St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins

The real legend of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins is unknown. The information that we have today is conceived through the visions and thoughts of those who the saints had supposedly visited. Along the way, pieces of the story have been left out or neglected to record. We still don’t know if Ursula had 1, 11, 1,000, or 11,000 virgins accompany her during her journey because of misinterpretations. But what we do know, is that St. Ursula and her virgins led a fairy-tale type life as they joyously traveled to their martyrdom. This story has created a one-of-a-kind cult dedicated to the virgins. But before their reliquaries and churches could be built, the tale of St. Ursula had to be figured out.
The history of these celebrated virgins of Cologne rests on ten lines, and these are open to question. 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 suspici...