ON SAINT EMETERIUS THE FARMER, OR SAINT MATINUS, OR SAINT MADI, MARTYR IN THE DISTRICT OF BARCELONA,
ABOUT THE YEAR 480.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Emeterius, or Matinus, Farmer and Martyr in Catalonia (Saint)
[1] Besides the Martyrs of Calagurris, Emeterius and Celedonius, of whom we have treated above, and those whose relics are reverently preserved at Cardona in Catalonia, whether they be different from the former or the same; and besides other Saints of the same name, intermingled in various troops of Martyrs, with no sufficient indication from ancient records distinguishing them from the Martyrs of Calagurris, except that the early collectors of Martyrologies inserted them into other classes of the champions of Christ; besides these, I say, however separated by distinction or bound by connection—of homeland, contest, time, or at least of religion—another Emeterius is mentioned, Saint Emeterius the Martyr with Saint Severus, Bishop of Barcelona, who together with Saint Severus, Bishop of Barcelona, obtained the crown of martyrdom.
[2] Severus is venerated on November 6, and it is reported
by some, such as Tomás de Trujillo in his Treasury of Preachers and Alfonso de Villegas in his Flos Sanctorum, to have suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Dacianus. Juan Tamayo Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology establishes two Severuses as Bishops of Barcelona, Were there two Severuses? both granted the palm of martyrdom on November 6—one in the year 285, the other in the year 352. And he asserts that hitherto the former was unknown to the Catalans but known to the Castilians: namely, after the spurious Chronicle of Dexter emerged into the light, which those who fabricated it, having read that Saint Severus was killed by Dacianus, whom they remembered from other Acts of the Saints to have been a minister and henchman of the Emperor Diocletian in his savage ferocity against the Christians in Spain, assigned the slaying of Saint Severus to November 6, 285, the year in which the second year of Diocletian's reign began. But because they heard it commonly said that Severus, the Bishop of Barcelona, was slain by the Arians, they ascribed this in that Chronicle to the second year of Constantius reigning in the West, the year of Christ 352; for if they had relegated it to the times of King Euric the Visigoth, they saw that it would not be consistent with the age of Dexter.
[3] All the rest recognized a single Bishop Severus of Barcelona, even those who (although erroneously) believed he was slain by Dacianus. More probably only one, The ancient catalogues present only one. Indeed, the one composed by Jerónimo Paulo about two hundred years ago adorns him with this eulogy: "Saint Severus, who was killed by the Goths with a nail driven into his head; who participated in composing the Gothic Laws: and he was one of the seventy Bishops who composed the Gothic Laws." What this author states about the Gothic Laws is confirmed by Francisco Diago, a particularly diligent writer, in book 1 of the History of the Counts of Barcelona, chapter 14. For the opinion commonly held among the Spaniards is that one of the seventy Bishops who composed the Laws was Saint Severus; this was written in the most ancient script on the parchment placed upon the Saint's tomb; and this is read in the old Breviary of the Church of Barcelona. Around the end of the fifth century, under King Euric, And certainly the Laws were given to the Goths under Euric. Thus Saint Isidore in his Chronicle before the Spanish Era 522, or the year 484 of Christ: "Under this King," namely Euric, he says, "the Goths began to have the institutions of their laws in writing; for previously they were held only by customs and usage." Lucas of Tuy and others say the same.
[4] Those who further write that Severus was present at the enacting of these Laws by whom he was killed also acknowledge that he was killed by his order. How ardently Euric was inflamed with zeal for the Arian sect is shown by the blessed Ennodius, Bishop of Ticinum, in the Life of his predecessor Saint Epiphanius, which we gave under January 21, in which at chapter 7, number 32, he writes: "He had already discovered that this man constantly had his banquets polluted by his priests." a most cruel heretic indeed, And Saint Sidonius Apollinaris in letter 6 of book 7: "So much," he says, "does the mention of the Catholic name embitter his mouth and his breast that you would wonder whether he holds the principate more of his nation or of his sect." Saint Gregory of Tours in book 2 of his History of the Franks, chapter 25, has this about him: "He killed indiscriminately those who did not consent to his perversity; he subjected clerics to prisons; and some bishops he sent into exile, others he slaughtered with the sword." We compiled more about his persecution of the orthodox on March 1, in the Life of Saint Simplicius, Archbishop of Bourges, section 1.
[5] "By what reasoning, then," you will ask, "did he use the counsel of Bishops in enacting those Laws?" Because he knew them to be outstanding in prudence and learning, and that his laws would have so much greater authority although he had previously esteemed Severus highly on account of his learning: if it were established that their authors were most grave Bishops. And even Kings and Princes who are alien from the true Faith are accustomed sometimes to enlist orthodox men whose name for wisdom is celebrated, as Theodoric the Amal, King of the Ostrogoths in Italy, did with Cassiodorus, and as this very Euric did with Leo, praised by Ennodius and Sidonius. Nor does it follow that because the most holy Bishop Severus was in that position of trust with him, he was not killed by him. For the love of this barbarous and impious Visigoth for Severus does not seem to have been more constant than that of the Ostrogoth Theodoric for Boethius and Symmachus, whom he first adorned with the highest honors and then treacherously killed.
[6] He withdraws from Barcelona: But we shall treat more fully of Saint Severus under November 6, on which day, around the year 480, he was slain for the defense of the Catholic faith, and with him Emeterius the farmer. For when he learned (either by the spirit of prophecy, as Diago thinks, or by public report, which is more probable) that the henchmen of Euric were approaching Barcelona to kill him (obeying the command of Christ, by which He ordered the Apostles, if persecution arose against them in any city, to flee to another), in order to preserve himself for his people, for whom he felt he was still quite necessary, he departed from the city, intending to make for a place some miles distant called Castrum Octavianum. but takes care to have himself pointed out to the lictors, On that journey he came upon Emeterius, who had a small hut by the road, and whose cultivation of the adjacent small field sustained his meager existence. When Severus saw him sowing beans, he greeted him [through Emeterius, by whom the beans were sown—which immediately grew and flowered:] and indicated where he was heading, and advised him that if any lictors should pass by shortly afterward and inquire about Bishop Severus, he should freely say that they would find him at Castrum Octavianum, for he had passed that way while the beans they could see were being sown. And those beans immediately grew so quickly that they put forth flowers. Not much time had passed when the lictors arrived and inquired about the Bishop. He answered, as he had been instructed, that he had passed that way while sowing the beans they could see, and he pointed out the place where they would find him. They, thinking the man was mocking them—since they had moreover discovered that he was a Catholic—dragged him bound to the place where the Bishop was and laid hands on him too; Both are captured, tortured, and killed: and then they savagely beat both of them with leaded whips. When the torturers perceived that the constancy of the Saints was by no means being shaken by these tortures, they cut off the neck of Emeterius and drove an enormous nail into the head of the Bishop, wresting his life from him by a slow but atrocious punishment.
[7] The Catholic inhabitants collected the bodies of both and buried them in a nearby small chapel—either in a small chapel of the castle or town afterward transferred to Barcelona, of Octavianum, as Diago writes; and when that chapel was destroyed, the same writer attests that the remains of both Severus and Emeterius were translated to the church of the monastery of Saint Cucuphas, which stands in the same castle, around the year 1226; at least Saint Severus: and finally to Barcelona on August 3, 1405. Domènec mentions only the body of Saint Severus as having been brought to the monastery of Saint Cucuphas. He says that where Saint Emeterius now is, is unknown; but that it seems credible that he was brought to Saint Cucuphas, or certainly that he still lies where he was first buried in a small chapel near the place of martyrdom.
[8] Not far from the monastery of Saint Cucuphas is a parish church [he is venerated here solemnly in the village of San Madi, under the name of Matinus,] which venerates this Saint Emeterius as its patron on March 3 with notable celebration. The village is called San Madin, from his name; and in the prayer recited both at Mass and in the Divine Office, he is called Blessed Martinus; in the authentic records of the same Church, drawn up more than three hundred years ago, he is Emeterius; in others he is Saint Madir, commonly Saint Madi—which last two names he himself judges to be corrupt. I do not know whether it may not be permitted to suspect the contrary: which may perhaps be the genuine name: since in the sacred rites he has been called Matinus from antiquity, this was his genuine name; but since men of moderate learning did not find it in the Martyrologies under March 3, they supposed him to be Emeterius, who is widely narrated in the sacred calendars as having been crowned with martyrdom in Spain on that day. I once knew a Royal Senator, a serious and pious man, who, when his name was Maillard, consulted a religious man somewhat versed in the Acts of the Saints as to what day his patron Saint was venerated. He replied that he was venerated on January 19. He inspected the tables of the Roman Martyrology and did not doubt that the Saint Marius the Martyr read there had been changed into Maillard by a common error, and he thenceforth took for himself the name Marius, and wished a son born to him afterward to be called Marius instead of Malard. Indeed, on that day Saint Malard, or Malehard, Bishop of Chartres in Gaul, is venerated, although he is not inscribed in the Roman Martyrology.
[9] This also is reported about Saint Matinus, or Emeterius the farmer, by Domènec: His acts depicted on an ancient altar of the place: on a very ancient altar of his church, a painted panel is seen depicting him sowing beans and Saint Severus the Bishop imparting his blessing; on another part of the same altar, flowering beans are seen, and Saint Emeterius he does not seem to have been converted by Saint Severus on the journey or Matinus himself, surrounded by lictors. But what Tomás de Trujillo reports—that Emeterius was converted to the faith of Christ by Saint Severus on the very journey—is by no means approved by us. What we have already related about him argues otherwise.
[10] Beans preserved elsewhere as relics: In the monastery of Saint Cucuphas, among the relics of the Saints, two thick, black beans are preserved, which are considered to be from those that the Saint sowed—or perhaps beans sown in his own little field at many later times and reverently preserved in his memory. Diago reports that at the little field where those famous beans grew, a spring, where they were sown, a spring and a small chapel stand, a memorial of the ancient miracle.
[11] As for what some say—that together with the same Saints Emeterius and Bishop Severus, four clerics underwent martyrdom—Domènec judges that this was drawn from a certain apocryphal history of Saint Severus Were four clerics killed with him and Saint Severus? and is not proved by any trustworthy records. We willingly place our trust in this careful and saintly writer.