Many Western saints are not known to Eastern Christians, just like many Eastern saints are not known to Western Christians. I am talking about the saints that both the East and the West have in common because they come from the time of an united Christendom. Yesterday I mentioned that for various historical reasons, some shared celebrations fall on different days in the East and the West. The saint I will tell you about today is one such, and she is one of my favorites. Her name was Eulalia, and she lived and died in what is now Mérida, Spain before there was a Christian Empire. She was only 12 years old when she died. Saint Eulalia of Mérida is celebrated on the 22nd of August by the Orthodox, but on the 10th of December by the Roman Catholics. Her story is:
Prudentius has celebrated the triumph of this holy virgin who was a native of Mérida, then the capital city of Lusitania in Spain now a declining town in Estremadura, the archiepiscopal dignity having been translated to Compostella. Eulalia, descended from one of the best families in Spain, was educated in the Christian religion, and in sentiments of perfect piety, from her infancy distinguished herself by an admirable sweetness of temper, modesty, and devotion, showed a great love of the holy state of virginity, and by her seriousness and her contempt of dress, ornaments diversions, and worldly company, gave early proofs of her sincere desire to lead on earth a heavenly life. Her heart was raised above the world before she was thought capable of knowing it, so that its amusements, which usually fill the minds of young persons, had no charms for her, and every day of her life made an addition to her virtues.
She was but twelve years old when the bloody edicts of Dioclesian were issued, by which it was ordered that all persons, without exception of age, sex, or profession, should be compelled to offer sacrifice to the gods of the empire. Eulalia, young as she was, took the publication of this order for the signal of battle; but her mother, observing her impatient ardor for martyrdom, carried her into the country. The saint found means to make her escape by night, and after much fatigue arrived at Mérida before break of day. As soon as the court sat, the same morning, she presented herself before the cruel judge, whose name was Dacianus, and reproached him with impiety in attempting to destroy souls, by compelling them to renounce the only true God. The governor commanded her to be seized, and first employing caresses, represented to her the advantages which her birth, youth and fortune gave her in the world, and the grief which her disobedience would bring to her parents. Then he had recourse to threats, and caused the most dreadful instruments of torture to be placed before her eyes, saying to her, “All this you shall escape if you will but touch a little salt and frankincense with the tip of your finger.” Provoked at these seducing flatteries, she threw down the idol, trampled upon the cake which was laid for the sacrifice, and, as Prudentius relates, spat at the judge; an action only to be excused by her youth and inattention under the influence of a warm zeal, and fear of the snares which were laid for her. At the judge’s order two executioners began to tear her tender sides with iron hooks, so as to leave the very bones bare. In the mean time she called the strokes so many trophies of Christ. Next, lighted torches were applied to her breasts and sides: under which torment, instead of groans, nothing was heard from her mouth but thanksgivings. The fire at length catching her hair, surrounded her head and face, and the saint was stifled by the smoke and flame. Prudentius tells us, that a white dove seemed to come out of her mouth, and to wing its way upward when the holy martyr expired: at which prodigy the executioners were so much terrified that they fled and left the body. A great snow that fell covered it and the whole forum where it lay; which circumstance shows that the holy martyr suffered in winter. The treasure of her relics was carefully entombed by the Christians near the place of her martyrdom: afterwards a stately church was erected on the spot, and the relics were covered by the altar which was raised over them, before Prudentius wrote his hymn on the holy martyr in the fourth century He assures us that “pilgrims came to venerate her bones; and that she, near the throne of God, beholds them, and, being made propitious by hymns, protects her clients. Her relics are kept with great veneration at Oviedo, where she is honored as patroness. The Roman Martyrology mentions her name on the 10th of December. See Prudentius De Cor hymno 9, alias 3, de S. Eulalia; and F. Thomas ab Incarnatione Hist Ecclesiae Lusitanæ, sæc. 4, c. 6, p. 217.
Saint Eulalia was martyred just three short years before Saint Constatine became Emperor of Rome, and only 10 years before the Edict of Toleration. She would have been 15 when he became Emperor and only 22 and free to worship her Lord openly when the Edict of Toleration was issued. But, that was not for her. She chose not to hide as her mother wished, but chose the life of a martyr. Her story is believable, in part, because the behavior portrayed is so clearly adolescent in some ways. The running away from home, the almost over the top reaction to the judge, etc., point to the emotional behavior patterns of a young teenager, just like the history records. The reaction of the judge also points to a man who has no desire to hand a woman-child over to the executioners for torture and execution, again confirming the story. And, yet, she stood firm with the adults who preceded her, with the other martyrs, and has become one of those “under” the altar of God in the Book of Revelation asking our God how long it will be until he brings his Kingdom to fruition.
She had a small revenge. The church built over her tomb has had archeological excavations done beneath it. You can go to modern-day Mérida and tour them. Under the church has been found an earlier church, and then some paleo-Christian tombs, and, apparently, the remains of either a Roman noble house or a Roman temple. Thus, her relics are held in honor in a church that has crushed the very gods that thought to crush her.
May she intercede for all those who wish to stand against inappropriate government decrees. I would suggest that she would be a great saint for the pro-life movement, particularly for those of us who are of Spanish descent.
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