ON ST. ABUNDIUS, MARTYR,
AT CÓRDOBA IN SPAIN.
From the Martyrologies and the Memorial of St. Eulogius.
In the Year 854.
CommentaryAbundius, Martyr at Córdoba in Spain (S.)
J. B. S.
Of the glorious contests and triumphs of the holy champions of Córdoba against the foul followers of Muhammad for the name of Christ it has already so often been treated in this work, that the history of that persecution, more often explained elsewhere, is here not at all to be repeated. How many names of Martyrs Usuard carried back thence into Gaul and inserted into his Martyrology, we have already elsewhere also warned in their places more than once: Marked on a different day in the Martyrologies, but why he drew back St. Abundius from the true day of his contest to June 8, I do not divine; in the observations on the list of that day I set forth my mind, and before me Henschenius had there noted in the Passed Over, that he is marked also by Bellinus, Maurolycus, Molanus, and Canisius; he could have added other codices, as many as I there adduced for the true text of Usuard: moreover he rightly subjoins that by Martín de Roa, Tamayo, and others he is referred, with the Roman Martyrology, to this day. Those others, namely Galesinius and Ghinius, in whom our Saint is adorned with elogia; but since these could be taken from no other source than the Memorial of St. Eulogius, they will be more purely drawn from the source itself. Thus it is read there, book 3, chapter 12.
[2] But from this time (namely from the martyrdom of St. Pompa or Pomposa, which fell on the day the 13th before the Kalends of October in the year 853), ten months intervening, a certain presbyter, praised for this day by St. Eulogius. Abundius by name, sprung from the village of Ananellos, which is in the mountain of Córdoba, and there performing his priesthood, is said by the contrivance or fraud of certain pagans to have been drawn to martyrdom. But that servant of God, when he saw himself by a certain calling fitted from heaven into a true sacrifice, whither, unwilling, he was led, approached with a grateful mind. And thus,
interrogated by the judge, laying open with an intrepid response the account of his faith, at the last he presses upon the wicked dogmatizer and his worshippers the truthful objections of his assertions: and therefore, slain under a swift indignation, he is exposed to be devoured by dogs and beasts on the 5th day before the Ides of July, in the Era 892; which is the year of Christ 854. And these things alone can be declared of St. Abundius, nor did Tamayo find more on this day: but the things which he adduces about the diversity between Habundus and his companion Marcus, we have already in a few words touched in the Passed Over, about to treat of that matter more fully in its place. Nor do we here touch the controversy about the place of martyrdom or habitation of St. Abundius, which not even the praised Tamayo himself dared to settle; so that consequently nothing remains here to be added.