St. Ursula Reading (detail; M 070) Ceramic Tree Decoration

Clad in a sable-lined gown of brown and gold with a wide white belt and a red chemise and crowned with an elaborate headdress, St. Ursula is depicted reading a book, presumably a devotional work--a Bible, a Gospel book, or a Book of Hours--resting on a cushion on her lap. Now regarded as legendary or at best quasi-historical, the story of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virginal companions who were martyred by the Huns near Cologne, Germany, while on a PanEuropean pilgrimage was enormously popular in the Middle Ages. The saint, a Romano-British princess, reputedly met her end by being shot with an arrow to the heart by the chief of the Huns. Arrows (not visible here) lie on the ground at her feet just peeking out from beneath her voluminous skirts. + Feast: October 21 + Image Credit (M 070): Detail of Virgo inter Virgines [in Latin; La Vierge parmi les vierges in French; The (Blessed) Virgin among Virgins in English], by The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. c. 1435-1506/1509), oil on oak panel, 67.3"x42.5" (171 cm x 108 cm), c. 1488, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. 2576. From Wikimedia Commons {PD-Art|PD-Old-100}. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights.