The Lives of the Fathers of Mérida (5.2) recounts that because of the virtues of Bishop Masona (c. 570 – c. 600/610) and the merits of *Eulalia (virgin and martyr of Mérida, S00407), God kept disease and famine far from Lusitania, people were wealthy, joyful, and full of charity, and the Jews and pagans converted to Christianity. Written in Latin in Mérida (south-west Hispania), 633/680.
E03536
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Lives of the Fathers of Mérida, 5.2
The hagiographer describes Masona as a Goth of noble stock who is full of faith, charity and love of God and his neighbour.
[2] ... dilectus namque Deo et hominibus, etate et gloria mirabilis, amator fratrum, multum orans pro populo, cuius nomen multis choruscando miraculis per omnem terram pertransibit. [3] Huius itaque temporibus morbum pestem inedie que inopiam ab urbe Emeretensi uel omnem Lusitaniam eius precibus Dominus procul abegit meritis que sacresancte Eolalie uirginis longius pepulit tantam que salutem et omnium copiam deliciarum cuncto populo inpertire dignauit, [4] ut nullus umquam, quamuis inops, aliquid dehabere uideretur aut qualibet necessitate fatigaretur, sed quemammodum opulenti ita et inopes omnibus bonis habundarent et quodam modo instar celestis gaudii uniuersus populus in terris tanti pontificis meritum congauderet.
'2. ... For beloved of God and men, the wonder and glory of his age, a lover of his brethren, he prayed greatly for his people, and his name, resplendent from the many miracles he performed, became known throughout all the land. [3.] In his time through his prayers the Lord kept disease, plague, and famine far from the city of Merida and indeed from all Lusitania, driving them far away because of the merits of the most holy virgin Eulalia. Moreover, he deemed it worthy to impart such health and such a bounty of every delight to all the people [4.] that no one, not even a poor man, was seen to be in need or to be wearied by want, but the poor just like the wealthy had an abundance of all good things and all the people on earth were joyful, as if they were rejoicing in heaven, at the virtue of so great a bishop.'
Then it is said that all the people live in peace and were charitable, no one was in grief, no one was jealous, all were free from fear.
[7] Non solum autem in omnium fidelium arcanis eius fraglabat inmensa karitas, sed omnium Iudeorum uel gentilium mentes miro dulcedinis sue affectu ad Xpi. gratia pertraebat.
'7. And this great love of Masona did not only burn in the innermost hearts of all the faithful, but through his wondrous sweet affection he drew minds of all the Jews and pagans in to the grace of Christ.'
Text: Maya Sánchez 1992, 48-50 (text numbering from Garvin 1945, as used by Fear).
Translation: Fear 1997, 73-74.
Summary; M. Szada.
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Saint as patron - of a community
MiraclesMiraculous protection - of communities, towns, armies
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). It is possible that two parts were written by different authors, part one (1-3) by a writer who in one episode reveals that he was a 'levite of Christ' (thus probably a deacon of the martyr’s church in Mérida) and part two by someone else, who had much more positive view of wealth and stark dislike of the Homoian king Leovigild (two authors were suggested by Barrett 2023). The authors were capable writers familiar with the forms and topoi of the Christian sermo humilis who wants to shape his work on the model of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues.(Panzram 2007, 188–89).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 31 July 2024]
Discussion
An idea that the miraculous event is an effect of the prayers of the pious bishop joined with the merits of Eulalia appears also in the story about the destruction of the episcopal palace during the episcopate of Masona's predecessor, Fidelis. See Lives of the Fathers of Merida 4.6 (E03293).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.
Barrett, Graham. ‘Empire and the Politics of Faction: Mérida and Toledo Revisited’. In Rome and Byzantium in the Visigothic Kingdom: Beyond Imitatio Imperii, ed. J. Wood, M. Lester, and D. Fernández, 277–315. Late Antique and Early Medieval Iberia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023.
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 | S00407 | Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Mérida | Eolalia | Certain |
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