ON ST. LEOCRITIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, AT CÓRDOBA IN SPAIN.
YEAR 859.
CommentarySt. Leocritia, Virgin and Martyr, at Córdoba in Spain.
[1] The life and martyrdom of St. Leocritia are contained in the Acts of St. Eulogius the Martyr, composed by Alvarus, an eyewitness, which we illustrated on March 11: where the reader will find everything that can be known about St. Leocritia, in chapters 4 and 5, in this same volume 2 of the month of March, page 93 and following. This holy Virgin, as is said there in number 23, was beheaded on the fourth day after the martyrdom of St. Eulogius, therefore on this March 15, on which day the following is read in the Roman Martyrology: Sacred veneration "At Córdoba, of St. Leocritia, Virgin and Martyr." Galesin adds: "She, born of impious parents, embraced the faith of Christ through the effort of Litiosa, a kinswoman by blood: the faith which she had received from her tender years, and then increased by spiritual exercises, she first secretly, then openly and publicly professed; from which worship she could be turned aside neither by the constant exhortations of her parents nor by their most terrible threats. Strengthened therefore by divine grace for the confession of the faith day by day more vehemently, she completed the course of her martyrdom with an unconquered spirit." The same is inscribed by Laherius in the great Menologion of Virgins, by Arthur du Monstier in the Sacred Gynaeceum, and by Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrologion, whose encomium we add: "At Córdoba," he says, "in Hispanic Baetica, of St. Leocritia, Virgin and Martyr, disciple of St. Eulogius the Priest; who, since she was born of Saracen stock and had received the rule of faith through Litiosa, her kinswoman, and secretly worshiped Christ, at length her piety was revealed, and she was cast into prison by her parents, torn by various torments, and stretching her neck to the blade, she ascended as victor to heaven." So Tamayo, who is greatly surprised that a feast in the Church of Córdoba is not held for this holy Virgin. Martín de Roa in his work on the Saints of Córdoba, and Marietta in his work on the Saints of Spain, Book 4, chapter 40, assign the martyrdom to the following day, March 16, but that error was perhaps committed in the press. On the translation of her relics to the Church of Oviedo and then to the Cámara Santa of the same church, we treated in §2, page 90, of the Life of St. Eulogius, whose body was translated together with hers.