Bruges received a portion of them, and commissioned the painter Hans Memling to make a shrine in which to house them, one of his masterpieces. The Gothic shrine has six panels on the two sides showing the story of the Saints.
The Arrival of the 11,000 at Cologne (left), Basel (middle), and Rome (right),
where they are greeted by Pope Cyriacus. (Click images to enlarge) In the
background of the Cologne scene is depicted the cathedral with its unfinished
bell-towers; work on the towers was broken off in 1473 and not resumed until
1842, and the bells installed in the 1870s. The crane on one of the towers
remained a landmark of the city for hundreds of years.
SOURCE : https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/10/the-legend-of-saint-ursula.html
Nicolo
di Pietro. Sant’Orsola, circa 1410, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sant' Orsola e compagne Martiri
Vissero probabilmente nel
IV secolo e non nel V come vuole la leggenda. Una Passio del X secolo, infatti,
narra di una giovane bellissima, Orsola, figlia di un re bretone, che accettò
di sposare il figlio di un re pagano con la promessa che si sarebbe convertito
alla fede cristiana. Partì con 11.000 vergini per raggiungere lo sposo, ma
l'incontro con gli Unni di Attila provocò il loro martirio. Orsola fu trafitta
da una freccia perché non aveva voluto sposare lo stesso Attila. Questa
leggenda, comunque, ha una base storica, come ha dimostrato il ritrovamento di
una iscrizione presso una chiesa di Colonia. L'iscrizione parla del martirio di
Orsola e di altre dieci vergini (divenute 11.000 per un piccolo segno sul
numero romano XI), martirio avvenuto probabilmente sotto Diocleziano.
Patronato: Ragazze,
Scolare
Etimologia: Orsola =
piccola orsa, forte
Emblema: Donna sotto
un mantello, Palma
Martirologio
Romano: Presso Colonia in Germania, commemorazione delle sante vergini,
che terminarono la loro vita con il martirio per Cristo nel luogo in cui fu poi
costruita la basilica della città dedicata in onore della piccola Orsola, vergine
innocente, ritenuta di tutte la capofila.
Le non poche leggende che
avvolgono la figura di S. Orsola potrebbero considerarsi racconti esuberanti,
che si diramano da realtà importanti: da una iscrizione nel coro della chiesa
omonima in Colonia, ritenuta oggi autentica ed assegnata al IV-V secolo, fino
alla protezione degli studi alla Sorbona e nelle università di Coimbra e
Vienna. La collocazione nella storia della santa può oscillare dai tempi di
Diocleziano, il dalmata imperatore romano che perseguitò i cristiani nel
303-304, a quelli di Attila (395-453), il re degli Unni e “flagello di Dio” che
pure non scherzò affatto coi cristiani. D’altra parte la leggenda medioevale
intorno ai santi non va considerata riduttivamente come propaganda dei preti o come
esigenza localistica di prestigio.
Orsola o Ursula, figlia
di un re di Britannia, era bellissima, segretamente consacrata a Dio. Un re
pagano, di nome Aetherius, si fece ben presto avanti per ottenerla in sposa. Il
matrimonio avrebbe scongiurato una guerra, quindi diventava politico; perciò il
padre fu quasi obbligato a dare il proprio consenso. Ma la giovane pose alcune
condizioni: una dilazione di tre anni, la promessa del pretendente che si
sarebbe convertito e la programmazione di un pellegrinaggio insieme a Roma.
Scaduti i tre anni,Orsola e undici nobili fanciulle (che diventeranno
successivamente undicimila per un errore di trascrizione dell’iscrizione di cui
sopra) salparono dai propri lidi e per mare e poi per fiume raggiunsero
Colonia.
Dopo avere là brevemente
soggiornato,le undici giovani, incoraggiate da un angelo, proseguirono, sempre
navigando sul Reno, fino a Basilea. Dalla Svizzera raggiunsero a piedi, oranti
pellegrine, Roma, dove Orsola fu ricevuta dal Papa. Davanti al Santo Padre
comparve anche il promesso sposo che, nel frattempo, si era convertito al
cristianesimo. Nello stesso anno e seguendo il medesimo tragitto, le vergini
ritornarono a Colonia. In tale antica e importante città tedesca Orsola e le
altre, per la loro manifesta fede cristiana, vennero torturate e messe a morte
a colpi di freccia.
Colonia, che pure coltiva
dal 1162 un grande culto verso i Magi, la ricorda come propria patrona insieme
a S. Cuniberto, vescovo nel VII secolo. Le comunità cattoliche la venerano
sempre, anche attualmente, in buona parte del mondo e talora con grandi
cerimonie religiose, il 21 ottobre, suo giorno del calendario liturgico. Anche
Mantova non ha voluto essere da meno, facendo costruire in suo onore, nel 1608
su progetto dell’architetto di corte Antonio Maria Viani, la chiesa di recente
restaurata e che prospetta sul corso Vittorio Emanuele II. Non marginale il
fatto che le Orsoline, fondate nel 1535 da Sant’Angela Merici, abbiano operato
per più di un secolo nella città di Virgilio, educando tanta gioventù
femminile.
Innumerevoli sono, come
in parte già accennato, i patronati di Sant’Orsola; tra loro riveste
particolare significato quello sul matrimonio felice. Considerata la
condiscendenza del promesso sposo, la santa può venire invocata infatti dai
nubendi per avere un buon matrimonio.
Autore: Mario
Benatti
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/74550
Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587–1625),
St Ursula and Her Companions with Pope Ciriacus and St Catherine of Alexandria,
1608: commissioned by Aurelio Lupatelli, Perugia, 280 x 220, Basilica of St. Mark
the Evangelist, Piazza di San Marco adjoining Piazza
Venezia, Rome
Santa Cordula Martire a Colonia
Festa: 21
ottobre
Bretagna, ? – Colonia, 304 ca.
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/91314
Catherine of Bologna (1413–1463),
Sant'Orsola con quattro sante e una monaca adorante, 1450, tempera on panel, 64 x 45, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Sant' Odilia Martire
Festa: 21
ottobre
Principessa. Amica di Sant'Orsola, ha viaggiato e fu
martirizzata con lei.
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/91705
Sante Artemia e Isala Vergini e martiri
Festa: 21
ottobre
