Votive embroidery of Saint Ursula

Very refined work of painted silk embroidered with silk thread and decorated with small pearls, all in the effigy of Saint Ursula. 19th century. Saint Ursula is often represented with the palm of the martyrs, an arrow (symbol of what killed her), a large miraculous cloak (which did not save her).

The story about Saint Ursula is difficult to verify because of reliable written testimonies. It is known that a young girl named Ursula, daughter of a Breton Christian king, lived at the very end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century. It is also known that this girl, as well as several others, was proposed to by a pagan prince of Germanic origin. But as Ursula wanted to remain a virgin and a Christian, her refusal could lead to serious reprisals for her father. Ursula and her friends - ten virgins - decided to run away and go on an adventure. The girls went on a pilgrimage to Rome for three years and then boarded a ship on the Rhine. A storm would have thrown them on the banks of the Rhine where they would have been captured in Cologne in Germany by the Huns, then martyred and riddled with arrows because they would not betray their faith. The girls were buried in a church in Cologne.