Cordula

Saint Cordula of Cologne is an apocryphal saint; she was venerated in the Catholic Church as a companion of Saint Ursula, and her feast was on 22 October, but since 1969 she has not been listed in the Roman Martyrology, because of doubts about her historicity.

According to medieval folklore, she was one of the companions of Ursula, who came from Brittany to Cologne in the fourth century. There Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins were killed by Hunnic invaders. Cordula hid away to escape the fate of her companions, but stung by conscience she came out the day after the massacre and was killed as well.

Around the middle of the twelfth century, the nun Helentrudis of the convent of Heerse said that she had been visited in a dream by a young woman who told her that she was a companion of Ursula and that her name was Cordula. From then on Cordula began to be venerated as a saint. Her body was said to have been found in 1278 in the vineyard of the commandery of Saint John of the Knights Hospitallers, after one of the knights also had a nightly visitation from Cordula. The relics were moved, possibly by Albertus Magnus himself, to the chapel of the commandery. Her veneration does not rest on secure historical sources.