Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/293

VEN. URSULA 281 definite computation of the nnmber of her companions at eleven thousand was made by Hermann, bishop of Cologne in 922. It is suggested that it arose as a scribal error. The copyist found the entry, "Ursula et zL M.y."y and tran- scribed it " Ursula and eleyen thousand virgins," instead of " Ursula and eleven martyrs virgins." The theory that St. Ursula suffered with one companion named Undecimilla or Undemilla, Butler declares to be destitute of founda- tion. It is further objected against the legend, that no Pope of the name of Cyriacus existed. Attempts have, how- ever, been made to find some basis of fact for the story. Butler suggests that St. Ursula and her companions may have been some of the many Britons, who were driven out of their country in the fifth century, by the pagan Saxons, and who took refhge in a place at the mouth of the Bhine which they fortified and called Brittenburgh. Others have thought that St. Ursula presided over eleven religious women at Cologne, and that they were all massacred by bar- barians. The early convents |often con- sisted of only twelve persons. Collectors of solar myths have included this story as a specimen. B.M. AAJ3S. Butier. BaiUet. Smith and Wace. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art. Villegas, Flos Sano torum. Bibadeneira. Oolden Legend, Leggendario. Horstmann, The Lives of the Women Saints of our Countrie of Eng- land. Onghena, La chdsse de Sainte Ursule. Ven. Ursula (2) or Obsola Benin- casa, Oct. 20, 1547-1618 or 1623. She was probably of the same family which was rendered illustrious by its &mous daughter, Cathebine (3) of Siena. Ursula was the youngest of many chil- dren of Greronimo Benincasa, an engineer of Naples. She believed herself divinely directed to go and urge the Pope to hasten the reform of the Church. With this view she went to Bome and obtained an audience of Gregory XIII. (1572- 1585). He received her kindly, and as ho was already anxiously pursuing this important work, he listened to all she had to say. Although he hesitated to believe in her divine mission, he was struck by the fearlessness and the modesty of her speech and by the ecstasy that appeared more than once during the interview. He appointed a congregation consisting of dignitaries of the Church eminent for their virtue and wisdom, to examine her character and mission. The chief of these reverend persons was St. Philip Neri, who was credited with a special gift of discern- ment of spirits, and we learn from his life that he had a great dislike to any self-assertion or love of notoriety in women and a profound distrust of their alleged visions and missions, which he thought were frequently prompted by nervous excitement or self-love. He therefore laid aside his usual kind and cheerful manner, and assuming an air of contempt, he said, ** You proud, ignorant, lying, self-willed hypocrite, do you think that God has no one more worthy to be an ambassador to the Pope than a wretched country girl like you ? " She admitted that she had all the faults of which he accused her, and entreated his help to cure them, saying, " If it be an evil spirit that leads me, I implore you to cast him out of me." Another day he gave her a dose of very nauseous medicine to settle her nerves. He separated her from her mother and all her friends and gave her hard and dis- agreeable work to do, and when these trials had gone on for many months he reported to the Pope that he found Ursula to be a woman of singular humility and love of God, and that in his opinion the spirit that guided her was holy. She was then allowed to re- turn to Naples and carry out her plan of founding a nunnery of the Theatino order. Before she left Bome she had another interview with St. Philip, and received his blessing. He talked to her with his real kindness undisguised, and warned her solemnly against any self- love or self-complacency. He gave her his berretta, which was preserved with great reverence by her nuns long after her death. She returned to her native city, and founded a convent of nuns of the Holy Conception, commonly called