The Lives of the Fathers of Mérida makes numerous references to the church in the city of *Eulalia (virgin and martyr of Mérida, S00407). Written in Latin in Mérida (south-west Hispania), 633/680.
E03293
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Lives of the Fathers of Mérida
Book 1, §§ 1-28: The story of Agustus, a serving boy of the church, who dies, but whose passage to heaven is assured; he is buried in the church (see E03216).
Book 3, §§ 2-7: The story of the monk Nanctus who frequntly comes at night to the church of Eulalia to pray.
Book 4, ch. 2, §§ 1-18: Bishop Paul, a former doctor, goes to the church to pray after being asked to perform surgery on a dying woman. He is given divine guidance there, and afterwards go to the house of the woman, and saves her life.
Book 4, ch. 4, § 8: Bishop Paul, as an old man, retreats to a cell near the church of Eulalia where he dies.
Book 4, ch. 6, §§ 1-8: Bishop Fidelis, Paul's successor, on Sunday according to the custom, goes in procession with his clergy from the episcopal palace to the basilica of Eulalia. Just as the procession leaves the palace, it collapses. Miraculously, no one is hurt which is interpreted as a divine favour for such a worthy priest as Fidelis and an intercession of Eulalia. Later Fidelis rebuilds his palace and makes it more beautiful. He also refurbishes the basilica of Eulalia.
Book 4, ch. 8, §§ 1-4: Bishop Fidelis is once seen by a certain devout man to go at night with a host of saints from the church of Eulalia to the basilicas of the martyrs (probably the extramural basilicas of Faustus and Lucretia mentioned in another story about Fidelis, see E03508).
Book 4, ch. 10, §§ 1-2, 6: Bishop Fidelis, taken seriously ill, orders that he be carried to the basilica of Eulalia. There he weep over his sins, gives alms, and remits debts, returning pledges. For a miraculous story concerning one of the debtors, see E03509.
Book 5, ch. 3, § 2: Bishop Masona, successor of Fidelis, before his ordination lives at the basilica of Eulalia and belongs to its clergy.
Book 5, ch. 3, § 9: Bishop Masona gives 1,000 solidi for the needs of the sick and poor to the deacon Redemptus who is in charge of the basilica of Eulalia.
Book 5, ch. 5, §§ 7-22: An Arian bishop Sunna is appointed in Mérida by King Leovigild. He tries to seize the basilica of Eulalia and re-dedicate it for the Arian Church. Masona refuses, and then Sunna asks the king to assign the church to the Arians by the royal decree. In response, however, it is ordered that two bishops discuss in front of the judges. The winner of the debate will have the church. Before the debate, Masona prays for three days before the altar above the tomb of Eulalia. He wins the debate decisively, and the Catholic congregation goes triumphantly to the church to give thanks to God. See E03292.
Book 5, ch. 6: Masona is accused by Sunna of many crimes and in consequence, he is called to the king's court in Toledo. There, the king threatens Masona and orders him to hand over the tunic of Eulalia so that it could be hang in the Arian Church in Toledo. Masona refuses but the king sends his servants to Mérida to look for and grab the tunic. They search for it in the treasuries of the church of Eulalia and in the church of Mary called the Holy Jerusalem, but cannot find it. The king tries further to force Masona to give him the relic but achieves nothing. Eventually he sends Masona into exile. See E03292.
Book 5, ch. 8, § 17: After being recalled from exile, Masona returns to Mérida and the first thing he does is go to the basilica of Eulalia.
Book 5, ch. 11, §§ 2-3: A Gothic nobleman, Witteric, involved in the conspiracy against Masona, confesses to the bishop that there is a plot to murder him during the customary Easter procession from the cathedral church to the basilica of Eulalia.
Book 5, ch. 11, §§ 17-21: One of the members of the uncovered conspiracy against Masona, Vargila, seeks sanctuary in the basilica of Eulalia. King Reccared orders that Vargila and his family be humiliated, and binds them to the service of the basilica of Eulalia. Later, however, Masona sets them free.
Book 5, ch. 12, § 6: After the defeat of the Arian uprising against King Reccared in Gallia Narbonensis, Bishop Masona goes with his people to the basilica of Eulalia to rejoice. Afterwards the solemn mass of Easter is celebrated.
Book 5, ch. 13, §§ 1-10: Masona is very sick and close to death, so he frees the slaves who had served him faithfully. The archdeacon of Masona, Eleutherius, threatens the slaves, ordering them to return to him their writs of freedom. They complain about it to Masona who, after finding out that it is true, orders that he be carried to the church of Eulalia where he prays and weeps. His prayers are heard, and he recovers from his illness. The archdeacon, however, soon dies.
Book 5, ch. 15, §§ 1-2: All the bishops mentioned in the Lives are buried in the same place close to the tomb of Eulalia. People who pray to God at this tomb are granted the grace of recovery from their illnesses.
Text: Maya Sánchez 1992.
Summary: M. Szada.
Procession
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityBurial ad sanctos
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
MiraclesMiracle after death
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Miraculous protection - of people and their property
Miraculous protection - of church and church property
Healing diseases and disabilities
Punishing miracle
RelicsContact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Children
Women
Monarchs and their family
Physicians
Heretics
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
The Lives of the Fathers of Mérida (Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium) is a complex work that combines features of different genres, such as monastic and episcopal hagiography, biography, lists of bishops, catalogues of important personalities (De viris illustribus, ‘On illustrious men’), and collections of miracles (Arce 1999, 5; Panzram 2007, 180). It consists of five sections (opuscula), which are divided into two parts with their own prefaces: the first part consists of three episodes about ascetic and monastic figures, the second part consists of the Lives of Meridan bishops. The entire work ends with an epilogue (on the composition of which, see Koch 2012, 276 with further references). The author remains anonymous, although he clearly presents himself as a capable writer who is familiar with the forms and topoi of the Christian sermo humilis and as one who wants to shape his work on the model of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues (Panzram 2007, 188–89). In one episode, he also reveals that he is a ‘levite of Christ’. For this reason, and because of the Lives’ focus on Eulalia, the author is usually regarded as a deacon of the martyr’s church in Mérida.The last bishop mentioned in the Lives is Renovatus, who is only known from this work, but must have died before 5 December, 633, when his successor Stephen is attested in the subscriptions of the Fourth Council of Toledo. The episcopate of Stephen (c. 633 - c. 637) is therefore usually regarded as the time when the biography was written. However, the modern editors of the text have noticed that there are two different recensions of the text. The second redaction has a number of distinctive features: it provides the Lives with a new, more detailed title that emphasises Eulalia’s miracles more strongly; there are a number of minor interpolations, including one from the Life of Fructuosus of Braga (written around 650, E04066); and several rewordings and revisions of the text (see Maya Sanchez 1992: xxxi-xliii). On the basis of additions in the manuscripts of the second redaction, in which Bishop Festus is mentioned, Maya Sanchez has suggested that the second redaction should be dated to the episcopate of this bishop, and so between 672 and 680.
Almost all manuscripts of the Lives are associated with the hagiographical compilation of Valerius of Bierzo (before 695). The earliest surviving manuscripts of the first redaction date from the 10th century, the earliest manuscript of the second redaction from the 11th century. See the stemma codicum in Maya Sanchez 1992: lviii.
[Source discussion revised on 15 April 2024]
Bibliography
Editions:Garvin, J.N., The Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium (Washington, 1946).
Maya Sánchez, A., Vitas sanctorum patrum Emeretensium (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 116; Turnhout, 1992).
English translation:
Fear. A.T., Lives of the Visigothic Fathers (Translated Texts for Historians 26; Liverpool, 1997), 45-105.
Further reading:
Arce, Javier. ‘The City of Mérida (Emerita) in the Vitas Patrum Emeritensium (VIth Century A.D.)’. In East and West: Modes of Communication. Proceedings of the Frist Plenary Conference at Mérida, edited by Evangelos Chrysos and Ian Wood, 1–14. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
Diaz y Diaz, M.D., "Passionnaires, légendiers et compilations hagiographiques dans le haut Moyen Age espagnol," in: Hagiographie, Cultures, et Sociétés, IVe-XIIe siècles. Actes du colloque organisé à Nanterre et à Paris, 2-5 mai 1979 (Paris, 1981), 49-61.
Koch, Manuel. Ethnische Identität im Entstehungsprozess des spanischen Westgotenreiches. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 75. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012.
Panzram, Sabine. ‘Eulalia und die Bischöfe von Merida. Von der “Handlungsmacht” einer Heiligen zur Zeit der Westgoten.’ In Formen und Funktionen von Leitbildern, edited by Johannes Hahn and Meinhof Vielberg, 177–225. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2007.
Marta Szada
07/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Maria | Certain | S00407 | Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Mérida | Eulalia, Eolalia | Certain |
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