Paul the Deacon

ON ST. PAUL THE DEACON

MARTYR OF CÓRDOBA.

From St. Eulogius.

IN THE YEAR 851.

Paul the Deacon, martyr, at Córdoba in Spain (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

[1] Among the very many glorious champions of the Christian faith whom in the ninth century the dire persecution of the Arabs took away in Spain, on this day St. Paul the deacon obtained the palm of martyrdom, whose sacred bones, secretly taken away by the Christians, This holy Martyr, reported by Usuardus and the Roman Martyrology, were buried in the monastery of St. Zoilus of Armilata; which place, says St. Eulogius in the Memorial of the Saints book 2 chapter 4, distant from Córdoba on the northern side thirty and more miles, bristles amid the deserts of the mountains with a most vast solitude; at the roots of whose hill, where it is situated, the river Armilata running, refreshes with the great solace of little fishes

the fasting of the monks: whence also it is called the monastery of Armilata. Usuardus in codices of better note on 20 July thus briefly celebrates his memory: In the city of Córdoba, of St. Paul the deacon and martyr. The Roman Martyrology on the same day commemorates this holy Martyr in these words: At Córdoba, of St. Paul the deacon and martyr, who, when he reproved the infidel princes of Mohammedan impiety and savagery, and most constantly preached Christ, by their command was slain, and flew up to his rewards in heaven.

[2] Certain Benedictine hagiologists report the same Martyr in their Menologies, is by some ascribed to the Benedictine Order, and ascribe him to their Order. Against these John Tamayo confidently rises up in his Spanish Martyrology on this day, and, as though a victory were won, boastfully exclaims that the fiction of Wion and Menard is altogether to be rejected. He had namely drawn forth from his armory, in which he himself knew how to forge every kind of weapon, some verses, and had hurled them under the name of Cyprian the archpriest of Córdoba against the Benedictines, which in the manuscript (if one is pleased to believe it) are had thus:

Paul, love of thy country, Paul, thy fellow-tribesman, together a levite of Christ, and minister of sacred love; who, keeping the rules of faith, with strength dost extol Christ; but the obscene seer thou dost confound with the scourge of a holy voice: whereby, made a martyr, thou dost mount to the lofty airs, and loosest the bonds of thy friend. Be mindful of thyself in the CLERGY, to which, adhering as one to thee living in the body, thou didst increase our flocks, that God may grant them peace, and afterward the heavenly kingdoms.

[3] But concerning these verses let us hear the judgment of Nicolás Antonio, a most learned Spaniard, who in book 6 of the ancient Library of Spain chapter 7, treating of the writings of Cyprian the archpriest of Córdoba, against whom Tamayo uses a fraudulent argument. volume 1 page 346 thus detects the wonted frauds of Tamayo: In celebrating the contests of the martyrs of Córdoba this was the design of the pseudo-Cyprian, that he might seem to enrich the most true narration of St. Eulogius with other, but false, events. Then in the place just cited, among the other proofs of his assertion in this very matter of which we now treat, he brings this third example number 153: Of the holy martyr Paul Eulogius had treated. Whom indeed certain Benedictines asserted to have been a monk of their Order, others gainsaying it. Tamayo wished to shut the mouth of the Benedictines with a verse of the pseudo-Cyprian, where that Paul is asserted to be a CLERIC, not a MONK. Finally Antonio concludes the aforesaid seventh chapter thus: But most plainly this is Tamayo's ware, which his very facility of pouring out barbarously into verses whatever comes into his mind proclaims. But enough now of Cyprian the poet of Córdoba, and of the verses supposititiously attributed to him by John Tamayo. We adhere to the more prudent Benedictines, who do not number this Paul among the Saints of their Order, since Eulogius nowhere expressed his monastic profession. We have therefore reported the fictitious verses of Tamayo only to show that truth does not need a fraudulent defense.

[4] From St. Eulogius his Acts are given, Now it only remains that we describe the sincere Acts of this Martyr from St. Eulogius, a contemporary author, who in the Memorial of the Saints book 2 chapter 6 narrates of him the following: But holy Paul our fellow-tribesman, and here a most worthy levite, when he was adorned with the first flower of adolescence, begotten of the citizens of Córdoba, exceedingly simple, obedient, and kind, always bestowing the help of compassion on the imprisoned, at the basilica which is illustrated by the presence of the body of the blessed martyr Zoilus, was nourished with spiritual disciplines. Who, instructed by the example and word of the most holy Sisenandus, did not fear to stand before the princes and consuls, and reproving them for the vanity of their worship and the madness of their wicked seer, and also truly confessing Christ as God, was slain. Yet it is reported that, when he was still detained in prison, being implored by Tiberinus a presbyter of Pax Julia, who thus said to him: Obtain release before the Lord, blessed minister, and by thy worthy intervention, when thou shalt have come crowned to Christ, remove from me the long squalor of prison: for that same priest had been for nearly twenty years consigned to the dungeon, accused I know not for what crime by his enemies before the king. Who, that presbyter, still flourishing in most flourishing youth, and endowed with a manly comeliness, being assigned to that underground cave, nearly decrepit and worn with age, being thence led out, is at last consigned to the public prisons. In these the martyrs of Christ dwelt until the hour of death. In these the wicked ventures and execrable rashness of parricides, homicides, robbers, and fornicators, and those guilty of various crimes, were macerated under the strictest custody. Set in these, the aforesaid priest committed the cause of his imprisonment to blessed Paul. To whom the holy Martyr, trusting in the crown of victory, promising to satisfy his choice [*], not after many days the faithful splendor of his martyrdom, God favoring, restored him, released from prison, to his own city.

[5] But the servant of God consummated his martyrdom in peace on the 13th day before the Kalends of August, on the second weekday Monday, and the year of the martyrdom is demonstrated against a bad critic. in the era as above. Whose corpse, unburied and left before the doors of the palace, after some days, secretly taken away by the curiosity of certain of the faithful, was laid with the body of blessed Theodemir monk of Carmona, at the sanctuary of the aforesaid martyr Zoilus. Who himself too, a young man, after the sixth day on which holy Paul fell, that is, on the 8th day before the Kalends of August, on the seventh weekday Saturday, in the era as above, died, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who helped his Saints and crowned them in peace for ever and ever. Amen. Thou seest here the year and day on which the Saint was crowned with the laurel of martyrdom most accurately noted: for Eulogius expressly says that it was done on the 13th day before the Kalends of August, on the second weekday, in the era as above; but above, book 2 chapter 2, he expressed the era 889, which without any controversy corresponds to the year of Christ 851. Nevertheless a certain recent Gallican Legendist thought he had found in these words something to gnaw after his manner, and asserted that here is evidently designated the year 850, in which the dominical letter E was running. But the hypercritical man, carried away by the itch of carping, erred a whole year from the true chronology, since in the year 851 the day 20 July fell on the second weekday, as will be manifest to anyone who shall wish to consider the dominical letter D, running in that year.

* or rather, to his choosing?