De Amsterdamse Ursula - Een Keulse martelares in Vondels Maeghden (1639) en preken van vader Marius (1633)

This paper compares representations of the life and death of Saint Ursula, who was mortyred in Cologne, in texts by two seventeenth-century Amsterdam intellectuals. In 1639, the famous playwright Joost van den Vondel staged the martyred saint as a young and courageous heroine in his tragedy Maeghden. We contrast this with a radically different picture of the saint which arises from newly found sources from the same time and place. In 1633, Father Leonardus Marius of the Amsterdam béguinage recounted Saint Ursula’s life in a few of his hagiographic sermons. Since Marius was probably instrumental in Vondel’s conversion to Catholicism, it is reasonable to assume that Vondel was familiar with Marius’s views on Saint Ursula. Due to their conflicting ideologies, however, Marius and Vondel depict her in completely different ways.