Baring-Gould’s sources: Lubeck- Cologne Martyrology of 1584, Peter de Natalibus, Ferrarius, and the Acta Sanctorum. Authority: — Mention in the Legends of S. Ursula.] This purely apocryphal saint is fabled to have been bishop of Basle, and to have been so struck with enthusiasm or moved by courtesy, on the passage of S. Ursula and her [Oct. xa.
…eleven thousand virgins, that he accompanied them down the Rhine as far as Cologne. The fascinations or the virtues of the eleven thousand must have been great indeed, for a swarm of ecclesiastics followed them, amongst them a Pope — only an apocryphal one, however — and cardinals. The eleven thousand, with their devoted followers, bishops, cardinals, and pope, together with some babes, were massacred at Cologne by the Huns [nomadic invaders from Central Asia, led in the 5th century by Attila]. Schoepflin, in his “ Alsatia illustrata,” in 1751, wrote: “No historian or martyrologist, nor even those who describe the martyrdom of S. Ursula and her company, mention Pantalus before the 15th century. It is true that a certain Pantalus is mentioned in the Revelations of Elizabeth of Schonau, who flourished in the reign of Frederick I., about 1156, but such writings do not deserve to be classed as historical. If there be any historical foundation, it is buried under abundance of fable. In the 15th and following century, martyrologists are found who inserted Pantalus among the companions of Ursula, and reckoned him as their fellow martyr, on no other grounds than the revelations of Elizabeth of Schonau.”
The ecstatic Elizabeth having revealed that there was a Pantalus, Bishop of Basle, who was martyred at Cologne, his body was sought there and found in 1155, immediately after the revelation had been made. It was found in a stone coffin with his name inscribed upon it as follows: “ Pantalus, Basileensis episcopus, Virgines sacras cum gaudio susceptas Romam perduxit, unde reversus Coloniam pervenit, ibique cum eis martyrium suscepit, et S. Grata Junior.” That this was a forged inscription, and that the body was one obtained from a graveyard to assist the imposture, is not a matter admitting of question.
The body is in the church of the SS. Maccabees at Cologne, the head at Basle, in which diocese the translation [the solemn moving of a saint’s relics to a new shrine] of this precious relic is commemorated on October 12. Some Oct. ia.] ■SVS. Cyprian and Felix.
relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] at S. Tron, others in the church of the Apostles at Cologne, in a silver shrine. An arm at Arlesheim, two thigh bones at Aldbergen, some more bones in the church of S. Ursula at Cologne.