Hymn in honour of *Eulalia (virgin and martyr of Mérida, S00407) composed in Latin in Hispania possibly in the 7th c.
Evidence ID
E05515
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Hymns
Literary - Poems
Hymnodia Hispanica, Hymn 117
IN SANCTAE EVLALIAE. IN LAVDIBUS
(1) Laudem beate Eolalie
puro canamus pectore,
quam Xristus inter martires
casto sacrabit sanguine.
'ON SAINT EULALIA. IN PRAISE
(1) Let us sing with pure heart the praise of the blessed Eulalia whom Christ blessed with pure blood among the martyrs.'
There follow the relation of the incarceration of Eulalia (strophes 2–3, cf. Martyrdom of Eulalia 8). The judge demands that she sacrifice to the gods (strophe 4) but she refuses despite being flogged (strophe 5; cf. Martyrdom of Eulalia 9–10). She is tortured by fire (strophe 6; cf. Martyrdom of Eulalia 11), she dies and her soul goes to heaven (strophe 7–8). Two last strophes (9–10) are the praise of God in Trinity.
Text: Castro Sánchez 2010, 434-436.
Translation and summary: M. Szada.
Liturgical ActivitiesPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Source
The hymn is written in good iambic dimeters. Because of the good quality of the verse, Pérez de Urbel (1926, 120-121) dated the hymn to the 7th century. See also Szöverffy 1975, 37. The hymn is not noted by Diaz y Diaz 1958 among the 7th century works. See also Sánchez 2010, 830.The hymn is preserved in the following manuscripts: Psalmi Cantica et Hymni, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, ms. 10001 (9th/11th c.); Emilianensis, Madrid, Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia 30 (10th c.), with lacuna in the vv. 1–10; and Psalmi, Cantica et Hymni, London, British Library, ms. 30851 (11th c.).
Josef Pérez de Urbell’s method of dating hymns:
The method is based on two preliminary assumptions:
a) that the bulk of the Hispanic liturgy was composed in the seventh century, the ‘golden age’ of the Hispanic church, and that important intellectual figures of this period (Braulio of Zaragoza, Isidore of Seville, Eugenius of Toledo, and others) participated in its creation;
b) that the liturgy was, nevertheless, still developing and changing in the period after the Arab invasion, and therefore, many texts which we find in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries liturgical manuscripts might be of more recent date. Some hymns can be dated with some confidence to the period after 711, for instance if they mention ‘hagaric oppression’ or if they are in honour of saints whose cult appears to have been imported into Hispania after the seventh century (since they do not feature in earlier literary and epigraphic evidence, nor are attested in the oldest liturgical book from Hispania, the Orationale Visigothicum).
It is more difficult to identify the hymns which are certainly from before 711. Pérez de Urbell, firstly and reasonably, attributed to this group hymns with what appear to be reliable attributions to authors from the seventh century (like Braulio of Zaragoza or Quiricius of Barcelona), and those which are stylistically close to the poetry of Eugenius of Toledo from the seventh century.
Pérez de Urbell then compared the two groups of hymns – those probably earlier than 711, and those probably later – and noticed the following:
a) late hymns contain barbarisms and solecisms, while early ones are written in correct Latin;
b) late hymns are composed in rhythmic metres, while early ones are in correct classical quantitative metres; authors of the eighth and ninth century who attempted to write in quantitative metres always made mistakes; also from the eighth century onwards we have no more poetic inscriptions in quantitative metres;
c) some rhythmical poetry could nevertheless be early;
d) although both early and late hymns sometimes have rhymes, perfect rhymes occur only in late hymns.
In the absence of any certain indications for dating, Pérez de Urbell assumed that a hymn is early if at least two requirements were met: the Latin is ‘correct’ and there are no perfect rhymes. He also considered early every hymn composed in a quantitative metre.
Discussion
The hymn is very general and alludes to some episodes from the Martyrdom (see $E###) but does not mention that Eulalia was crucified and that a dove flew out of her mouth in the moment of death.Bibliography
Edition:Castro Sánchez, J., Hymnodia hispanica (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 167; Turnhout: Brepols, 2010).
Castro Sánchez, J., Hymnodia hispánica (Corpus Christianorum in Translation 19; Turnhout: Brepols, 2014). Spanish translation.
Further reading:
Blume, C., Die Mozarabischen Hymnen des alt-spanischen Ritus (Leipzig, 1897).
Diaz y Diaz, M.C., Códices visigóticos en la monarquía leonesa (León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación "San Isidoro", 1983).
Fábrega Grau, Á., Pasionario hispánico (Madrid, Barcelona: Atenas A.G., 1953).
Férotin, M., Le Liber Mozarabicus sacramentorum et les manuscrits mozarabes (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1912).
Garcia Villeda, Z., "La persecución de los primeros cristia nos en España, IV, El problema de las dos Santas Eulalias," Rázon y fe 58 (1920), 166-186.
Moretus, H., "Les saintes Eulalies," Revue des questions historiques 89 (1911), 85-119.
Norberg, D., An Introduction to the Study of Medieval Latin Versification (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
Pérez de Urbel, J., "Origen de los himnos mozárabes," Bulletin Hispanique 28 (1926), 5-21, 113-139, 209-245, 305-320.
Pinell, J. M., "Fragmentos de códices del antiguo Rito hispánico," Hispania Sacra 17 (1964), 195-229.
Szövérffy, J., Iberian Latin Hymnody: Survey and Problems (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998).
Record Created By
Marta Szada
Date of Entry
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00407 | Eulalia, virgin and martyr of Mérida | Eolalia | Certain |
|---|
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