Saint Ursula May 9, 2011 10:12:23 GMT -9
Post by grrraaahhh on May 9, 2011 10:12:23 GMT -9
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. There 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.
St Ursula Inscription
The earliest attestation of the legend is on a 4th- or 5th-century inscription from the Church of St. Ursula (on the Ursulaplatz) in Cologne. It states the ancient basilica had been restored on the site where some holy virgins were killed. The inscription reads in Latin:
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
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 honor of virgins who had suffered martyrdom on that spot.
This inscription with a large number of mentions on 21 Oct. in various liturgical texts (martyrologies, calendars, litanies) of the “virgins of Cologne,” points towards this inscription as the earliest traceable reference to the tale.
The Thousandfold Error
The confusion over the number of virgins probably arose from the incorrect interpretation of the abbreviated Latin inscription XI MV in later sources (such as the Sermo in natalisanctarum Coloniensium virginum). Instead of being expanded to read undecim martyres virgines (“11 martyred virgins”), it was read as undecim milia virginum (“11 thousand virgins”). Quite a difference. [source: Encarta]
* In 1535, The Order of Ursulines was founded by Angela Merici, which is devoted to the education of young girls.
* Ursula’s Feast Day on the Roman Catholic calendar is October 21st.
Where some scholars postulate that these traditions are associated with the goddess Freya, others believe that they are remnants of a Bear Cult. Death by arrows is a common motif for how the Bear is slain in Bear Festivals, and the association of the Bear with girls is something that occurs throughout the northern hemisphere (from the arktoi of Artemis in Greece to the puberty rights of Native American girls). Seeing where her early cult of devotion appears in Gaul alongside inscriptions to the deities Artio, Artaius, and Andarta, it would not be unbelievable that she is the last remnant of Arctolatry before the area was absorbed by Catholicism.
SOURCE: www.arctolatry.org/heroes/saint-ursula/ (IMHO, informative/solid web sites like this warrant maximum exposure.)