Aukta

Holy Martyr Aukta (Auta) of Cologne is venerated as one of the eleven thousand virgins who, according to the legend and Catholic veneration of the late Middle Ages, accompanied Saint Ursula and were killed at Cologne.

The legend of Ursula, late and without secure historical basis, says that she was born in the middle of the fourth century, the daughter of a king of Dumnonia, and was betrothed to Prince Conan of Armorica. As her retinue crossed the sea toward the wedding, a miraculous storm carried them in a single day to a port of Gaul, and Ursula resolved to make a pilgrimage through Europe. She set out for Rome with her companions and persuaded Pope Cyriacus and Bishop Sulpicius of Ravenna to join them. When they reached Cologne, besieged by the Huns, Ursula and all the eleven thousand virgins were massacred.

When Queen Eleanor of Portugal, widow of John II, founded the convent of Madre de Deus at Lisbon, she asked the emperor Maximilian I to send her relics of the holy virgins. From the monastery of Saint Ursula at Cologne, Maximilian sent the relics of Saint Auta to Lisbon in 1517. For the convent chapel the queen commissioned an altarpiece of Saint Auta, with five paintings. On 8 April 1521 Pope Leo X issued a brief allowing the feast, confirmed by Adrian VI on 23 May 1522. Her veneration is Catholic and local, without synodal canonization.