This is one of the roads on the Bishopdown Farm estate which has been named in honour of a saint.
There are actually two Saint Ursulas – a West Country 4th Century saint, whose historical basis has been lost and an Austrian Polish 19th Century saint who was canonized as recently as 2005.
St Ursula’s Close would predate the canonization of the second Saint Ursula, although I’ve included some information on both saints, it is safe to assume that Saint Ursula’s Close is named after the first one.
Saint Ursula of the 11,000 Virgins
As mentioned, the historical basis for the story of the first, more famous, Saint Ursula has been lost.
The Catholic Encyclopedia [1] says ‘The history of these celebrated virgins of Cologne rests on ten lines, and these are open to question’, and the Wikipedia entry [2]notes that her legend is ‘probably unhistorical’.
Anyway, the story is that she was a British princess, either from Devon or Cornwall, who was promised to a Pagan French king. She set out for Brittany, with 11,000 virgins, but following a miraculous storm determined to first undertake a pilgrimage to Rome. She ended up in Cologne, where along with the 11,000 virgins she was martyred by the Huns who were besiging the town. She was killed by an arrow.
Whatever the historical basis for Saint Ursula’s story, she is one of the more prominent of the female saints – the following have been inspired by or named after her:
Saint Ursula’s Day is October 21st.
Saint Ursula Ledóchowska
Saint Ursula was a nun born in 1865 who founded the ‘Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus’.
She was born in Austria, but had a Polish father and she grew up in Poland. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1983, then canonized in the year of the Pope’s death, 2005.