Perfectus

ON ST. PERFECTUS, PRESBYTER,

MARTYR AT CORDOBA IN SPAIN.

IN THE YEAR 850.

Perfectus, Presbyter, Martyr at Cordoba, in Spain (S.)

G. H.

[1] In the Mahometan persecution at Cordoba the Protomartyr St. Perfectus, Presbyter, fell in the year 850 on the 18th day of April, on a Friday. It was that Friday after the Sunday in Albis, that is, the first after the solemnity of Easter, Time of martyrdom. which, in the said year, with the Lunar cycle 15, Solar 19, Dominical letter E, had fallen on the sixth day of this month of April. Acts written by St. Eulogius. We give the Acts of the martyrdom from St. Eulogius, Archbishop of Toledo, and afterward in this Mahometan persecution himself a Martyr, described in book 2 of his Memorial of the Saints chapter 1, from which the rest took their own: and first of all Usuard, who was then alive; and in his Martyrology, which he inscribed to King Charles the Bald of the Franks, when he was made Emperor, has these things: Name in the sacred fasti: "At Cordoba, St. Perfectus, Presbyter and Martyr"; namely killed by the Moors, because he inveighed against the sect of Mahomet, as is added in today's Roman Martyrology: with similar things widely found in other Martyrologies written by hand and printed, also Benedictine, and in the Natales Canonicorum Regularium of Ghinius. Tamajus Salazar opposes the Benedictines in his Spanish Martyrology, and adorns him with this eulogy: "At Cordoba St. Præfectus Presbyter and Martyr, who, while he exalted our Catholic religion, and proclaimed the perverse sect of Mahomet to be false, was crowned with the laurel of martyrdom." memory among other writers. Other writers also treat of the same everywhere, especially the Spanish, and among these especially Martinus de Roa in De Sanctis Cordubensibus on this day, Marieta book 3 Historia Sanctorum Hispaniae chapter 65, John Basil Santorius, Alphonsus Villegas, Peter Ribadineira and others with Ambrose Morales of Cordoba in his Scholia on St. Eulogius, in which he adduces a certain author of the Indiculus Luminosus, and from him the following eulogy about St. Perfectus the Presbyter which we append.

[2] Eulogy from the Indiculus Luminosus. "And first let us look upon the Priest Præfectus, killed by Gentile zeal, adorned with constancy of faith, decked with martyrial glory, and truly aggregated into the number of the Elect: and how he came to the slaughter, let us sincerely set forth. Namely, as he was going to something else, and was attending to other secular works, and touching nothing of what was done, it befell that he was assailed by the incursions of demon-worshippers. From whom he cautiously and circumspectly, as it seemed to them, but as it seems to me, timidly sought their faith: and lest he be hindered by his own responses, he begged saying: 'Many things I had, by which I could most abundantly confound your trifles, or destroy the fables of your old-wives' history, if I did not fear, running hither and thither, to incur the sentences of your revenge by the avenging sword.'

To whom, when they had given their faith, and commanded him, with an oath first taken, to set forth what seemed to him; he, having received confidence of speaking, and taking their lies for a true oath; after various and many contests of opinions, in whatever speech he could, reproached the voluptuous wantonness of their prophet and the luxury of his pandering, and proved it with splendid argument. But they, having held a dispute of words over some mockery of his harlotry or the collusion of adultery with married men, grinding their teeth and raging with canine gnashings, hissing with viperish mouth and roaring with the ferocity of lions, permitted him to depart unharmed, on account of the oath newly given. But after the running of some time, always retaining the venom of griefs in their breasts, and as though reckoning the faithless pact previously cast upon him to be abolished by the antiquity of the time, cunningly surrounding him, seized him and most cruelly offered him to the judge, panting for lies, and impiously declared him to be destroying their faith and rite; and confirmed him cursing their prophet by the testimony of the vilest little men. He, terrified by the unexpected chance, and perplexed by the unusual circumvention, ignorant of their fraudulent counsels, which the fraudulent fabrication had set up against him; wove back, with sufficiently weak pursuit, that he had not entirely said this. But when sent into prison, he stood returned to himself, with bold resolution and manly engagement, he began to break down their whole law, and not only what he had said the day before, which the faction of ignorance was asserting over him, but even other more weighty things to bring forward; and to expect rather the glory than the ruin of death. Then, led out to their horrid Pascha of their day, on which they are wont to enjoy carnal pastures, and to minister well-filled nourishments to belly and lust, they killed him with an avenging sword. And as if holders of victory over their enemies, to the conventicle of prayer, believing they were paying service to God, elated, and drenched with innocent blood, they came to complete their rite, as they are wont yearly."

Thus far the author of the Indiculus Luminosus, whom various judge to have been Alvarus, the familiar of St. Eulogius, whose Life, written by him, we have edited on March 11.

LIFE

By St. Eulogius, Bishop and Martyr.

Perfectus Presbyter, Martyr at Cordoba, in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 6631

BY EULOGIUS.

[1] Under Abdrahaman at Cordoba, In the name of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning for ever, in the eight hundred fiftieth year of His Incarnation, in the 888th Era, but in the 29th year of the consulate of Abdrahaman. In whose times, increased in power and dignity, the Arab nation in the Spains, seized with dire privilege almost all Iberia: but Cordoba, which was once called Patricia, now called a royal city by his seat, he raised to the highest peak, sublimated with honors, enlarged with glory, heaped with riches, and with the affluence of all the world's delights (beyond what can be believed or fittingly said) more vehemently amplified: so that in every worldly pomp he surpassed, exceeded, and conquered his predecessors and Kings of his race. And while under his most heavy yoke the Church of the orthodox groaned, and was being beaten to destruction; Perfectus, Presbyter of venerable memory, born at Cordoba, and raised under the tutors of the basilica of St. Acisclus with distinguished education, most fully imbued with ecclesiastical disciplines, the born St. Perfectus Presbyter educated, and captured by vigorous literary formation, and also partly known in the Arabic tongue, passed almost all his youth in the aforesaid cenobium.

[2] But on a certain day, when on account of the necessity of household matters he was making a journey, he professes the divinity of Christ, and consulting the conveniences of his domestic affairs, and was entering the city; he was explored by the questionings of certain Gentiles concerning the Catholic faith: and is ordered to bring forth his testimony before them concerning Christ and the prophet Mahomet. He, at once with open mouth, professing the power of the Divinity of Christ, and proclaiming Him to be God blessed over all forever, said: "I do not dare to set forth your seer, how he is held by Catholics, because I do not doubt that you will be wounded by grievous trouble on this account. But if a friendly covenant shall intervene, and you adapt a peaceful pact of faith, I will say with what Gospel testimony he is marked, or with what veneration he is venerated by the Christians." Immediately they fraudulently promise faith, and with all fear dispelled compel him to narrate whatever is held concerning him among religious people. To these, the prudent priest, exchanging with them in Arabic, brought forth from the Gospel that man as a pseudo-prophet and most false dogmatist, because he had seduced many, saying: "Many pseudo-prophets shall come in my name, he detests Mahomet's evildoings, and shall seduce many, and shall give great signs and prodigies, so that even the elect, if it can be done, shall be led into error. Of whom, among the rest, this your supreme prophet, occupied by the illusions of the ancient enemy, enticed by the figments of demons, given to the sacrileges of sorceries, corrupting the hearts of many who lightly regarded things with lethal poison, consigned them to the snares of eternal perdition. For, being distinguished by no spiritual discretion, he fits his faith to the prince of Satan, with whom, about to pay himself the most bitter torments of the infernos, he appointed you also his followers to burn with him in the fires of the unquenchable furnace. adulteries, For by what pact shall he be reckoned among the Prophets, or why shall he not be smitten with heavenly curse, who, blinded by the beauty of Zeinab the wife of his servant Zaid, taking her away by barbarian law, like horse and mule in which there is no understanding, joined her to himself in adulterous union, and foretold that he had done this by the command of an angel? and his impure law. Many things then Blessed Perfectus added about the filthinesses and lusts which are commanded by the Mahometan law, and at length he made an end in these words: "Thus the patron of uncleanness, serving the pleasures of lusts, consigned you all to the impurities of everlasting lust." He also, as he knew, setting forth other things about his most impious teaching before them, and denouncing before all many things hateful to hearing, although they did not at that time attack him with a haughty eye, yet laid up in their heart a kindled fury of vengeance for his ruin.

[3] The servant of God completes the usefulness of his necessary business here, and having completed the course of his journey, returning to the cell of his own quiet, he remained safe for some time. But after no long interval of time, while the occasion of household necessity compelled him to go somewhere, he happened to have passage through the same, with whom long before he had had the contest. seized, His foes beholding him coming from afar, bring into the open conflagration the wound kept in their breast forever against him, he is offered to the judge: and for the vengeance of their seer exhort the assembly of those standing around in this manner: "Behold, the one who, driven by a rash madness a while ago, uttered before us against our seer (let God sing over him and save him) as many words of malediction as the hearing of none of you can endure. This however is the kind of benediction they always use for his honor: Zalla, Allah, Halla, Anabi, V, A, Zallen: which in Latin is said, 'Let God sing over the prophet, and save him.'" And so, like bees stung, that whole cohort of perdition, rising furious against him, with all speed, having seized him, with his soles scarcely touching the ground, offer him to the judge, and bring forth such testimony about him: "This one, Judge, whom we have drawn to your most reverend tribunal, we have found to have cursed our prophet, and to have reproached his worshippers. But what sentence shall restrain such audacities, and blunt fury, better does your prudence know how to think."

[4] bound he is shut up in prison: Then the Judge of iniquity hands over the future Martyr of God to the prison-houses: and binding him with iron, constraining him with an unbearable weight of chains, defers him to be slain on that day in which with profane rites the festive joy of the Pascha is observed among them. The soldier of Christ won, with exulting spirit seeking the hidden place of the prison; and joyful he enters that den of the accused, as though invited to a banquet. Where, endowed with the highest reverence of fear and holiness, devoted to vigils, prayers, and fastings, he is said to have confirmed more strongly in the virtue of the Holy Spirit his own sentence, which long before before the judge, from fear of death, he had denied. he foretells the death of Nazar the eunuch. And before he was led out to the forum to be punished, they relate that, quickened by a prophetic spirit, he said of a certain eunuch named Nazar, the chief Keeper of the Proconsul (who at that time was carrying out the whole administration of the matter in the Spains): "This one, whom today the pride of the highest office raises above all the chief men of Iberia, and whom glorious power has lifted up to heaven in this western part, with the course of a coming year revolved, on the very day on which he decreed me to be laid low, shall not reach it." Which divine power, as it had revealed to its Confessor already refined through the squalors of the prison, did not delay to fulfill.

[5] Therefore, with not many months passed in prison, after the thirty days of their fasts had been completed, in which they more insistently than usual indulge in the revels of gluttony and the flow of lust, there dawned for the Martyr a day more glorious than the rest: that day, namely, which they held dedicated with solemn veneration and the greatest dance by the rite of their vain law. On which, thinking they would give great service to their God, they led him out from the den and slew him with the avenging sword, confessing Christ remaining in the glory of the Deity, and reproaching the enemy of the Catholic Church with free voice, and saying: The Martyr falls, "Your prophet I have both cursed and curse, a man of demons, a magician, an adulterer, but with his profession of faith against Mahomet repeated: and a liar, as I have professed, and I profess. The profanations of your sect I denounce as devices of the devil. You also, with the very leader of darkness himself, I testify shall pay eternal torments." The crowd of Gentiles, which, on the occasion of such a great festivity, had gone out to a very wide plain on the far side of the bridge of the river, in a part situated to the South of the city, to worship, with swift return turned back to behold the execution of the Martyr. Which, seeing him already prostrate before the doors of the praetorium and rolling in his own blood, with their footsteps also smeared by the very gore of the slain Priest, with augmented joy, returned, to pay off the sacrilege as one who had obtained his vow. Nonetheless trusting that they would more easily obtain the advantage, which they were walking with doubled steps in the blood of so great an enemy.

[6] With a ship overturned, 2 Mahometans are drowned. But let us return to the matter, and let us relate what divine piety had worked for the praise of his Martyr on the very day on which he fell, as we have learned by the faithful account of many. For pouring out swift vengeance for the avenging of his soldier, he plunged some of the crowd of the wicked into a river's depth. For to the people returning from the place of prayer, where by the sacrilegious rite they had performed their vain vows, the greater part were borne on the back of the waters in boats boarded; and with the river cut by the keels and swift navigation, they were returning home. Among whom, one boat overturned by the tossing of the waves, which gave conveyance amid the waves to eight little men, was hidden in the bosom of the inner deep. With scarcely six of them escaping by swimming, two perished in the shipwreck. So that the Scripture might not be empty, which says: "I the Lord shall give the wicked for your death, and the rich for your burial." Isa. 53:9 For the cruelty of the persecutor sent one before to heaven, and the savage tempest of the river dedicated two to the infernos. But the body of the holy Martyr, with the pious services of religious men, and with the fitting office of the Prelate and Priests, is buried in the basilica of Blessed Acisclus, he is buried in the church of St. Acisclus. in that place in which his happy limbs rest.

[7] That prophecy divinely uttered by his mouth concerning the Proconsul Nazar the eunuch, the chief Keeper,

(with God dispensing) was fulfilled, Nazar the eunuch perishes wretchedly. as still bound in prison to his fellow captives he had foretold. For before in the other year the paschal joy of the profane solemnity should meet them, to be destroyed, many days before, the same eunuch fell dead. For with his inner parts burned by a fiery fever, and (as some relate) corrupted by a poisonous drink, before his death, when urged by bodily necessity he went to a more private chamber to purge his belly, his bowels were poured into the dish, and he perished. As a certain Christian poet, describing the end of Arius, heroically put it, saying,

"With his entrails spilled out, his belly also remained empty."

So indeed the Lord, glorifying his soldier by each miracle, strengthens the vows of the faithful with the comforts of great hope, and with vehement astonishment drives out the sacrilegious vanity of the wicked. Let it suffice us to have said these few things from the deeds of the blessed Martyr, which we have learned to be true from Catholic men relating them, who had cleaved to his close companionship from the beginning in his chains, but also from the account of the Gentiles themselves; when we in the time of our fetters found scarcely a few released of all those with whom that future Martyr was staying. But the man of God completed the course of his contest in peace on the 14th day of the Kalends of May, on a Friday, in the era as noted above.

[8] Many by his example fall as Martyrs, But the matter of such a crime committed upon a Priest compelled many, enjoying the leisure of safe confession through the deserts of mountains and the groves of solitudes in contemplation of God, to leap out to detest and curse publicly the wicked seer of their own accord, and ministered to all the fuel of greater ardor for dying for justice. And what the faithless execution of the persecutors first violently extorted from this one, and what they avenged by cunningly surrounding him, afterwards they shrank in horror from this in very many offering themselves to such peril of their own accord. For the whole multitude of the Gentiles was so shaken with excessive terror at the progress of these, that they judged the perdition of the republic and the fall of their kingdom to be now impending, and humbly besought that our athletes should be restrained from such intentions.

NOTES.