ON ST. LUMBROSA, VIRGIN, AT CEA IN SPAIN,
IN THE 9TH CENTURY?
CommentaryLumbrosa, virgin in Spain. (S.)
The virgin Lumbrosa is announced at this day only by Tamayo de Salazar and from him Chastelain. Of her sepulchre and of her martyrdom, St. Lumbrosa, a martyr celebrated by popular tradition. celebrated, as it seems, by popular tradition alone, certain things are reported by Prudencio de Sandoval in the history of the foundation of the Benedictine monastery of Sahagún, which are read put into Latin in Tamayo Martyr. Hispan., vol. VI, p. 18. , namely: In the chapel of St. Mancius, which is seen at the foot of the temple (of the monastery of Sahagún), of wonderful size, there is beheld a marble sepulchre raised on two columns, in which lies the body of the holy virgin and martyr Lumbrosa, of those nuns who were accustomed to live beside the monasteries of men. She completed her contest at the hands of the Saracens, at the time when Almanzor, king of Córdoba, levelled that monastery to the ground. A representation of this martyrdom is shown to the eye by a most ancient painting preserved above the sepulchre, in which angels are seen raising to the heavens the most pure soul of the blessed virgin and martyr, received in their hands. The devotion of the surrounding townspeople to her is frequent, so that, a hole having been made in the tomb, they have drawn out a great part of her body.
[2] On her sepulchre and relics. Yepes [Coronica general de S. Benito, Cent. III, at the year 756 (vol. III, fol. 173, col. 4).] has similar things about the sepulchre and the painting above it, only omitting the mention of martyrdom, and he adds that an epitaph was inscribed on the sepulchre, but with letters so corroded by age that now none of its words could be read. Of the relics, however, plundered by the importunate devotion of visitors, as is read in Sandoval, in Yepes' time, that is, at the beginning of the 17th century, only the head remained, but so lively and beautiful that it could be believed to have been buried a few years ago.
[3] She is said to have died in the year 830. Finally Tamayo brings forward those apocryphal Adversaria of Pseudo-Liutprand, from which he inserted so many false or suspect things in his martyrology, among which namely is read n. 4: In the era 868, from the nativity of the Lord 830, there lived the most holy virgin Lumbrosa, from the town of Cea, who frequented the parish of the holy martyrs Facundus and Primitivus with the Mozarabic Christians in great sanctity of life. She lay in that parish, until through King Alfonso, the monastery being repaired, she was translated there. She died not much before the repair. Her relics are frequented with the greatest veneration of the people. She is venerated on the first day of November: she lies in a tomb on two columns Martyr. Hispan., loc. cit. . More about St. Lumbrosa could not be found.