Feast of Saint Ursula and 11,000 Virgin Martyr Companions
THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER
At Cologne, the passion of SS. URSULA and her COMPANIONS, Virgins and Martyrs.
These most illustrious Martyrs have been for many generations the objects of extraordinary veneration throughout Western Christendom, and, nevertheless, very few particulars of their true history can be ascertained. It is agreed that they came from Great Britain, perhaps escaping from the invasion of the pagan English ; that, under the conduct of Ursula, they arrived at Cologne, where they received the crown of martyrdom, at the hands of the Huns, in defence of their chastity, and for their fidelity to their Christian profession. In other respects the various legends differ considerably from one another, and it is impossible to say that any version can be taken as authentic. The narrative now read in the Divine Office in the dioceses of England, with the sanction of the Holy See, tells us " that when Attila and his Huns were retreating after their defeat in Gaul, before crossing the Rhine they captured Cologne, then a flourishing Christian city, and that the first victims of their fury were Ursula and her British followers. They offered a determined resistance to the attempts of the barbarians, and were all put to a cruel death, some by the sword, others being shot with arrows or crushed with beams of wood, Ursula all the while encouraging them and leading them to victory. When the Huns had retired, the people of Cologne collected their sacred remains, and buried them with honour in the place where they fell. About two centuries later a church was erected over them, to which, in course of time, a monastery was attached. This church, frequently restored in the course of successive ages, remains to the present time ; and there may be seen in the cavities of the walls, and especially in the choir, as well as beneath the pavement and in an adjoining oratory, multitudes of these sacred relics, which in former times of greater piety were the object of frequent pilgrimages."
The festival of this day, in ancient calendars, is often noted as the feast of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, and the number of 11,000 seems to be inseparably connected with the tradition. To account for so great a multitude, it has been suggested by the Bollandists and others, as not improbable, that the number includes not only St. Ursula and her community, but the other Christians, who suffered at the same time. CORDULA is commemorated apart from the rest on the following day in the Roman Martyrology. She is said to have concealed herself, while her sisters were undergoing their martyrdom, but to have repented the next day, and given herself up to the executioners, and so to have shared in their glorious crown.
We find a certain number of the holy Virgins mentioned by name in various calendars and martyrologies; but it may be supposed that these names were given to them, for the sake of distinction, when their relics were separated from the rest, and translated, for separate veneration, in the same manner as is done to the present day, in the case of nameless Martyrs discovered in the Roman Catacombs. The name of St. Odilia, however, one of the number, is said to have been declared by special revelation to a holy man. The festivals of some of these are marked as follows : —
At Cologne,
St. Antonina, 15th January.
At St. Amand, translation of three holy Virgins and Martyrs, 17th May.
At Renen, Utrecht, St. Cunera, 12th June.
At Rureniond, St. Odilia, i8th July.
At Cologne, St. Agnes, 28th August.
At Cologne, St. Benedicta, 5th October.
At Cologne, St. Aurelia, 15th October.
At Cologne, St. Constantia, 19th November.
At Cologne, St. Lucy, 23rd November.
At Cologne, St. Florentina, 6th December.
At Cologne, SS. Grata and Gregoria, 24th December.
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