Wednesday, October 21, 2026

It is the 21st of October 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Just east of Puerto Rico, we have both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. It’s a curious name. Why “Virgin”? Perhaps because they were at one point untouched and uninhabited? It sounds plausible, but it’s untrue.

 

They are called the Virgin Islands because they were spotted by Christopher Columbus on this, the 21st of October in 1493. And the original name he gave the islands tells us after whom he named those roughly 90 islands that make up an archipelago in the Caribbean. They were named for Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes. That is: St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins.

 

Note: this is not the same St. Ursula we talked about on the 6th of this month (that was Ursula of Muensterburg- the escaped nun in the 16th century). Also… that’s a whole lot of virgins. So, who was this Ursula and how did she have 11,000 companions?

 

She is St. Ursula of Cologne- a legendary martyr (in the sense that her story is mostly a legend) whose story is based on an inscription in a church in Cologne from the 4th or 5th century. The problem is the inscription says virgins died there, but it gives us no names, does not tell us how many there were, nor how they died.

 

However, by the Middle Ages, Christians could fill in all of the missing information- there was a British Princess, there were eleven ships, there was a pilgrimage to Rome, there were Huns, and there were 11,000 virgins.

 

How did this happen? A usual suspect is the Golden Legend of Jacob de Voragine from the mid-13th century. The aforementioned inscription in Cologne was rediscovered around 1150 and sent medieval scholars racing for a story.

 

The legend created went like this: Ursula is the daughter of a British Christian King- a pagan prince wants her hand in marriage, and she flees with a remarkably large number of virgins (more on the number in a minute). They make their way to Rome for pilgrimage, and when they return to Cologne, they are killed by those dastardly Huns.

 

It’s a familiar story- it was also very popular. Depictions of her and her story were one of the more common images in the High Middle Ages. 11 ships with 11,000 Virgin Martyrs make it easily recognizable. One theory as to how that number of virgins became associated with her is a possible Latin inscription: XI M V. 11 “M” “V” s- most likely “11 Virgin Martyrs”- but could be taken as 11 “millia virginum”- or 11,000 Virgins.

 

The historical Ursula and her 11,000 virgin companions are difficult to track down, but we know a good bit about the women they inspired. It was in 1535 that Angela Merici founded the Company of St. Ursula in Northern Italy. These “Ursulines” would become associated with education, offering girls an opportunity outside of the cloister.

 

The legendary Ursula would be the namesake for many (including my friend Ursula Dawson Bates- the soon to be retiring tour guide who will be with me this Spring for a Christian Heritage tour with GTI tours, also Ursula is a rad name- it means “little she-bear”). She has been the patron saint of Cologne, of female students, and archers (she was allegedly killed by a Hun with an arrow after she refused his marriage proposal). Hildegaard of Bingen was fond of Ursula and composed a number of poems about her.

 

In 1969 when the Roman Catholic Church was attempting to clean up their sprawling calendar of saints days and observances they relegated St. Ursula from Commemoration to local observances. There will be no relegation of the legendary queen and her 11,000 closest friends on the day historically associated with her, the 21st of October.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Matthew 17:

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.

24 When they came to Caper′na-um, the collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said, “Does not your teacher pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 21st of October 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who has tried that same trick for years in the nearby Random Lake… no shekels yet… He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man shouting out the Virgin Islands' most famous sons: Alexander Hamilton and Tim Duncan- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.