ON SS. ANASTASIUS THE PRESBYTER, FELIX THE MONK, AND DIGNA THE VIRGIN.
MARTYRS AT CORDOVA IN SPAIN.
From the Memorial of S. Eulogius.
IN THE YEAR 853.
CommentaryAnastasius the Presbyter, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Felix the Monk, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Digna the Virgin, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)
G. H.
On the preceding day we gave the martyrdom
of S. Fandila the Presbyter, and from the Memorial of S. Eulogius
of the Saints we drew out more fully
the persecution stirred up under King
Mahomad: where, after the aforesaid martyrdom
related in chap. 7,
there is added in the following chapter 8 the slaughter of these three Martyrs,
in these words: Anastasius the Presbyter, Following Fandila, on another day Anastasius
the Presbyter, who from his early age, at the basilica
of S. Acisclus of Cordova, was trained in disciplines and letters,
dwelling there in the office of the Diaconate until full youth,*
after he had—having long despised the ministry—taken delight in
the monastic
life, Felix the Monk, which he had practiced into old age,* at last
is applied to the Priesthood. Going at a quick pace to the palace, he stands before
the Consuls; and striking the enemy of the faith with the truthful
goads of his assertions, immediately cut down by the sword
he is hanged. With whom also Felix the Monk, born in the town
of Complutum, a Getulian by nation, and
by a certain occasion carried off into Asturias, where he also learned both the Catholic
faith and the monastic
religion, on the same day cut down by this same profession, is affixed.
[2] Digna was a Virgin, And when that day, completing the greatest turning-point of its course,
was already declining almost to the ninth hour;
a certain virgin, a young girl by merit and
by name Digna, from the college of the venerable Elisabeth,
by God's revelation and strengthening, went forth to the palm.
For a little before her martyrdom she sees, in a dream,
a girl standing by her, very fair in dress and appearance,
angelic, strengthened by S. Agatha she carrying roses and lilies in her hand.
When she inquired of her about the name and cause of her
coming, she said: I am Agatha, once
worn down for Christ's sake by dreadful tortures, and now
I have come to confer upon you a part of this purple gift.
Receive willingly the gift, and act manfully in the Lord;
for the remnants of the roses and lilies, which I keep in
my hands, I shall give after you to those who are about to depart from this place.
At last the most sacred Virgin, illumined by such a vision and
gift, when she received a rose from the right hand of the one speaking with her,
was lifted up, with her ear mingled with the heavenly things, from the eyes
of the beholder.
[3] She desires to be called Unworthy: But this girl, since for her supreme humility
and obedience she judged herself the lowest among her fellow virgins,
and was an attendant of incomparable readiness,
nevertheless would never allow herself to be called
Digna ("Worthy"); and she would say with tears: Do not call me
Digna, but rather Indigna ("Unworthy"); because by whatever
merit I am, even by name ought I to be marked. And when,
from the day of her revelation, pricked with the love of martyrdom,
with silent thought, by what signs she might aspire to it,
she had begun often to ruminate; she becomes amply more joyful,
instructed by the martyrdom of these men, so that, as it were with these going before,
she might with firmer step succeed to the crown. with the others hanged, she challenges the Judge:
And therefore, the cloisters of the convent silently opened,
when she had now learned that the blessed Martyrs were hanging;
at a quick pace seeking the judge, why he had slaughtered her brothers,
the heralds of justice, with intrepid assertion
she questions him. Is it because (she says) we are
worshippers of God, and faithfully worship the holy Trinity,
confessing the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit
to be one and true God, and everything that dissents from
this belief we not only deny, but
also detest, curse, and confound—is it for that reason we are stabbed through?
[4] While the girl was discoursing these and similar things with holy and immaculate
mouth, the arbiter, hesitating not at all, hands her over to the lictors
to be beheaded: who soon assail the delicate
throat* of her neck. And without delay, falling with her limbs cast down,
she is hanged, turned downward on the rack,
and joined to the others across the river. beheaded, she is hanged For in this
order these three who had been called, namely Anastasius the Presbyter,
Felix the Monk, and the blessed Virgin Digna,
fell on the same day in different ways, on the XVIII Kalends of
July, in the Era 891. These things S. Eulogius relates, by whom the S. Acisclus here indicated
is the famous Martyr, who suffered at Cordova
under Diocletian on the XVII of November. Ambrosius
Moralez, in his Annotations on this, confesses that he does not know
how S. Anastasius* dwelt in old age after the monastic life.
I have rendered the sense clear with a slight change:
unless someone should prefer to read insenitus as if it were a participle
from insenesco (to grow old in). With similar liberty I judged one should act toward
the end at ad, where it was read "delicatis inferunt
jugulum collibus," being readily ready to yield my reading to another better conjecture,
should one be suggested.
[5] By the Era 891 noted toward the end, is understood
the year of the Christian Era 853, in which they suffered.
It is added presently in the following chapter, in S. Eulogius:
Whose corpses, after some days burned in a great
fire, cast at last into the river, were
scattered. Where Moralez raises a scruple, how—
since the corpses are here said to have been scattered by fire and water—the bodies burned and cast into the water.
it can be believed that the body of S. Felix of Complutum, the
Martyr, was translated, together with the body of S. Zoilus, to
Carrión in the monastery of S. Zoilus of the Order of S. Benedict;
and Moralez adds that he had read this in the ancient monuments of the convent
there. We shall give below, on the
XXVII day of June, the Acts of S. Zoilus and his XIX Companions, Martyrs
of Cordova, who suffered under Diocletian,
printed by Tamayo-Salazar from a Ms. Legendary of Segovia and another
published one of Seville: in which it is said that the most holy
Agapius, Bishop of Cordova, built a basilica
fairer and larger, and honorably placed there
the sacred remains of S. Zoilus, together with those of S. Felix,
and dedicated it to the name of S. Zoilus. The same
Tamayo-Salazar published a Catalogue of the Bishops
of Cordova, and in it asserts that this Agapius flourished
about the year 590. So that it seems that in the said Acts of S. Zoilus there is treated
of another S. Felix's body.
[6] The aforesaid Moralez likewise asserts that some Churches of Spain celebrate
the feast of this S. Felix. The place of S. Digna in the monastery of Tábanos
This indeed is clear, says Tamayus in the Spanish Martyrology,
from the Breviaries of Palencia, Cartagena, and Compostela,
and concerning them a splendid encomium is built up by Marineus Siculus. Indeed,
from the little book of Ambrosius Moralez on the
Translation of SS. Justus and Pastor, he says that Complutum
acknowledges S. Felix as its own inhabitant, and therefore in the reception
of the Relics of SS. Justus and Pastor, brought from Huesca,
an image of S. Felix went forth to meet them,
at whose base this inscription was read:
Born at Complutum, a Monk of S. Benedict, Felix
by name, but more felicitous (felicior), because by your example I
suffered at Cordova; I congratulate our common fatherland
anew, enriched by this so great treasure of your Relics.
[7] These things concerning S. Felix. But concerning S. Digna the Virgin Martyr,
since she is said above to have lived in the college of the venerable
Elisabeth, Tamayus concludes that the convent of Tábanos
is to be understood, The cult of S. Felix in various Churches and at Complutum. of which, together with her husband Jeremias, she is acknowledged
to have been the foundress, as is clear from book 2, chap. 2 of the Memorial
of S. Eulogius, who says: The renowned Jeremias, abounding
in wealth and goods, and his venerable wife
Elisabeth and their children, and almost the whole kindred, laying the foundations
of that convent at their own expense,
to cling forever in the service of the divine laws, long since
betook themselves there. Tamayus adds that the said convent
was near the village of Tábanos in the parts
of the North, among the steep crags of the mountains and the dense
woods, seven miles from the city, or two
Spanish leagues, as Moralez says, but that today no trace
remains.
[8] The encomia of these three Martyrs were published in Spanish by
the already praised Ambrosius Moralez, in book 14 of the History
of Spain, chap. 20; by Johannes Marietta, On the Saints
of Spain, book 3, chaps. 1 and 2, and book 4, chap. 19; by Martinus
de Roa, On the Saints of Cordova, fol. 99; by Villegas, Memorial of all.
in the Flowers of the Saints; and along with them the Roman Martyrology,
in which these things are read: At Cordova, of the holy
Martyrs Anastasius the Presbyter, Felix the Monk,
and Digna the Virgin. Galesinius and other
Martyrologists have more. But how the body of the aforesaid S. Felix,
not long before the year 1083, was translated from Cordova
to the Carrión monastery of S. John the Baptist,
thence called of SS. Zoilus and Felix, in the kingdom
of León; and how great miracles these Saints worked
there, see at the XXVII of June, where concerning S. Zoilus,
likewise translated thither, we treat more fully.