ON SAINT POTENTIANA
AT VILLANUEVA IN BAETIC SPAIN.
CommentaryPotentiana, at Villanueva, in Baetic Spain (St.)
BY D. P.
[1] John Tamayo Salazar, in his Hispanic Martyrology, adorns the present day with the memory of this holy Virgin, writing thus: "In the territory of Iliturgi, at the town called Villanueva, Elevation of the body the elevation of the sacred relics of St. Potentiana, who, exercising there the art of weaving, lived a laudable life, and after the course of many years was laid in a most honorable place, merited due solemnity, with the praise of the peoples, the illustration of miracles, and the veneration of the whole province." In confirmation and greater explanation of these things, the same Tamayo offers a sufficiently lucid compendium of all that has thus far been ascertained about her, using, as he professes, the History of Jaén of Master Francisco Ruspuerta, volume 1, 12th century, chapter 1, treating of the same Saint; and of Father Francis de Bilches, S.J., History of the Saints of Jaén, where she is treated in chapter 49; and the manuscript Memorial of the Saints of Jaén, which he writes was compiled by Martin de Ximena the Jurat, and lent to him by order of the Cardinal to be named below. The compendium itself is as follows.
[2] Not far from Iliturgi, an ancient and most celebrated city of Baetica, honorably laid in an old hermitage is seen to this day a town, commonly called Villanueva, across from the estuary of the river Baetis. There, near the Beltran mill, a tower redolent of antiquity continues to stand, around whose fallen mass a hermitage, titled of the Saints, also most ancient, built, as is believed, from the times of the Goths, is seen. There, on the Gospel side, a sepulcher, raised in the form of a tumulus and covered with tiles, has from time immemorial been observed by the unchanging veneration of the old and present neighbors. Now among the vermiculated paintings of the tiles, a little shield variegated with emblems shone white, on whose smooth surface, in Gothic though easily legible letters, this inscription was read:
+ I H S Blessed be God. Praise God. Fear God. Serve God. Here lies the body of St. Potentiana.
This venerable place of burial, indeed, was held in such veneration by the people of the surrounding district, that on every side, in flocks, the unfailing devotion flowed with prayers and gifts in time of need; which grew in the hearts of all, because it delayed no one's entreaties.
[3] Done by Cardinal Sandoval With this good faith, for almost ten centuries, humility honored Potentiana the Virgin and the place. But lest a tile should cover the rich vein of so great a hidden treasure, the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord D. Baltasar de Moscoso y Sandoval, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, then Bishop of Jaén, now Archbishop of Toledo, Primate of the Spains, inflamed with the zeal of charity, determined to open the tomb with his own hands; and with fasts and prayers having been proclaimed, he went to the hermitage, where, with innumerable bystanders,
tearing apart the tiled chest, he found another plastered, with intermediate mounds. The mattock likewise destroyed this, under whose covering another heap of mound was found; which being removed, a square stone, two ells in length and one in breadth, which filled the whole opening of the chest, appeared cast on every side without any admixture. When it was lifted up, a stone urn is discovered, in whose cavity affection beheld all the bones entire of a human body, smelling most sweetly; which, as they were very fine, forthwith that inspection judged them to be of a woman's body. Honorably therefore drawn out, and placed in a chest newly wrought, everything was placed in deposit: and forthwith, for the examination of proofs concerning the Virgin's life, acts, veneration, and other things pertaining to the elevation, after diligent examination of the ancient cult the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal proceeded juridically. When these at last had been gathered through the whole range of the surrounding people's neighborhood, the diligence demonstrated to the eye innumerable miracles performed, which, at the intercession of the most holy Potentiana, God the Best and Greatest accomplished in various weaknesses, nature marveling. After these it was established with effective proof, concerning the antiquity of her veneration, concerning the continuation in gifts, novenas, festivities, sacrifices, which from the most ancient centuries the devout necessity of the supplicating towns has been accustomed to use to implore the help of this sacred Virgin.
[4] Very ancient also were the icons of the place, also in his old images where the image of St. Potentiana was seen between those of Blessed Bartholomew and Ildephonsus, co-patrons of that hermitage. In some paintings, the sacred Virgin is found with weaving and other instruments pertaining to weaving, from which (and the constant tradition there is) it must be confessed that this Virgin both led her life in the same place and exercised the office of weaving. At Forum Julium an ancient image shone, in which on the right St. Euphrasius, on the left St. Potentiana; he distinguished by the miter, she by the palm, each supporting the city with their hands, as its Patrons and Guardians, is seen, and at the top of the tablet the inscription: "In the year from the Nativity of the Lord 45, St. Euphrasius, Apostolic Martyr, Bishop of Iliturgi, lived as the colleague of the most holy Potentiana." So Tamayo, on what authority he calls Iliturgi "Forum Julium" I do not inquire: painted together with St. Euphrasius however ancient the image may be, I judge the inscription to be new and made in this century. A more apt sense is made by the verses which, I do not know whether Tamayo exhibits them as formerly inscribed to the picture, or as a new explanation adapted to the older tablet, certainly not unworthy of being read here:
You are safely held, Iliturgi, under the hands of Euphrasius And of the Virgin Potentiana: He teaches you the commands of the pious Thunderer first, She consecrates you by her tomb.
St. Euphrasius, according to Usuard a Bishop consecrated by the Apostles, is venerated on May 18, when we shall treat of him: equal to him, not in age but by right of patronage, we believe to stand St. Potentiana, and the confraternity proved and therefore we presume to offer no judgment concerning the time in which she lived and flourished, nor even to conjecture. Rather we listen to Tamayo continuing the rest thus: "Once there was a famous Confraternity dedicated to this most holy Virgin, which was preserved at the church of St. Mary for some times; until, with the affection of devotion cooling, reduced to poverty, it was aggregated to the Hospital and Confraternity de la Caridad, with this condition and pact, that every year the annual festivity of St. Potentiana should be performed without interruption. Which affection both obtained and observed."
[5] by public letters "With these and other supports of depositions and tradition carefully weighed by the Most Eminent, and the judgments of learned men understood, he decreed the elevation of the sacred relics with effective propensity, as appears from the tenor of the following autograph: In the town which is commonly called Villanueva de Andújar, on the 11th day of the month of May, in the year of the Lord 1636, the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord D. Baltasar de Moscoso y Sandoval, Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of the title of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, Bishop of Jaén and Royal Counselor, etc., having seen, examined, and weighed the proofs, informations, and instruments which, by his command, Doctor John de Acuña del Adarve, Prior of the Parish Church of the said town, and General Visitor of the whole episcopate, conducted, compiled, and authorized, both in the city of Iliturgi and in the towns of Cazalilla and Higuera and others, concerning the life, acts, miracles, fame and tradition of St. Potentiana the Virgin, who formerly lay buried in the hermitage which they call of the Saints, in the territory of the aforementioned town of Villanueva, and is known to have been built on the opposite bank of the river Baetis; from which it is established that there was and is an immemorial tradition, uniform, constant and perpetual, through all the dwellers of the neighboring towns, that the aforesaid handmaid of God, from the most ancient times, in whose origin the memory of men fails, was and is uniformly held as a Saint, invoked and venerated; and therefore to her tomb, with continual affection of devotion, all the townspeople of the surrounding regions, in their own and their people's afflictions, sicknesses and dangers, with novenas, ordering the same cult to be continued vigils, sacrifices, and gifts, came and come, flowed and flow, without any true distrust of receiving help; from whose imprecations of remedies innumerable people marvelously and effectively obtained whatever devotion demanded. Likewise it is established that the most holy Virgin herself was and is venerated with public, solemn and continuous cult in the whole territory of Iliturgi and the bishopric of Jaén; under whose patronage a Confraternity once existed and still exists, and her holy image was accustomed to be solemnly carried by the Confraternity in the feast of the most holy Body of Christ. All of which things examined, discussed, and probed, by some grave, learned, and religious persons of conscientious discernment, the same Most Eminent Lord precepted, decreed, and ordained (lest such pious affection and innate devotion should perish entirely) that the most holy relics of Blessed Potentiana be elevated to a higher place, in the same hermitage in a chapel which the same Lord causes to be built at his own expense; and that thenceforth they should give, extend, and confer with effective devotion the same cult which the faithful formerly concordantly gave to the same most holy Virgin and her relics, inasmuch as in the execution of this decree all the requirements concurred which the decree of the holy Council of Trent and the Bull of our Holy Lord Urban, by divine providence Pope VIII, the year 1640 are known to demand. In testimony of which thing he ordered this autograph to be made, signed with his own hand, and confirmed by the Apostolic Notary undersigned, for perpetual memory of the thing. Cardinal Sandoval. By command of my Lord Cardinal, Peter Fernandez Bahemonde, Apostolic Notary."
[6] D. Martin de Ximena in his manuscript Memorial relates this elevation in brief, though weighty, words; which he admits was performed on the 15th day before the Kalends of May, in the year of the Lord 1640, the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal being present and authorizing it, while the Decurions of the City of Iliturgi, in consistorial form as is the custom, stood by, who carried the poles of the baldachin. Thus far Tamayo, who then, lest he leave anything untouched, takes up for examination, or rather for refutation, six arguments by which Jerome de Pancorvo the Carmelite, in a Synopsis written about this Virgin and offered to the Cardinal, tried to persuade Some wrongly confused her with the Roman St. Pudentiana that this Potentiana of whom we treat was not Spanish by origin but Roman, daughter of Pudens and sister of St. Praxedes, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on May 19. For which reasons he calls him a Sophist, who fights rather with tweezers than with swords. But most of all and with greater right he attacks the opinion of one who asserts that it is credible that St. Euphrasia brought the sacred relics of the said Virgin from Rome to Iliturgi, since the Roman sister of St. Praxedes suffered Martyrdom around the year 162, born more than a whole century after the death of Euphrasius. Oh, if only Tamayo had cut away with equal severity all the fables of this sort, and far more insipid ones, which we marvel could have been thought up by Pseudo-Dexter and his followers, let alone find approvers, from his Martyrology! But the good man, in that in which his Spain seems to him to be even a little detracted from, is most clear-sighted; in other things, which contain some shadow of praise, he is more blind than Tiresias in admitting them.
[7] Yet there is what we may learn from Pancorvo, she seems to have lived solitary in that very place through the pen of his accuser, namely that the writers and all others, by whose votes the Cardinal was moved to take care of the elevation of the body, vary with conflicting opinions among themselves; while some say she was a Virgin, others a Martyr, some neither a Virgin nor a Martyr, very many say she was an Anchoress. Therefore we do not dare to assign her to any certain class of the Saints: but we do not on that account call into question that on which the hinge of our whole case turns, namely the title of sanctity, so long established by possession that meanwhile any more distinct memory of her lineage, age, and profession could have been abolished. Whether she was Virgin or Widow, noble or plebeian, whether she flourished under the Romans or Goths, we do not divine. That she led an eremitical life in the very place in which she was buried, is the only thing which seems able to be proposed by no rough conjecture: but since the uncertainty remains about the time when she lived, we have placed her between St. Anthusa the daughter of Copronymus, and the Martyrs who suffered in Spain under the Saracens.