ST. EULOGIUS was of a senatorian family of Cordova, at that time the
capital of the Moors or Saracens, in Spain. Those infidels had till then
tolerated the Christian religion among the Goths, exacting only a
certain tribute every new moon. Our saint was educated among the clergy
of the church of St. Zoilus, a martyr, who suffered at Cordova, with
nineteen others, under Dioclesian, and is honored on the 27th of June.
Here he distinguished himself by his virtue and learning; and being made
priest, was placed at the head of the chief ecclesiastical school in
Spain, which then flourished at Cordova. He joined assiduous watchings,
fasting, and prayer, to his studies: and his humility, mildness, and
charity, gained him the affection and respect of every one. He often
visited the monasteries for his further instruction in virtue, and
prescribed rules of piety for the use of many fervent souls that desired
to serve God. Some of the Christians were so indiscreet as openly to
inveigh against Mahomet, and expose the religion established by him.
This occasioned a bloody persecution at Cordova, in the 29th year of
Abderrama III., the eight hundred and fiftieth year of Christ.
Reccafred, an apostate bishop, declared against the martyrs: and, at his
solicitation, the bishop of Cordova, and some others, were imprisoned,
and many priests, among whom was St. Eulogius, as one who encouraged the
martyrs by his instructions. It was then that he wrote his Exhortation
to Martyrdom,[1] addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary, who were
beheaded the 24th of November, in 851. These virgins promised to pray as
soon as they should be with God, that their fellow-prisoners might be
restored to their liberty. Accordingly, St. Eulogius and the rest were
enlarged six days after their death. In the year 852, several suffered
the like martyrdom, {565} namely, Gumisund and Servus-Dei: Aurelius and
Felix, with their wives: Christopher and Levigild: Rogel and Servio-Deo.
A council at Cordova, in 852, forbade any one to offer himself to
martyrdom. Mahomet succeeded his father upon his sudden death by an
apoplectic fit; but continued the persecution, and put to death, in 853,
Fandila, a monk, Anastasius, Felix, and three nuns, Digna, Columba, and
Pomposa. St. Eulogius encouraged all these martyrs to their triumphs,
and was the support of that distressed flock. His writings still breathe
an inflamed zeal and spirit of martyrdom. The chief are his history of
these martyrs, called the Memorial of the Saints, in three books; and
his Apology for them against calumniators, showing them to be true
martyrs, though without miracles.[2] His brother was deprived of his
place, one of the first dignities of the kingdom. St. Eulogius himself
was obliged by the persecutors to live always, after his releasement,
with the treacherous bishop Reccafred, that wolf in sheep's clothing.
Wherefore he refrained from saying mass, that he might not communicate
with that domestic enemy.
The archbishop of Toledo dying in 858, St. Eulogius was canonically
elected to succeed him; but there was some obstacle that hindered him
from being consecrated; though he did not outlive his election two
months. A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a noble family among the Moors,
had been instructed from her infancy in the Christian religion by one of
her relations, and privately baptized. Her father and mother perceiving
this, used her very ill, and scourged her day and night to compel her to
renounce the faith. Having made her condition known to St. Eulogius and
his sister Anulona, intimating that she desired to go where she might
freely exercise her religion, they secretly procured her the means of
getting away from her parents, and concealed her for some time among
faithful friends. But the matter was at length discovered, and they were
all brought before the cadi. Eulogius offered to show the judge the true
road to heaven, and to demonstrate Mahomet to be an impostor. The cadi
threatened to have him scourged to death. The martyr told him his
torments would be to no purpose; for he would never change his religion.
Whereupon the cadi gave orders that he should be carried to the palace,
and presented before the king's council. One of the lords of the council
took the saint aside, and said to him: "Though the ignorant unhappily
run headlong to death, a man of your learning and virtue ought not to
imitate their folly. Be ruled by me, I entreat you: say but one word,
since necessity requires it: you may afterwards resume your own
religion, and we will promise that no inquiry shall be made after you."
Eulogius replied, smiling: "Ah! if you could but conceive the reward
which waits for those who persevere in the faith to the end, you would
renounce your temporal dignity in exchange for it." He then began boldly
to propose the truths of the gospel to them. But to prevent their
hearing him, the council condemned him immediately to lose his head. As
they were leading him to execution, one of the eunuchs of the palace
gave him a blow on the face for having spoken against Mahomet: he turned
the other cheek, and patiently received a second. He received the stroke
of death out of the city-gates, with great cheerfulness, on the 11th of
March, 859. St. Leocritia was beheaded four days after him, and her body
thrown into the river Boetis, or Guadalquivir, but taken out by the
Christians. The Church honors both of them on the days of their
martyrdom.
* * * * *
If we consider the conduct of Christ towards his Church, which he
planted {566} at the price of his precious blood, and treats as his most
beloved spouse, we shall admire a wonderful secret in the adorable
councils of his tender providence. This Church, so dear to him, and so
precious in his eyes, he formed and spread under a general, most severe,
and dreadful persecution. He has exposed it in every age to frequent and
violent storms, and seems to delight in always holding at least some
part or other of it in the fiery crucible. But the days of its severest
trials were those of its most glorious triumphs. Then it shone above all
other periods of time with the brightest examples of sanctity, and
exhibited both to heaven and to men on earth the most glorious
spectacles and triumphs. Then were formed in its bosom innumerable most
illustrious heroes of all perfect virtue, who eminently inherited, and
propagated in the hearts of many others, the true spirit of our
crucified Redeemer. The same conduct God in his tender mercy holds with
regard to those chosen souls which he destines to raise, by special
graces, highest in his favor. When the counsels of divine Providence
shall be manifested to them in the next life, then they shall clearly
see that their trials were the most happy moments, and the most precious
graces of their whole lives. In sickness, humiliations, and other
crosses, the poison of self-love was expelled from their hearts, their
affections weaned from the world, opportunities were afforded them of
practising the most heroic virtues, by the fervent exercise of which
their souls were formed in the school of Christ, and his perfect spirit
of humility, meekness, disengagement, and purity of the affections,
ardent charity, and all other virtues, in which true Christian heroism
consists. The forming of the heart of one saint is a great and sublime
work, the masterpiece of divine grace, the end and the price of the
death of the Son of God. It can only be finished by the cross on which
we were engendered in Christ, and the mystery of our predestination is
accomplished.
Footnotes:
1. Documentum martyrii, t. 9. Bibl. Patr. p. 699.
2. Some objected to these martyrs, that they were not honored with
frequent miracles as those had been who suffered in the primitive
ages.