ON SS. EOVALDUS AND SIXTUS
MARTYRS NEAR GERONA IN SPAIN.
UNDER DACIANUS.
CommentaryEovaldus, Martyr near Gerona in Spain (S.)
Sixtus, Martyr near Gerona in Spain (S.)
BHL Number: 2556
[1] The Acts of SS. Eovaldus and Sixtus, Martyrs, at Gerona, an Episcopal city of Spain in Catalonia, translated from an ancient MS. Codex into Spanish, were published by Antonius Vincentius Domeneccus, in his General History of the Saints of Catalonia at this VII of May: Ancient Acts. of which a transcript he testifies that he received from an Original MS. codex of great antiquity, John Tamayo-Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology, whence receive the same in these words.
[2] Here begins, in the name of the Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Legend of the Finding of the bodies of SS. Eovaldus and Sixtus, Spanish Martyrs, who suffered under Dacianus the Governor, as it was written from ancient times: transcribed from a Gothic codex. which to the honor of God and the glory of the Saints we have transferred into this codex, from an ancient Gothic one, lest the memory should perish, and that in future ages, what we have received concerning the veneration of them and their miracles may be acknowledged.
[3] At the time when Dacianus cruelly persecuted the faithful in Spain, Bodies buried in hidden places. and with dire torments destroyed their lives, many bodies of holy Martyrs were buried by the Christians in hidden places, so that scarcely anything could be known of their remains, unless God, to His own glory and the exaltation of the faith, had little by little marvelously brought them to light. Which also came to pass in the Finding of the Bodies of SS. Eovaldus and Sixtus, Spanish Martyrs, which He deigned to disclose in this manner. There was therefore in the town of Celran a certain honorable husbandman, just and fearing God, who among other notable marks of virtues daily devoutly heard Mass. It happened indeed that on a certain night in his sleep an Angel appeared to him, they are indicated by an Angel to the husbandman. and said to him by name: Servant of God, go to the vineyard which you have in Valle-torta, next to the church of the blessed Virgin and Martyr Thecla: and there you will find two bodies of Saints, who suffered martyrdom for the faith of Jesus Christ, which on account of the tyranny of Dacianus the faithful there hid.
[4] At these words the servant of God being stupefied, and roused from sleep, at the first dawn rising from his bed, that he might examine the nocturnal vision, hastening to the church he came, as was his custom; and asked that the Mass of the blessed Virgin Mary be celebrated, that God by the prayers of His most holy Mother might enlighten him concerning the truth of the preceding dream. who, roused by a divine light, When night came on, the husbandman went to the vineyard, where intent upon prayer, when he had persevered in it for some space of time, in one of the corners of the vineyard, upon a heap of brambles and thorn-bushes, he saw so great a brightness of glittering light, that the heavenly light filled the neighboring fields and peoples. Rejoiced by this vision, he gave thanks to God, in that he merited to behold such a light. The next day at morning, that he might more fully explore the revelation, again he came to the church: and the Mass of the Holy Spirit being heard, likewise by night he went back to the vineyard, where beholding the light a second time, thanks being given to God he betook himself home. At length the third time, at the hour before dawn, he enters the church, and the sacrifice of the Most Holy Trinity being performed by the Presbyter, going back to the vineyard by night, he found the same lights with his own eyes: and praises being again rendered to God, he hastened home: and a mattock with the other iron tools necessary for the work being taken up, he came to the vineyard: and the brambles and thorn-bushes being burned, which choked the stony mound, He digs up 2 Caskets: he began to dig, prayer going before: and not long after he came upon a wooden casket, closed with such craft and workmanship, that no seam could be discerned. Which being drawn out, and with tears and veneration placed on the level ground of the vineyard, again he was eager to open the pit, which, kindled with zeal of devotion, he did, until he uncovered another like casket.
[5] This treasure being found, to the Cleric sacristan of the town of Celran he disclosed all things, just as they had happened. The Bishop, taking care that these be carried to Gerona, Who going to the Bishop of Gerona, the same things as he had received from the husbandman, he manifested to him for the honor of the Saints. The Bishop prudently weighing the things related, proceeded to an inquiry of all: which being made, he hastened to the place of the Finding of the caskets with the Chapter of his church, the Clergy and the people: and the caskets being reverently received, he determined to bring them back to Gerona with songs of hymns and rejoicings. But when they had carried the Bodies of the Saints to a little stream, which divides the parishes of the towns of Celran and Campdora, they became so immovable, that they could in no wise be seen to proceed any farther. This miracle being seen, the Bishop, because he recognized the will of God, finds them immovable, deposited the Relics in the church of Celran. Which being done, he commanded, and learning their names, that all both ecclesiastics and seculars should beseech of God, that He would manifest to them the names of His Saints. Prayer therefore being completed, each casket of itself was opened, so that the people might see the bodies of the holy Martyrs: in one of which S. Eovaldus the Martyr, in the other S. Sixtus the Martyr was read. Which being read, forthwith of themselves, as before, he places them in 2 altars in Celran. the caskets were closed. The Bishop commanded two altars to be erected, and in each one he placed the Body of each Martyr with marvelous devotion.
[6] He shines with miracles, The Finding of these holy Bodies straightway was divulged through the neighboring peoples: and from that time so great a concourse of inhabitants is wont to be made yearly to that place, in which the caskets with the Relics of the holy Martyrs were deposited, that the compass of the church of Celran scarcely holds so great a throng of pilgrims. Innumerable are hearing is restored to various ones by S. Eovaldus. the miracles which daily God deigns to work through the intercession of His holy Martyrs, especially by the merits of S. Eovaldus: whose intercession avails greatly for the ailments of deafness and pains of the ears, as the tablets, hanging next to the sarcophagus, furnish truthful testimonies: of which the principal ones were the following. A certain husbandman and his wife on the feast day of S. Eovaldus hastened to the threshing-floor to thresh wheat, and although they had consumed the whole day in threshing, they could not draw out any grains at all, but rather, made deaf, they heard nothing. But a vow being made to the holy Martyr, and gifts being sent to his
sepulcher, they straightway recovered their hearing. The next year that husbandman with his oxen began to plow on the same feast: and at once one of the oxen leapt to the ground as if lifeless. Which being seen, the husbandman made a vow concerning the observance of the festivity of S. Eovaldus, and received the ox sound. Fresca, a woman of sixty years, from the city of Gerona, had lost her hearing: and at the urging of another devout matron, she promised to S. Eovaldus that she would celebrate his festivity, and would go with gifts to his sepulcher. Which when she had done, when she passed the night beside the Martyr's altar, in the middle of the night, roused by the sound of the keys of the church, she received her hearing. A certain householder, from the town of Villatenin, had a deaf two-year-old daughter, whom he offered to S. Eovaldus, and a vow being made he promised to pass the night in his church and to offer gifts. Which he fulfilled, and that night the little girl heard the cock's crow, and made it known to her father: from which being freed she departed. The husbandmen of the town of S. Columba de Fernes, and dangerous hail is driven away. when they beheld a tempest of hail, threatening ruin of the harvests, vowed to S. Eovaldus, that if freed from the danger, they should preserve the grains of the harvests by his intercession; they would offer a yearly gift toward the building of his church. Which being said, the tempest vanished, and the husbandmen rendered their gifts to God and to the most holy Martyr.
[7] S. Eovaldus is also venerated July 17. Thus far those Latin Acts, which exist in Spanish in Domeneccus, here and there embellished with a longer phrasing. He indicates that S. Eovaldus in the common Catalan tongue is called Sant-Hou; and that he is separately celebrated on July XVII, and that his name and that of S. Sixtus in the Prayers, both in the sacrifice of the Mass and in the rest of the ecclesiastical Office, are pronounced. Ferrarius mentions these Saints at this day in his General Catalogue: But of S. Sixtus, Tamayus at July XVII repeats also the whole history of the Finding, not sufficiently mindful of himself, inasmuch as he had said at this day from Domeneccus that the feast of S. Eovaldus is also celebrated on July XVII.
[8] In the same most cruel persecution of Diocletian and Maximian suffered S. Narcissus, Bishop of Gerona, on March XVIII, where more at length was treated of the city of Gerona. Only this seems here to be noted, that the name of S. Eovaldus is of such a kind, that it makes him to be believed a foreigner, of Saxon or Teutonic stock, of those who, enrolled in the Roman soldiery, or by another like occasion came by chance into Spain.