CONCERNING THE HOLY MARTYRS OF CORDOVA,
CRESCENS, JULIANUS, NEMESIUS, FRATRIA, PRIMITIVUS, JUSTINUS, STATHÆUS, NOVATIANUS, CLEMENS, MARCELLINUS, ZEDDINUS, FELIX, VENUSTUS OR HINNUSTICUS, ZOILUS, MARCELLUS, ITALICA, LELLUS, CAPITO, TINNUS, TIMARÆUS OR TUSCUS, SILVANUS.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Crescens, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Julianus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Nemesius, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Fratria, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Primitivus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Justinus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Stathæus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Novatianus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Clemens, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Marcellinus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Zeddinus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Felix, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Venustus or Hinnusticus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Zoilus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Marcellus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Italica, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Lellus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Capito, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Tinnus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Timaraus or Tuscus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Silvanus, Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
§ I. Cult in the Fasti. Controversy concerning the seven sons of S. Symphorosa.
An ancient Manuscript of the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, praised by Holstenius and inserted into his Animadversions on the Roman Martyrology, The memory of these in the Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, sets forth this concerning these Martyrs: "At Cordova in Spain the birthday of the holy Crescens, Julianus, Nemesius, and eighteen others"; whom we have here expressed by their names in the title, taken from the four ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology: in all of which they are attributed to Spain, and in the Epternach copy also to Cordova: in which copy for Nemesius is read Remisius, and in the 4 copies of S. Jerome, and Fratria is added: which name is wanting in the other three copies: and in these there is Primitivus, who is absent in the Epternach copy: then for Justinus and Stathæus, there is read also Justina and Tacteus; as for Zeddinus, Zebdinus; and for Zoilus, Zoëlus. Finally, in the Corbie copy alone is Silvanus, who being removed, Timaræus could be made another than Tuscus, and the number of 21 Martyrs would stand.
[2] Various of these are related in other Martyrology Manuscripts; and in the Reichenau indeed thus: and in other fasti. "At Cordova, Crescens, Julianus, Nemesius, Primitivus, Eugenius." But concerning Eugenius we shall treat presently. The Augsburg Manuscript of S. Udalric and the Paris Manuscript of Labbe indicate these: "Spain, Crescens, Crispinianus, Justinus, Felix, Julianus, Primitivus, Clemens." But Crispinianus, in others Crispianus, has been related above, or rather will be related below among the Roman Martyrs. The Barberini Manuscript: "In the Spains, Crescens, Julianus, Eugenius, Novatianus." The Cologne Manuscript of S. Mary ad Gradus: "In the Spains, SS. Zoëlus, Julianus, and nineteen others." Which, omitting Julianus, are read in the Trier Manuscript of S. Martin, and in Ado, Notker, and other more recent writers along with the present Roman Martyrology, where these things are: "At Cordova, the holy Martyrs Zoilus and nineteen others." And in these the foremost of all is reckoned not Crescens but Zoilus, on account of the finding of his body, of which we shall treat below.
[3] Furthermore, a knot of most difficult solution Florentinius saw to occur here in his Notations, namely whether the name of the Seven Brothers ought to be removed from the former class; and whether from this latter ought to be struck out the names of SS. Crescens, [Whether some Martyrs are to be drawn out and ascribed to the sons of S. Symphorosa,] Julianus, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justinus, Stathæus, in others Stacteus, with the name of Eugenius added in the Reichenau and Barberini Manuscripts; because the seven sons of SS. Getulius and Symphorosa are referred also to this 27th of June. For in Ado it is read thus: "At the city of Tibur in Italy, the birthday of S. Symphorosa, wife of Blessed Getulius the Martyr, with her seven sons, Crescens, Julianus, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justinus, Stacteus, Eugenius, with whom
she suffered together under Prince Hadrian," and there is subjoined a narration of the martyrdom of each, as it is had in the Acts which are read in Mombritius and Surius, as if they had been written by Africanus (whom Eusebius mentions in book 6 of the Ecclesiastical History chapter 31). Notker has the same things, nay also Usuard; but with a smaller eulogy. Hence I doubted very much whether I should remove from the former class that "of the Seven Brothers"; and set down a new title from Ado, Usuard, and others: "At the city of Tibur the Seven Brothers Crescens, Julianus, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justinus, Stacteus, Eugenius"; and afterwards attribute the rest to Cordova in Spain.
[4] But that I might not do this, the ancient monuments which are had for the 18th of July, on which day the birthday of those Martyrs is commemorated, deterred me. [but in the Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden other sons are attributed to this day,] And first the old Martyrology of Christina the Queen (which we ourselves copied at Rome, and which is much praised by Luke Holstenius) has these things: "On the 15th of the Kalends of August, at Rome, of Semperosa the mother of the Seven Brothers, that is, of Peter, Marcellianus, Januarius, Dionysius, Sempronius, Clemens, Germanus." in the Martyrology of S. Jerome, Then the ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology have in the first place: "On the 15th of the Kalends of August, at Rome on the Tiburtine way at the ninth milestone, the birthday of S. Sempherosa, mother of the Seven Brothers, who suffered with them," in others, "was laid." But the names of the Seven Brothers are these: Peter, Marcellianus, Januarius, Dionysius, Sempronius, Clemens, Germanus. Thus these are recounted in the nominative case in the Corbie Manuscript, printed at Paris: and then there were added in the genitive case the names of Hirena, Magnus, as of persons distinct from the seven Brothers, although perhaps they suffered together with them. In the other three copies they are related in the genitive case together with the name of Herenæus, so that either eight should be reckoned, or Germanus should be taken for an adjective, which pleases less, since all seven were brothers. In the most ancient copy of the Monastery of Epternach (which was written at least nine hundred years ago and long before the times of Usuard and Ado, whose very characters we have exhibited engraved on copper before the second tome of April) these things are read: also in the Epternach Manuscript, "At Rome of Semphorensia the Martyr, of the seven brothers, Peter, Marcellianus, Januarius, Dionysius, Sempronius, Clemens, Germanus: And of Hætenæus."
[5] Notker, a man eminent in learning and sanctity, whose Life and Process for Canonization we have published on the 11th of April, likewise in the Manuscript of Notker, and we have said that in composing his Martyrology he took that which Ado had written, partly to be abridged, partly to be supplemented, seems to have preserved Ado's words almost unchanged for this 27th of June; but for the 18th of July to have corrected himself and Ado, where he has these things: "On the 15th of the Kalends of August. At Rome on the Tiburtine way, at the eighth milestone, the birthday of S. Symphorosa the Martyr, and of the mother of the seven brothers, who was laid with them. But the names of the brothers are these, Peter, Marcellinus, Januarius, Dionysius, Sempronius, Clemens, Hirena." This he says, omitting the name of Germanus, lest he should seem to exhibit eight Martyrs instead of seven. We judge that Hirena is not one of the seven Brothers; and in other Manuscripts, but obtained the crown of martyrdom together with Magnus on the same day: and thus the name of Hirena is excluded, in the ancient Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden related above, and in another likewise ancient Carmelite Manuscript of Cologne, in which these things are read: "At Rome the birthday of the holy seven brothers Peter, Marcellianus, Januarius, Dionysius, Symphronius, Clemens, Germanus, Martyrs, and of their mother Symphorosa." The Manuscripts of Reichenau in Swabia and of Rheinau in Switzerland, in which few names are usually drawn out and the principal Saints as it were set forth, have: "At Rome of Symperosa, Peter, Marcellianus, Januarius."
[6] In the Lucca and Blume copies, after these Holy Martyrs have been related (as we said above), Their deeds are desired. this oft-repeated nomenclature is subjoined, "Whose deeds are had." Would that they could be found, in which the aforesaid names were contained, then we should see whether they are the same Acts which now exist, and only other names were substituted: which now we cannot determine. Yet perhaps it is an indication of the names lacking in the true Acts, that in Usuard, augmented in Alsace, the names are not repeated: but it is said, "the first transfixed through the throat, another pierced in the breast, a third fixed in the heart," etc. Perhaps in some Acts their birthday is said to be on the 15th of the Kalends of August; and in Usuard and Ado, they are referred to this 5th of the Kalends of July, when these holy Martyrs are in the Martyrology of S. Jerome ascribed to Cordova in Spain: which we also do, this controversy standing, intending to change our opinion, to the day of the 15th of the Kalends of August, if better documents, which we desire, shall be set before us.
§. II. The Martyrdom of S. Zoilus, the finding of his body, his special cult.
[2] These things being thus deduced, we return to S. Zoilus, concerning whom Usuard, when (as I said above) he had handed down the eulogy of Crescens, Julianus, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justina, Stacteus, and Eugenius, as of the sons of S. Symphorosa, subjoins these things: The eulogy of S. Zoilus from Usuard, "At Cordova, of S. Zoilus the Martyr: whose body, when for a long time it had lain hidden where it had been buried, was made manifest by divine revelation to the venerable Bishop of that same place, by name Agapius." Ambrosius Morales, in book 10 of the General Chronicle of Spain, printed in the year 1574, chapter 15, asserts that the Acts of this Martyr are inserted with great conformity in all the Spanish Breviaries and Sanctorals everywhere; which are read thus in the Breviary of Burgos of the year 1502, in the manner in which he says the same are had in the Breviary of Cordova.
[8] "Therefore Blessed Zoilus, of the city of Cordova, begotten of most illustrious parents, and the Breviary of Burgos and of Cordova: a Christian from infancy; when he was of adolescent age, and confessed Christ publicly, was suddenly seized by the Pagans and presented at the prætorium of a certain Prince, and was long exhorted by him to return to the worship of demons. And when through many days' space he was admonished as much by speeches as by gifts, professing himself a Christian; Martyrdom, he was condemned by the most wicked Judge to be smitten with the head, and in the cemetery of the aforesaid city was buried by the Gentiles with the bodies of strangers, burial, lest he should ever be recognized by Christians and honored with worthy veneration. But when, by Christ's gift, peace was restored to the Church, in the times of Sisebut the Catholic King, a certain noble man, illustrious by descent of the Goths, by name Agapitus, having embraced the life of a monk from a layman, was thus elected to the highest Priesthood: and because for the love of Christ he had renounced the world, He did not delay to defraud him of his goods. But while he was avoiding his body, macerated with fastings, on a hair-shirt and cheap straw, the finding of the body, there was shown to him through the silence of a quiet night, in what place the body of the aforesaid Martyr lay, and by what name he was called, and for whose love he was smitten. When morning came, having called together the Brethren and the multitude of the common people, he indicated what he had seen, and with all the Christians went without delay to the place shown to him. When he had arrived there, seizing a mattock in his hand, he began to dig; until, with God's help, he came to the most blessed body of the Martyr, as it had been hidden by the Pagans." Thus far the said Lessons, before which is set the Antiphon to be said, "This Saint," with the Versicle, "With glory and honor," and afterwards this Prayer. veneration, "May the glorious intervention of thy blessed Martyr Zoilus, we beseech thee, O Lord, commend us, that we who by our own deeds do not merit, may obtain grace by his prayers. Through the Lord." The Gospel: "If any man will come after me": but the rest are prescribed from the Common of one Martyr.
[9] Lucius Marinæus Siculus, who flourished in the time of the Emperor Charles V, in book 5 on the Affairs of Spain, has the same things which we have brought forth from the said Lessons; Having kissed the Relics too frequently, he loses his teeth. and adds these: "When the body was found, all were filled with great joy. The aforesaid Bishop at length, by reason of the greatness of his love, while he was caressing the body of B. Zoilus with kisses, and judged himself unworthy to touch the Relics of so great a man with his hands, suddenly, by kissing too frequently, lost the help of his front teeth. When he saw them, diminished from the office of the mouth, he threw them into the sarcophagus where the body of the holy man had been buried. The duty of the finding being accomplished, the following night through a vision S. Zoilus thus addressed him: 'Why hast thou struck me by kissing too often? Now for those things which thou hadst asked of me, interceding, thou hast obtained from the Lord Jesus Christ, and now be assured that thy sins are forgiven thee.'" Thus far that author.
[10] Joannes Tamayus de Salazar, on the 18th of May, published a Catalogue of the Bishops of Cordova, The time of the finding under Agapius the Bishop. in which these things are read: "Agapius, the first of this name, the seventh Bishop of Cordova, made from a soldier, was present at the III Council of Toledo and the first of Seville in the year of the Lord 590, who found the body of S. Zoilus by divine revelation, with fastings interposed. To him succeeded Eleutherius, who was present at the Council of Toledo assembled in the year 597." and under King Reccared. Hence in the eulogy of S. Zoilus related above from Usuard, the name of the King is better absent, under whom the finding of the body was made by Agapius the Bishop, and the name of Sisebut seems wrongly thrust into the Acts, inasmuch as he only began to reign in the year 612. For him Ambrosius Morales, Martinus de Roa in his work on the Saints of Cordova, and others substitute King Reccared, who reigned from the year 586 to the year 600, under whom there was that highest peace of the Church indicated above.
[11] Fuller Acts are extant in Tamayus, from a Manuscript Legendary of Segovia and a Legendary of Seville, in which is narrated the conversation of the Judge and S. Zoilus, The church of S. Zoilus built, which can be read there; since it does not seem that the Martyr, appearing to Agapitus or Agapius the Bishop, indicated those things. There at the end concerning the translation of the body these things are had: "Therefore the sacred body of the blessed Martyr, laid out on a bier, was carried into the basilica of S. Felix the Martyr, and there for the time rested; until the most holy Agapius afterwards built another more beautiful and more spacious one, and honorably placed the sacred remains together with those of S. Felix, and dedicated it to the name of the Saint: which afterwards, under the standing empire of the Arabs, became the burial-place of very many Martyrs of Christ." Thus far that source, and the cited Morales, Roa, and others agree. S. Eulogius the Martyr, in it were buried the bodies of SS. Christophorus and Leovigildus, in book 2 of the Memorial of the Saints chapter 11, recounting the martyrdom of SS. Christophorus and Leovigildus, who suffered on the 20th of August, says: "Their bodies, scorched by fires set beneath them, before they were entirely burned, were snatched away by the care of the faithful, and buried at the basilica of S. Zoilus." The same author, in chapter 6 of the same book 2, narrates the life and martyrdom of S. Paulus the Deacon, crowned on the 20th of July, and asserts that he was nourished with spiritual disciplines at the basilica which is illustrated by the bodily presence of the blessed Martyr Zoilus… those of SS. Paulus the Deacon and Theodemirus, whose corpse, unburied and abandoned before the doors of the palace, after some days, was secretly taken away by the curiosity of certain of the faithful and laid, together with the body of B. Theodemirus, a monk of Carmona, at the sanctuary of the aforesaid Martyr Zoilus. We have illustrated on the 11th of March the Life of S. Eulogius himself, written by Alvarus as an
eyewitness: in which Life, at number 2, it is said that, devoted to the ministry of the church, he served in the church of the holy and most blessed Zoilus, and led his life in the same college of Clerics: and at number 16 it is said, "seeking the nocturnal vigils, and praying prostrate to the ground in the basilica of S. Zoilus, he passed sleepless nights"… "Whose most blessed head," it is added at number 22, "the curiosity of the Christians redeemed: and that of S. Eulogius. but the Relics of the body it collected on the third day, and buried beneath the shadow of the most blessed Martyr Zoilus": this happened in the year 859. At that time, therefore, this basilica of S. Zoilus still stood under the Saracens, as did certain others, and in them the bodies of the Saints. For although Rasis the Moor, in Morales book 10 where he treats of S. Vincent of Valencia page 335, turns it to the praise of Abderrahman II, who persecuted the Christians toward the end of the eighth century, that wherever he came he was accustomed to scatter all the churches and the Relics of the Saints, this is nevertheless to be understood of those which he himself occupied; not of those which he found in Cordova when it had been subjugated by others.
[12] Aurelius Prudentius also seems to mention the same Martyr, Prudentius mentions S. Zoilus, among the poems Peri Stephanon (Concerning the Crowns), in the fourth hymn, in honor of the eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa, published by us on the 16th of April; where toward the beginning he recounts the protection conferred upon cities through the Relics and cult of the Saints, and the fifth strophe is of this kind:
"African Carthage shall bring forth thy bones, With eloquent mouth, O Doctor Cyprian. Cordova shall give Acisclus, and Zoillus, And three crowns."
Where by "three crowns" is understood S. Victoria, who saw the same number descend from heaven; and therefore to those two he thus joined a third. SS. Acisclus and Victoria, Martyrs and Patrons of Cordova, are honored on the 17th of November, when at the same time it can be treated of the finding of the bodies of SS. Acisclus, Zoilus, and others, made on the 21st of November in the year 1571. The 12 Syrian Martyrs have veneration on the 24th of May, of whom the foremost is Zoelus, and another under him Zoilus: which name is also written Zoellus and Zoillus; so that this Zoellus in Prudentius cannot be reckoned other than the Zoilus commemorated by others on this day.
[13] In the most ancient Mozarabic Breviary this Hymn concerning him is recited: which, for the reader's sake, we attempt to restore by conjecture to its original brightness, the faults which had crept in being several removed.
"Bearing the crown * of Zoilus the Martyr, The City shall go hastening to meet Christ, Hymn from the Mozarabic Breviary. Carrying also the precious gifts Of the victor.
* Him the citizens honor, as if its own members Its own sod encloses, and embracing him in a paternal Tomb preserves, the bones of the Blessed Martyr.
Ours, and in our wrestling-place a Boy, By the art of the virtues and by the olive of faith * Anointed, he learned to subdue the dreadful Enemy by his strength.
To no one of the Martyrs, while life remained, Was it granted to dwell in our lands: Thou alone, surviving thine own death, Livest in the * city.
Alone going forth, and * without vices, Thou didst prepare thyself for the Lord of virtues: Alone exceedingly rich in piety, thou enjoyest Much light."
Allusion is here made to the kind of Martyrdom, which he survived for some time, when (as the Acts in Tamayus have) a certain one of the satellites, about to try against the Martyr some torment of unthought-of pain, drew out his kidneys and loins at the extreme part of his cut back, a cruel torturer: which were cast into a certain well, which, by the testimony of Morales in his description of Cordova, is reverently shown. Nor is it incredible that Zoilus survived this butchery for some time; since on the 16th of April we have seen S. Encratis praised by Prudentius as a Martyr living continually, after part of her liver had been torn away, and indeed for at least some months.
"Thou wouldst believe the Country of the Martyr owed to the sacred crowns, whence the Choir rising tends to heaven, robed in snow-white Nobility. Thence, O Zoilus, thy palm is known; The Clergy hence brought forth so great a triumph, Hence the infulated House of the Priests celebrates its vow. Let glory celebrate the supreme Parent, Glory to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit Let the pious voice proclaim the threefold name throughout all eternity."
[14] We have a little book of Martinus de Roa, sent by him to Andreas Schottus, another hymn in Martinus de Roa. concerning the Antiquity and authority of the holy Martyrs of Cordova, in which he often mentions S. Zoilus, and toward the end has the following Hymn:
"Hail, glory of Spain, Zoilus, noble Martyr, Admirable exemplar of pure Nobility. The cruelty, which once had been intrepid and headlong, Greatly terrified by the soldier, by his grand countenance and spirit, Turning aside to grapple with the bristling man, snatches him from behind, And trembling, hiding the sword in his back, cuts him asunder. The open bowels gape, fervid with the love of Christ, And in the torn-out kidneys they give signs of continence."
ANNOTATIONS.
* from. "The deeds of the Martyr and the crown of Zoylus,"
* this
* bound
* world
* and life without guilt,
§. III. On the translation of the Body, and on various Relics of S. Zoilus.
[15] Although Henschen promises above that on the 17th of November there shall be treated of the Translation of SS. Acisclus and Zoilus (he could have added that of many others as well) made in the year 1575; The monastery of Carrión founded by the Countess Tarasia, seeing nevertheless that in that confusion of indiscriminate Bones, now found, there is nothing which touches Zoilus more than Acisclus and the others named above; he did not omit to note for me that there pertains more nearly here a far more ancient translation of the body to the monastery distinguished by the name of S. Zoilus himself, whose history I should find in book 10 of Ambrosius Morales, tome 1, page 366 verso. There he, the Continuator of the General Chronicle of the Spains, which had been carried by Florianus Docampo down to the sixth book, in chapter 15 treating of the descendants of King Veremundus, from Rodericus of Toledo and Lucas Tudensis, when from these he had said that the great-granddaughter of that King, the Countess Tarasia, wife of Count Gomez, when she was Lady of Carrión, in the open tract of the Kingdom of León, there built a church of S. Zoilus. "Nothing more," he says, "do these Writers say: but the Monks of that famous monastery, which is of the Benedictine Order, have a charter, by which they teach how Ferdinand Count of Carrión, son of Tarasia, translated thither the body of the holy Martyr, together with the body of S. Felix, another Martyr, likewise having suffered at Cordova, her son Ferdinand before the year 1083 but at the time of the Moors (concerning whom we have treated on the 14th of June). But Count Ferdinand died, as is clear from his burial there, on the 14th of March in the year of the Lord 1083; whence it appears that the translation of that sacred body was made not many years before. From the monuments of the place it is had, that when that Knight had tarried some years with the King of the Cordovan Moors, fighting for him against his enemies; for his faithful service he asked no other reward than the holy body; and thus brought it to Carrión to the monastery, which thereafter took its name from S. Zoilus, he transfers thither the body of the Saint, whereas from the beginning it was called of S. John the Baptist, as is clear from the writings of the Founders themselves. Their descendants, in the donations made by them to the monastery, call it of SS. Zoilus and Felix, as does also the Compostelan History, written four hundred years ago (now we should count five hundred and more). But the aforesaid two bodies are in two silver chests, exceedingly old, within the recesses of a tablet placed above the high altar, with the greatest veneration: renowned there for many miracles where the Monks keep many and great miracles wrought through those two Saints."
[16] When I had read this, I did not wish to fail an occasion which was offered by the friendship happily contracted by me with the R. Father Joseph Perezius, Monk of S. Facundus, and ordinary Professor of sacred Letters in the Academy of Salamanca, entered into through his Ecclesiastical Dissertations (whence I gladly profess that I learned many things hitherto unknown concerning the antiquities of the Benedictine Monasteries in Spain), and I requested the courteous service offered, to obtain the aforesaid miracles, the fruit of whose diligence while I now await in vain, he being dead, receive the rest from Morales. There is extant at Cordova, near the Parish church of S. Michael, as also the well of the Saint at Cordova. an ancient house, toward which from time immemorial there is great veneration among the people, with a well and a memorial of the Saint. The causes of this devotion various people assign variously. For some affirm that it was the house of S. Zoilus himself: others that he was here afflicted with martyrdom; and that his kidneys, cut out from his body, were cast into the well which is there. Whatever it be; that water is religiously taken against pains of the kidneys and liver, from which many having been freed render thanks to God. But a few years ago this kind of devotion took new vigor, by the erection of an honored confraternity in the church of S. Michael itself, under the title of S. Zoilus, of whom a sumptuous chapel was built there.
[17] That city in the year 1600 sought Relics from Carrión, Father Martinus de Roa, after he had transcribed all the aforesaid into his Flos-Sanctorum of the Cordovans of the year 1615, adds the following: "In the year 1600 just past, the city of Cordova treated with the General of the whole Benedictine Order in the Spains, Fr. Joannes de Arcos; and with the Abbot of S. Zoilus of Carrión, Fr. Placidus de Osca; that they might gratify us, by communicating some part of that body which is among them. For although we doubted nothing of the truth of those Relics which are preserved at S. Peter's; yet they seemed not able, undistinguished from others of other Saints, to be honored with so special a cult as they merit. On this occasion the General visited the aforesaid monastery: and opened the chest, and (as the letter written from above to Cordova contains) with the greatest pleasure of mind saw the sacred bones of that Saint, with the under-garment stained with blood, the robe and girdle, and the testimony of all in parchment, whose original tenor, together with the entire Letter of the General himself, I would set down here, if I had been able to obtain it; as also the patent letters of the Abbot and Monks duly signed, by which they profess that they were with difficulty induced to allow some particle to be taken from the holy body, possessed nearly six hundred years."
[18] Fr. Alfonsus Barrantes, a Religious of the same Order, and now, says Martinus, of the General himself, to whose diligence we owe the Relic obtained from Carrión; yet it is not the wholly entire body, among other things written in the same year, on the 29th of September, says that he is now at last secure concerning the possession of so great a treasure, namely of the whole Body, of the garment, and of the tomb stained with blood. Nevertheless that not a few things are lacking to the integrity of that Body, no one will doubt who has any knowledge of the ancient monuments. For it is established that S. Eulogius the Martyr, being asked by Willisindus, Bishop of the See of Pamplona, that when he had returned to Cordova he should send him the Relics of S. Zoilus the Martyr, and should illustrate the people of Pamplona by this gift; since in the year 851 something was sent to Pamplona, immediately answered that he would satisfy the petition, and promised himself in truth a debtor of that matter; then, on the 17th of the Kalends of December in the Era 889, that is, in the year of Christ 851, by Galindus Enico, an illustrious man returning to his own home, he sent the Relics of the aforesaid Martyr; but he also transmitted those of S. Acisclus, which he had not requested,
[and that previously, in the year 630, something had been deposited at Medina Sidonia,] that he might happily fulfill the vow of his promise, by building a basilica to their blessed memory. Nay, in the Hermitage called of S. James de Via, near Medina Sidonia, I myself saw a stone thus carved: "Here are stored the Relics of… Stephen, Julianus, Felix, Justus, Pastor, Fructuosus, Augunius, Eulogius, Acisclus, Romanus, Martinus, Quiriscus, and Zoilus, Martyrs. This basilica was dedicated on the 17th of the Kalends of January, in the 2nd year of the Pontificate of Pimenius. Era 668."
[19] Thus far Roa: who then narrates how he himself was deputed by the City of Cordova to Carrión, to receive the desired Relics, together with an authentic copy of the writing in parchment, found within the chest. "But it pleased the divine Majesty," Why the particle promised to the Cordovans has not yet been brought. he says, "in the very year 1602 in which I was about to go, to afflict this our city, as also several others in Bætica, with pestilence. There followed then the death of our holy Bishop D. Franciscus Reinosus, most zealous for the good of his Church; who fostered the aforesaid desire of the city, and so the execution of so praiseworthy a counsel remained suspended." Thus he: nor have I learned hitherto that anything was done afterward. But he himself adds that the water drawn from the aforesaid well is held a most useful remedy not only for soothing pains of the kidneys, but also for driving away tertian fevers. "And I myself," he says, "am one of those who, joining to the drinking of the water a vow of visiting the chapel or sepulchre of that Saint, have experienced the same favor. For having invoked, in a like necessity, the patronage of the holy Martyr, then when the physicians least hoped for it, I was freed from the tertian and from the pain. And when a few days after I saw another held by the same infirmity, I urged him to have recourse devoutly to the Saint, and to drink the water taken from the well with a vow of having a Mass said in his chapel: which being done, he likewise testified that he was freed, and together we went to the sepulchre, to fulfill our vows."