UR'SULA, SAINT. A saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic Church. She is held in especial reverence at Cologne, the reputed place of her martyrdom. October 21st is her day in the Church's calendar, and the date of her martyr dom is variously given as 237. 283. and 451. The official date, however, is 237. According to the simplest form of the legend, Ursula was the daughter of a British king, Deonatus. She was called Ursula from Ursa, `bear'—signifying that she was intended to kill the bear, i.e. the devil. Der hand was asked in marriage by a "certain most ferocious tyrant," for his son. The tyrant threatened to sack the country if his suit were not granted. Ursula, in consequence of a vision, in which she was shown her future martyrdom, asked for a respite of three years, during which time she with ten chosen maidens, each with 1000 attendants, should visit shrines and holy places to honor their virginity. Another condition was that her betrothed, ...Etherius, should become a Christian. This large company of virgins set sail, and with a favoring breeze were carried to Thiel in Guelderland, on the Waal. Thence they sailed on the Rhine by way of Cologne to Basel, where they left their ships and proceeded overland on foot to Rome. Returning to Basel, they em barked on their ships, only to be attacked by Huns at Cologne and slaughtered. They were buried by the inhabitants of Cologne with great honors, and a church was built over their re mains. A late addition to the story says that
Attila wished to reserve Ursula for himself. Upon her indignant refusal, he became enraged and shot her through the breast with his arrows.
The controversy over this legend has con tinued for ninny hundred years. The con servative element in the Roman Catholic Church considers it. probable that there was at one time a massacre of virgins at Cologne by the Huns, but that the details of the story as given at the present time are medieval fabrica tions. The rationalists outside of theChurch follow Schade's theory that the story of Ursula is only a Christianizing of an old German myth, and that Ursula is really Freya, called in Swabia `113rsel,' with the same attributes as the moon divinities in other lands. Still another solution is that one of Ursula's companions was named Undecimilla, which might easily be read node cint in ilia (eleven thousand).
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Consult: Crombach, Vita et Bibliography. Consult: Crombach, Vita et Martyrium Sancta' Ursula' ct Social-um (Cologne, 1547) ; Schade, Die Sofc ran der hciligcn Ursale and den elf touscnd Jungfrauen (Hanover, 1S54). For controversial replies to Schade: De Buck, Acta Sanctorum (Brussels, 1858) ; Besse], Ursula and Uwe Gesellschaft (Cologne, 1S63).