Episode #159- How Should We Remember Attila the Hun? (Part III)

Our Fake History

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History, Education, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2022

⏱️ 74 minutes

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Summary

In the stories of saints' lives written in the medieval era Attila the Hun was often used as a stock villain. He was called the "Scourge of God" and was understood as a blunt instrument used by God to punish the impious and test the resolve of martyrs. But, Attila certainly did not see himself as the tool of a Christian God that he did not worship. These medieval hagiographies presented Attila as one of history's most brutal monsters, but is that reasonable? Attila was an ambitious conqueror who sacked and looted his way across Europe, but does that make him all that different from the Caesars? Tune-in and find out how a psalm reading severed head, a marriage proposal, and 11,000 martyred maidens all play a role in the story. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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0:00.0	There's a story about a young woman named Ursula and her 11,000 handmaidens.
0:14.2	The story goes that sometime around 450 AD, the beautiful Ursula, a Christian princess,
0:21.3	who hailed from either Britain or Brittany, depending on the Sorcerer reading, was
0:27.1	betrothed to a pagan king in Gaul. The pious Ursula was scandalized by this match, but
0:35.0	was confronted by the angel Raphael, who appeared to her and told her of God's plan. It was
0:42.8	God's will for her to remain a virgin, to help convert young pagan women to Christianity,
0:49.1	and then to ultimately meet the fate of a martyr.
0:54.6	So Ursula convinced her husband to be that before she could marry him, she needed to complete
1:00.3	a holy pilgrimage along the Rhine River and eventually to Rome to meet with the Pope.
1:07.5	Accompanying her would be an entourage of handmaidens, who Ursula personally instructed
1:14.2	in martial arts. Did I mention that Ursula was a martial arts master? Well, she was.
1:22.6	Ursula's pilgrims were to be perfect in their chastity and ferocious when confronted
1:28.2	by aggressive pagans. So Ursula led her group of wandering warrior women through Gaul.
1:37.6	How many were there? Well, one tradition says 11,000 young women joined her on this pilgrimage,
1:46.8	but more on that number a little later. Sure enough, Ursula and her companions eventually
1:53.6	reached Rome, where they were welcomed by the Pope. The Pope gave the impressive young woman
2:00.1	his blessing and even gifted her several holy relics, one from St. Peter, one from St. Paul,
2:08.1	and one from St. John the Evangelist. Ursula then took these holy relics back to the cathedral
2:14.7	in the city of Cologne. But when Ursula and her entourage of maidens arrived in Cologne,
2:21.7	they found the city besieged by the fearsome Huns. Now, there are many different versions
2:29.9	of what happened next, but the most colorful by far involves our friend, Attila the Hun.
2:38.8	The story goes that Attila was personally overseeing the siege, but the arrival of Ursula and
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