For a version of the legend of Saint Ursula |
Ursula ("small female bear" in Latin)
is a British Christian saint. Her feast day in the Roman Catholic
Church is October 21, though her feast was removed from the
general calendar of saints in 1969.
Her legend, probably unhistorical, is that she was a Romano-British
princess who, at the request of her father King Donaut of
Cornwall, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan Governor
Conan Meriadoc of Armorica (Brittany), along with 11,000 virginal
handmaidens. However, a miraculous storm brought them over
the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, where Ursula declared
that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European
pilgrimage. She headed for Rome, with her followers, and persuaded
the Pope, Cyriacus (unknown in the pontifical records), and
Bishop of Ravenna, Sulpicius, to join them. After setting
out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the
virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader
shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383.
From
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