ON ST. THEODEMIR, MONK AND MARTYR,
AT CORDOVA IN SPAIN.
From the Memorial of St. Eulogius. In the year 851.
CommentarySt. Theodemir, monk and Martyr, at Cordova in Spain.
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
I here adduce Eulogius alone, because all the other things which I have found written of this holy Martyr by the Spaniards may be called pious cogitations rather than a true historical description, since after St. Eulogius, for six hundred whole years and more, there is scarcely a writer who has added anything to his words, with the eulogy of St. Eulogius so that you may easily observe the vein of Tamayo
easily in this eulogy: "At Cordova in Baetica of Spain, of St. Theodomir the abbot, born of the city of Carmona, who, when in his youthful age he had despised the allurements of the world, and had provided for himself the monastic institution, that he might live to God, the summit of virtues in religion being surmounted, laden with the burden of the abbacy, at last imprisoned for the preaching of Christ, slain by the perfidious Saracens, by martyrdom found an unfading crown." Behold now the very words of St. Eulogius in the Memorial of the Saints, book 2, chapter 6, where in the first place is treated of Paul the deacon, whom we reported at the 20th of this month; but then of our martyr St. Theodemir, inasmuch as he was buried with the other at St. Zoilus's. Thus, then, it has: "Whose (St. Paul's) corpse, unburied, and left before the doors of the palace, after some days, by the curiosity of certain of the faithful secretly taken away, was laid, with the body of blessed Theodemir, monk of Carmona, at the sanctuary of the aforesaid martyr Zoilus. Who also, himself a youth, on the sixth day after that on which holy Paul fell, that is, the 8th of the Kalends of August, on the seventh weekday, in the era above, died, the Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who helped his Saints and crowned them in peace, world without end. Amen."
[2] All these things are clear and established by the credit of St. Eulogius. neither the title of abbot nor of bishop is to be added. The added marks of time, the 8th of the Kalends or the 25th of July, altogether agree with the noted seventh weekday, namely the Sabbath day, in the year of the Spanish era 889, but of Christ 851, the Dominical letter D running. Most of the Spaniards with Tamayo add that St. Theodemir was not only a monk, but abbot of a monastery unknown to them as much as to me. Nay, other writers of the same nation, whom, however, that martyrologist does not follow, commemorate the Saint among the bishops of Calahorra, on that very foundation on which they invent various other things, so far indeed that the praised Tamayo has sought out and brought forward many things in his favor concerning the town of Carmona, as if it were certainly established that the holy Martyr was of Carmona by birth or origin, which nevertheless is not clearly enough drawn from these words of St. Eulogius, "monk of Carmona," for they seem to be referred equally, nay rather, to the monastery of Carmona than to his native place: certainly that he was not an abbot, whatever Tamayo may trifle in that name, is openly gathered from this, that he too is described as a youth, even as St. Paul the deacon; so that here the titles of abbot or bishop are by no means to be sought, where the laurel of martyrdom most abundantly crowns the holy Youth.
[3] His memory in the Roman and Monastic Martyrologies. He is adorned with a fitter eulogy by Peter Galesinius, who first reported him into the ecclesiastical Calendars on this day thus: "At Cordova in Spain likewise, of holy Theodomir (so he and Tamayo write) monk and martyr, who, a youth, and a monk of illustrious piety, in the Arabian persecution, testimonies of faith being given and ennobled by death, is crowned." And here Galesinius should have been cited by Tamayo, not Constantius Felicius, who nowhere mentions St. Theodemir. Brief, correct, and neat is the announcement of the Roman Martyrology: "At Cordova, of St. Theodemir, monk and martyr," concerning whom Baronius had nothing more to add either in the notes or in the Annals; in this having slipped, that for the era 889 he marked 899, in which he had as imitator Arnold Wion, who did not pass over St. Theodemir, as a monk, copying the words of Galesinius in his eulogy. There followed Dorgan and Menard, and also Bucelinus, using a longer discourse. But to produce these or the like here is not at all worthwhile, since from St. Eulogius we have already recited whatever worthy of belief could be found concerning the glorious Martyr. If it shall please anyone to consult the Spanish writers, he will find their series set out in Tamayo.