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Saint Ursula (Latin for 'little female bear') is a Romano-British Christian saint. Her feast day in the pre-1970 General Roman Calendar is October 21. Because of the lack of definite information about the anonymous group of holy virgins who on some uncertain date were killed at Cologne,〔''Calendarium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 143〕 their commemoration was omitted from the General Roman Calendar when it was revised in 1969, but they have been kept in the Roman Martyrology. Her legend, probably not historical,〔(Poncelet, Albert. "St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 28 Jun. 2013 )〕〔(Santi e Beati: Sant'Orsola e compagne )〕 is that she was a princess who, at the request of her father King Dionotus of Dumnonia in south-west Britain, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan governor Conan Meriadoc of Armorica, along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. After a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, 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, though from late 384 there was a Pope Siricius), and Sulpicius, bishop of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the virgins were beheaded in a massacre. The Huns' leader shot Ursula dead, in about 383 (the date varies). ==Life== The legend of Ursula is based on a 4th- or 5th-century inscription from the Church of St. Ursula (on the Ursulaplatz) in Cologne. It states that the ancient basilica had been restored on the site where some holy virgins were killed.〔(Saint Ursula – Britannica Online Encyclopedia )〕 The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' states that "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."〔 Neither Jerome nor Gregory of Tours refers to Ursula in their writings. Gregory of Tours mentions the legend of the Theban Legion, to whom a church that once stood in Cologne was dedicated.〔 The most important hagiographers (Bede, Ado, Usuard, Notker the Stammerer, Rabanus Maurus) of the early Middle Ages also do not enter Ursula under October 21, her feast day.〔 A legend resembling Ursula's appeared in its full form between 731 and 839, but it does not mention the name of Ursula, but that of Pinnosa or Vinnosa as the leader of the martyred group.〔 While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the fifth century, this was limited to a small number between two and eleven according to different sources. The 11,000 were first mentioned in the ninth century; suggestions as to where this came from have included reading the name "Undecimillia" or "Ximillia" as a number, or reading the abbreviation "XI. M. V." as ''eleven thousand (in Roman numerals) virgins'' rather than ''eleven martyred virgins''. One scholar has written that in the eighth century, the relics of virgin martyrs were found, among which were included those of a girl named Ursula, who was eleven years old-–in Latin, ''undecimilia''. ''Undecimilia'' was subsequently misread or misinterpreted as ''undicimila'' (11,000), thus producing the legend of the 11,000 virgins.〔(Santi Beati: Sant'Orsola e compagne )〕 Another theory is that there was only one virgin martyr, named Undecimilla, "which by some blundering monk was changed into eleven thousand."〔(''The Penny Magazine'': Cologne )〕 It has also been suggested that ''cum () militibus'' "with () soldiers" was misread as ''cum () millibus'' "with () thousands".〔 The Basilica of St. Ursula in Cologne contains the alleged relics of Ursula and her 11,000 companions.〔 It contains what has been described as a "veritable tsunami of ribs, shoulder blades, and femurs... arranged in zigzags and swirls and even in the shapes of Latin words."〔Quigley, Christine (2001) ''Skulls and Skeletons: Human Bone Collections and Accumulations'', Jefferson, N.C.; London: McFarland; p. 169.〕 The Goldene Kammer (Golden Chamber), a 17th-century chapel attached to the Basilica of St. Ursula, contains sculptures of their heads and torsos, "some of the heads encased in silver, others covered with stuff of gold and caps of cloth of gold and velvet; loose bones thickly texture the upper walls."〔〔 The peculiarities of the relics themselves have thrown doubt upon the historicity of Ursula and her 11,000 maidens. When skeletons of little children, ranging in age from two months to seven years, were found buried with one of the sacred virgins in 1183, Hermann Joseph, a Praemonstratensian canon at Steinfeld, explained that these children were distant relatives of the eleven thousand.〔 A surgeon of eminence was once banished from Cologne for suggesting that, among the collection of bones which are said to pertain to the heads, there were several belonging to full-grown mastiffs.〔 The relics may have come from a forgotten burial ground.〔(The Ecole Glossary: Ursula )〕 It has also been theorized that Ursula is a Christianized form of the goddess Freya, who welcomed the souls of dead maidens.〔 Nothing is known about the girls said to have been martyred at the spot. A commemoration of Saint Ursula and her companions in the Mass of Saint Hilarion formerly in the General Roman Calendar on October 21 was removed in 1969, because "their ''Passio'' is entirely fabulous: nothing, not even their names, is known about the virgin saints who were killed at Cologne at some uncertain time".〔''Calendarium Romanum''. Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969; p. 143〕 However, they are still mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, the official but professedly incomplete list of saints recognized by the Catholic Church, which speaks of them as follows: "At Cologne in Germany, commemoration of virgin saints who ended their life in martyrdom for Christ in the place where afterwards the city's basilica was built, dedicated in honour of the innocent young girl Ursula who is looked on as their leader."〔''Martyrologium Romanum''. Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saint Ursula」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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