Saint Cordula

Cordula of Cologne, also known as Saint Cordula, is an apocryphal saint. She was venerated in the Catholic Church as a companion of St. Ursula and her feast day was on 22 October, but she has not been listed in the Roman Martyrology since 1969 due to doubts about her historicity. According to medieval folklore, she was one of the companions of St. Ursula who is said to have come from Brittany to Cologne in the fourth century. There, Ursula and with her eleven thousand virgins were killed by Hunnic invaders. Cordula hid away to escape the fate of her companions, but stung by her conscience, she emerged the day after the massacre and was also killed. Around the middle of the twelfth century, the nun Helentrudis from the convent of Heerse claimed that she had been visited in her dream by a young woman who informed her that she was a companion of St. Ursula and that her name was Cordula. Since that time, Cordula started to be venerated as a saint. Her alleged body was found in 1278 in the vineyard of the commandery of the St. Johan commandery of the Knights Hospitallers when one of their knights also had a nightly visitation by Cordula. Her remains where then translated (possibly by Albertus Magnus himself) to the chapel of the commandery where they were interred. In overcoming her fears and joining her companions in martyrdom, she served as a model for addressing and conquering human hesitation. The veneration of St. Cordula, St. Ursula and her companions spread soon beyond the borders of Cologne to Osnabrück, Valenciennes, Marchiennes and Tortosa. This was facilitated primarily via monastic communities and in the thirteenth century the Dominicans promoted their cult not only through material relics but also by hagiographic productions which were often sung during Matins in the refectory. Her cult was especially strong among female orders and convents. Wienhausen Abbey received at some point a relic of St. Cordula from Cologne, possibly together with those of St.