Nunilo and Alodia

ON SS. NUNILO AND ALODIA, VIRGINS AND MARTYRS, AT HUESCA IN SPAIN,

IN THE YEAR 851.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Nunilo, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

Alodia, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

BY B. B.

§ I. The Passion from St. Eulogius of Córdoba and from the ancient Sanctorals. In what year SS. Nunilo and Alodia were crowned with martyrdom, and in what year their relics were translated to the monastery of Leyre.

The Life was written by a contemporary author, the most holy martyr of Christ Eulogius, presbyter of Córdoba, The Acts, with which title alone he is presented in our Acts at the 11th day of March, as also in the Roman martyrology; nay Fabricius notes Bibliotheca latina, vol. II, page 123. Padua, 1754. Note c.: "That ... others make him (Eulogius) archbishop of Toledo is by no means established by suitable arguments." Yet that he was elected prelate of that church the testimony of Alvarus of Córdoba seems decisive, who in the Prologue to his life Acta SS. vol. II of March. Life of St. Eulogius, page 91. professes that he relates not things heard and doubtful, but things seen and proved by himself. Further, he writes thus [Life of St. Eulogius, chap. 3, num. 10. Where cited above, col. 713. — Acta SS. page 93.]: "After the death of Wistremirus, bishop of the see of Toledo, he was elected to the same see by all the comprovincial and neighbouring bishops and held worthy, approved by the report of all. But the divine disposition, which was reserving him for itself for martyrdom, opposed certain bars. And when already the common election itself was acclaiming him to be consecrated for itself in the episcopate, hindered by the adversity of opposing things, they forbade themselves to elect another while he lived. Who, although he was cleverly frustrated of the order, yet is not deprived of the office of the same order," etc. Compare Flórez España sagrada, tract. V, chap. 5, n. 83, vol. V, page 365.. And St. Eulogius in the Memorial of the Saints Book II, chap. 7. Patrology, where cited above, col. 774 and following. has the Acts of SS. Nunilo and Alodia. For the rest, it is hidden from none among the learned that St. Eulogius wrote of the martyrs of Córdoba who suffered in his time, who himself also sealed the faith with his blood in the persecution which the Saracens moved against the Christians in Hispanic Bætica in the year of Christ 859 [Fabricius, Biblioth. lat. vol. II, page 123. — Acta SS. vol. II of March, page 88.]. Compare Ambrosio de Morales in the Scholia on the life of St. Eulogius Patrology, vol. CXV, col. 727.. It is to be noted besides that the Acts of SS. Nunilo and Alodia were written by Eulogius not as an eyewitness, but from what he had learned on the report "of a most holy man and of venerable paternity, Venerius, bishop of Alcalá." They are brief indeed, but not unworthy of the holy writer, of whom Baronius says Martyrol. Roman. 26 Nov. Note e.: "And all things are of such a kind that St. Elogius seems to have dipped his pen in the box of the Holy Spirit." Rightly, however, in my opinion, Morales notes that St. Eulogius did not fully attain the history of these Virgins. "Certainly in the breviaries they record more things, and those most pious, about the slaying and burial of the Saints ... and they are contained more broadly especially in the manuscript Sanctorals, as they call them" Patrology, where cited above, col. 887.. Therefore to the Acts, as they are had from the Memorial of the Saints of blessed Eulogius, we shall subjoin a fuller description of the Passion from the Scholia of the aforesaid Ambrosio de Morales, where he testifies Ibid. col. 888. that he transcribed these things "from a very ancient Sanctoral codex written six hundred years ago" (Morales died in the year 1590) "in Gothic letters on parchment"; and he adds: "It (the codex) belonged to the renowned monastery of St. Peter of Cardeña of the Benedictines; it is now kept in the royal one (the Escorial) of St. Laurence of the Hieronymites." Surius has the same things, noting in the margin that they are taken from the Sanctorals; but he himself, according to the series of events, interposed them in the text of St. Eulogius. In those acts some obscure things are found. There are two chiefly which make no light difficulty: the one concerns the year, the other the place of the martyrdom.

[2] from which the Martyrdom is referred St. Eulogius writes that the holy Virgins fell under the stroke of the sword "on the eleventh of the Kalends of November, in the era as above, namely the eight hundred and eighty-ninth," that is, the 22nd of October in the year 851; since the Hispanic era is held to be thirty-eight years greater than the common era [Art de vérifier les dates, page xvj. Paris, 1770. Compare ibid. the Chronological Table, page 18; likewise Baronius in the Rom. Martyrol. Note e, 22 Oct.]. Ambrosio de Morales will have it that this was written wrongly by St. Eulogius: "For in the year," he says Patrology, vol. CXV, col. 886., "eight hundred and forty-two, on the eighteenth day of the month of July (rather April), their (the holy Virgins') bodies were translated into the monastery of St. Saviour of Leyre. This is established from the diploma of King Íñigo Arista, which Esteban Garibay set down in his chronicle of Navarrese affairs, diligent enough." And he adds Ibid. that he is led by no light conjectures to believe that they fell in the year eight hundred and forty. Several have followed Morales, among others Baillet Vies des Saints, 22 Oct., Francisco Diego de Aynsa in his work on the city of Huesca [Fundacion, excelencias, grandezas y cosas memorabiles de la antiquissima cindad de Huesca, p. 287. Huesca, 1619.], likewise Mariana See Pellizer, second Advertencia., Yepes Coronica general de S. Benito, vol. IV, fol. verso 82. Valladolid, 1613., and especially José de Moret, S.J., whose Annals are in esteem among learned Navarrese. He then, in the first place, relying on Garibay's instrument, holds as certain that the translation to the monastery of Leyre was made on the 18th of April 842 Annales del reyno de Navarra, vol. I, page 280. Pamplona, 1766., accordingly altogether nine years before the martyrdom according to St. Eulogius's chronology. Then, since in the very ancient Sanctoral of Cardeña, likewise in the old Breviary of Leyre, the passion is said to have taken place on Thursday the XII of the Kalends of Nov., or the 21st of October, Moret Ibid., following in the footsteps of Morales, asserts that this pertains to the year of Christ 840, because the aforesaid things suit this excellently, but in no way the Eulogian year 851, in which, from the chronological tables, the 21st of the month of October fell on a Wednesday; nor otherwise, as regards our matter, does Thursday coincide with the twenty-first of October except in the years 846 and 835; but in the former the translation had already been made four years before; and to the latter this is opposed, that St. Eulogius, about the year 840 (Morales puts Patrology, vol. CXV, col. 886. the year 839), travelled through Navarre, staying no small space of time in the monasteries of Leyre and Cillas: nor would anyone easily believe that, if six years before so illustrious a passion, distinguished also by miracles, had taken place in the neighbourhood, it could have been so hidden from the holy man, most zealous for such things, that

only in the eleventh year after his journey was informed of the martyrdom by Venerius. If, therefore, St. Eulogius assigns the death of SS. Nunilo and Alodia to the 22nd day of October, this seems to be attributable to the report of that same Venerius, although otherwise the testimony neither of the one nor of the other prevails over the authority of the documents which were cited above. And so Joseph Moret Annales. Ubi supra.. The question of the day of the passion will return below, where the festal day of the holy Virgins will be spoken of. Here let it suffice to recall that according to St. Eulogius also the passion took place on a Thursday, namely the 22nd of October of the year 851.

[3] to the year 851; But as regards the year, the foundations of Morales and Moret were overturned, in my opinion at least, by D. Joseph Pellizer, whose learning Nicolás Antonio commends magnificently Bibliotheca nova scriptorum Hispaniæ, vol. I, page 811. Madrid 1783., asserting that, to avoid the suspicion of flattery, he had moderated his praises of a friend and a living man. About the year 1670 Ibid. page 814. he published the Acts of the translation of SS. Nunilo and Alodia to the monastery of Leyre, a copy of which, newly printed, as he himself writes, the Marquis of Agropoli sent to Papebroch on the 22nd of January 1670. To the Acts Pellizer subjoined many notes, and those learned and erudite. Now those Acts (which see at the end of this Commentary) begin in this manner: In the eight hundred and eighteenth year after the Saviour's … Ascension into heaven … the faith began to grow so fervent that not only men but also women … when the persecution of the faithful had been kindled, were (sic) prepared to fight fearlessly … and to overcome the devil in his members… Among whom … the most holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia. Now Pellizer notes Adicion. Advertencia primera. that the eight hundred and eighteenth year after the Ascension is the eight hundred and fifty-first year from the Incarnation, namely by adding the thirty-three years which are commonly given to Christ living on earth. This same year (so Pellizer continues) is held by the Acts of the martyrdom, in which is read: "In the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and fifty-one." The same is affirmed by St. Eulogius the martyr, who lived and wrote in the same age, assigning in his Memorial of the Saints the beginning of the persecution to the year 850 in these words: "Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning for ever, in the eight hundred and fiftieth year of his Incarnation, the eighty-eighth of the era, and the twenty-ninth of the consulate of Abderrahman" Compare the Patrologia. Ubi supra, col. 765., so that by the threefold indication of epochs the year of the martyrdom is clearly determined. Moreover St. Eulogius is so immediate a witness that, while he was writing, the sacred bodies had not yet been raised: for he adds: "Whose bodies, in the place where they had fallen, are watched with the utmost zeal of the soldiers, lest the Christians should secretly steal them away and hide them for the benefit of their patronage." Compare ibidem, page 776.. And from these premises Pellizer at last infers: There is therefore every kind of certainty that the year of the martyrdom coincides with the year 851. This year is also given by Surius, Lucius Marineus Siculus, Francisco Tarrafa and other most weighty men; likewise Baronius. Yet some scruple sticks with me, from the fact that the eight hundred and eighteenth year after the Ascension is affirmed without any hesitation, as also without proof, to fall in the eight hundred and fifty-first year of the common era, so that the difference between the two eras is of thirty-three years. But I see that in the Alexandrine Chronicle Art de vérifier les dates, page XXXV. an era is used which is called that of the Ascension; this, however, is thirty-eight years less than the common one. The Benedictines note, however Ibidem., that they have not found the era of the Ascension elsewhere; nor do Petavius, nor Flórez in the España sagrada, nor Du Cange in the Glossary, nor the writers of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, nor Patrizi De Evangeliis, book III, page 181 and following. Freiburg im Breisgau 1853., nor others whom it has been possible to see (except Wailly Éléments de Paléographie, vol. I, page 42. Paris 1838., who agrees entirely with the Benedictines), treat of it. So that accordingly I would not dare to reject Pellizer's interpretation, nay rather I would approve it, chiefly for this reason, that I consider that in the Acts of the Translation the year after the Ascension is the same as the year after the Passion or Death of Christ.

[4] but to the year 840, from the diploma of King Iñigo; But what of the diploma of King Iñigo Arista? The above-praised Pellizer answers Advertencia segunda.: Against testimonies so weighty there cannot prevail any single instrument, exhibited in full by Garibay and likewise reprinted by Tamayo Martyrologium Hispanic. 18 April., which Moret also exhibits Annales, vol. I, page 257 and following., but turned into Spanish. It begins thus: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. This is the testament of donation which I, King Eneco Xemenones, together with the bishop lord Guillesindus, make in honour of the Holy Saviour and of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia. For I Enneco, by the will of God king, son of Xemeno, seeing that whatever things we possess in the world are perishable, etc. Then are unfolded the reasons, drawn from Christian piety, on account of which the donation was made, and it is added: Therefore I King Enneco grant to the Holy Saviour and to the holy martyrs Nunilo and Alodia two villas, namely Esa and Banasa, with all the bounds belonging to them… And I Guillesindus, bishop, at the admonition and prayer of my lord the aforesaid king … bestow from my means … on the Holy Saviour and the holy Martyrs the half of the third part of the tithes of all the fruits which I collect in the Valley of Osella and of Pintano and of Arteda, etc. The conclusion is of this kind: The charter was made in the Era eight hundred, on the 14th of the kalends of May, and placed upon the altar of the Holy Saviour; and committed to Abbot Fortunius and his monks, in the presence of the people, celebrating in the same place the festival of the reception of the bodies of the saints; from which words it is quite manifestly had that the Translation was made on the 18th day of April in the year of Christ 842. It must be observed in passing with Tamayo that Garibay, who in place of the 14th of the kalends of May put the 14th of the kalends of July, is to be corrected from Sandoval, who took it from the autograph himself, as Tamayo says Martyrologium Hispan. 18 April. page 696.. Morales follows Garibay's reading Patrologia, vol. CXV, col. 886., and therefore again wrongly assigns the Translation to the 18th day of June. Certainly, if the aforesaid instrument be genuine, the year used in the Acts of the translation will not be able to stand. But it is far from established concerning the genuineness of the instrument. And first indeed the authority of Garibay is not of so much weight. Certainly Jerónimo de Blancas (to whose Latin Commentaries Nicolás Antonio gives this praise Bibliotheca nova, vol. I, page 569 and 570. Madrid 1783.: yielding in no part to any of those who pursue the deeds of men in this language, if we consider the majesty and elegance of the diction, and also the highest fidelity in unrolling the documents of ancient affairs, and maturity in judging them with skilful and refined examination) expressly declared: Garibay throws many things into confusion [Aragonensium rerum commentarii. Hispania illustrata, vol. III, page 592. Frankfurt 1606.].

[5] but since the credibility of the diploma So also D. Juan Briz Martínez, who wrote accurately of the origins of the kingdom of Aragon Bibliotheca nova, vol. I, page 664., holds the Garibayan diploma very suspect Historia de S. Juan de la Peña, page 177. Caesaraugusta (Saragossa) 1620.; both because its style, elegant and good Latin, departs from the barbarism of that age, and because a donation of part of the tithes in the valley of Osella and of Pintano is made to the monastery of the Holy Saviour of Leyre, while it is established, says Martínez, that this royal house of St. John de la Peña always enjoyed the tithes of Pintano, and that entirely, and this from the liberality of the kings, nor is it anywhere found that they at any time ever belonged even in part to the monastery of Leyre. I add from Pellizer Advertencia segunda.: Moreover it is argued to be a forgery from reasons drawn from the authority of St. Eulogius, of the two Acts (namely of the Martyrdom and of the Translation) and of the writers who faithfully affirm the very same, and that from time immemorial. Nor can the authority of Ambrosio de Morales prevail here, who saw what was true both in St. Eulogius and in the Acts, and yet would not make it manifest, but rather adhered to Garibay's privilege (or charter). The opinion of Morales was made their own by Antonio de Yepes and Juan de Mariana, yet without employing any more diligent examination. Nor is it of any more weight that the aforesaid Charter, with the year 842 ascribed to it, is found in the archive of Leyre, and that its Transumpt, confirmed by public authority, is held in the Chamber of Comptos at Pamplona, and that it has been inserted by Vidimus in an instrument of Queen Catherine of the year 1484: for what, says Pellizer, is not or does not exist, is proved, or can be proved, by no argument. Such insertions and confirmations, moreover, do not prove much. Their primary source must be examined. Certainly many instruments are had, evidently spurious, which are propped up by such confirmations, for which not seldom a manuscript of unknown age and endowed with some antiquity suffices.

[6] wavers, Nor must it be passed over that the abbots of Leyre formerly produced, in the very Roman curia, several charters not only apocryphal but also manifestly false and fabricated. That is to say, in the twelfth century the abbots contended that they were exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishops of Pamplona. The matter having been carried to Rome, they lost their case, as is clear from the bull of Clement III of the year 1188, and likewise another of Celestine III of the year 1191. Both are recited in full by Prudencio de Sandoval Catalogo de los Obispos de Pamplona. Pamplona 1614. Fol. 156 – 162.. In the former it is asserted Ibid. fol. 158 verso. that Abbot Simeon, having seized upon certain occasions, had caused false privileges to be forged for himself after the model of the privileges of St. John de la Peña. And again Ibid. fol. 160 verso.: He (the abbot, namely one of Simeon's successors) asserted that the monastery enjoyed the liberty of exemption, to prove which he showed a privilege of Alexander II, affirming that they had a confirmation of the said privileges from our predecessor Alexander III already mentioned… He produced moreover in the name of the same supreme pontiff certain letters directed by him to the illustrious king of Aragon, that he should protect the same monastery as a special possession of blessed Peter against the church of Pamplona; of which letters, from a diligent inspection of the bull, we immediately recognised the falsity. And below Ibid. fol. 161 recto.: At length, the aforesaid privileges of Alexander II and Urban II having been diligently inspected, through the bull, the silk and the manner of sealing, certain incredible additions made in the dictation also; and (through) comparison of those same apostolic privileges which were found in the Lateran archive and in other places, and very many other ways, their falsity was established. Wherefore the pontiff pronounces that the monastery of Leyre is subject by full right to the bishop of Pamplona. These things certainly declare clearly enough that complete credence is not at once to be given to instruments lying hidden in such an archive. Finally Pellizer thinks Advertencia segunda. that the opinion of Morales is overthrown from its foundations by the words of the Annals

of St. Bertin, whose author flourished about these times [Ibid. Compare Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. I, page 442; likewise D. Bouquet, vol. VII, page 64.]: In the year 847 envoys of Abderrahman, king of the Saracens, came from Córdoba in Spain to Charles (the Bald) for the sake of seeking peace and confirming a treaty, whom he both received and dismissed with due honour at Durocortorum of the Remi. Bodo, who some years before (namely in the year 838 D. Bouquet, loc. cit.), having forsaken the Christian truth, had gone over to the perfidy of the Jews, advanced so far in wickedness that he strove to stir up the minds both of the king and of the nation of the Saracens against all the Christians dwelling in Spain, so that either, abandoning the religion of the Christian faith, they should turn to the madness of the Jews or the folly of the Saracens, or else all should be put to death. Upon which the petition of all the Christians of that kingdom was tearfully sent to King Charles and to the bishops of his kingdom and the other orders of our faith, that the said apostate should be demanded back, lest he should any longer be either a hindrance or a death to the Christians living there. Pellizer therefore notes on this place: There cannot be had a clearer exhibition both of the time and of the reasons by which this persecution was set in motion, which began after the year 847, as St. Eulogius is the authority; for neither is there any indication of another storm raised against the Christians, nor does mention occur of any martyr, except after the year 850 just named.

[7] the year to be preferred All of which things indeed prove sufficiently, in my opinion, that Morales slipped, as Mabillon had already suspected: for he writes at the year 848 Annales Benedictini, vol. II, page 636.: As regards Leyre (the monastery), Morales is the authority that the bodies of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia had been translated thither six years before (hence in the year 842), namely in the year after that in which they had suffered death for Christ. To this point relates the testament reported by Garibay, which King Eneco Xemenones made together with Bishop Guillesindus or Wilesindus in honour of the Holy Saviour and of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia in the era eight hundred and eighty, on the 14th of the kalends of July. And yet Eulogius defers their martyrdom by ten years. Let it suffice us to have set forth both opinions, although the authority of Eulogius, a contemporary author, outweighs.

[8] is that of Eulogius; It is therefore far more probable to me that the passion took place in the year which St. Eulogius has, namely the eight hundred and fifty-first of Christ. This year is also adopted by D. Gregorio Pérez in his history of the church of Pamplona, published not so many years ago: They were slain, he says Historia de la Iglesia y Obispos de Pamplona, vol. I, page 41. Madrid 1820., on Thursday the 21st (rather the 22nd, as will be seen below) of October in the year 851. Nor am I moved in any way from this opinion by the Life of SS. Nunilo and Alodia which came into my hands in these days and was written at the end of the eighteenth century by the Reverend Father Fr. Raymond of Huesca (Ramón de Huesca), a Capuchin Historia de la Santas Virgines y martires Nunilo y Alodia. Pamplona 1796., a man certainly diligent, as will shine forth below where we shall treat of the place of the martyrdom. As regards the year, Fr. Raymond adheres to Ambrosio de Morales, and considers the Garibayan diploma authentic. In confirmation of his opinion he then adds Ibid. page XII and following.: It is established that Zumahil governed Huesca in the name of Abderrahman when the holy Virgins suffered; but this does not square with the year 851, in which Muza took by storm several cities, among others Saragossa and Huesca. But in no way is the year of this storming established. The Benedictines place it in the year 853 Art de vérifier les dates, page 806.; with whom Mariana agrees, writing that it took place in the year after the reign begun by Ordoño Historia Hispania, book I, page 290. The Hague 1733.: but Ordoño his son succeeded Ramiro at the beginning of the year 831 Ibid. page 286.. And Pierre de Marca about the year 850: There falls, he says Marca Hispanica, col. 324. Paris 1688., in these times what the ancient author Sebastian, bishop of Salamanca, relates of Muza the governor, whom he says, openly revolting from Abderrahman the king of Córdoba, occupied Huesca with incredible speed, etc. We have therefore nothing certain as regards the year of this event. Fr. Raymond adds that Morales is vainly attacked by Flórez on the ground that St. Eulogius visited the monastery of Leyre about the year 848, and yet does not speak of the relics of the holy Virgins, nay learned of their martyrdom from the report of Venerius: for, says Raymond, critics of the highest authority, such as Pellicer, the Marquis of Mondéjar, Mayans, deny that the letter of St. Eulogius is genuine in which he treats of his stay in the aforesaid monastery; and even if it were genuine, yet Flórez assigns that journey to the year 848 merely from conjectures, while Morales and Moret, using similar conjectures, place it in the year 840. Whence he concludes that an argument so uncertain cannot prevail over the testimony of the praised diploma Ibid.. And I reply: But this very diploma, against which so many critics and arguments contend, must it then prevail over the clear and manifest testimony of St. Eulogius? The arguments of Fr. Raymond, therefore, are not such as to shake our opinion.

[9] and the Translation was made This being posited, however, it is evident that Morales must also be abandoned where he assigns the Translation of the holy bodies to the year of the diploma of King Arista, namely the eight hundred and forty-second. The relics were brought into the monastery of Leyre on the 18th of April in the year 880 according to the better-founded opinion. So Gregorio Pérez Historia de la Iglesia y Obispos de Pamplona, vol. I, page 41., adding a little lower down Ibid. page 42.: The diploma of Iñigo is read as given on the 18th of April, era 880, but it ought to be placed in the year [ ], according to my chronotaxis, and also so that the diploma may agree with the age in which Iñigo or Eneco Arista is more certainly established to have reigned. However that may be, it follows from the words of St. Eulogius that, while he was writing, it had not yet been made: Yet they say, he says Patrologia, vol. CXV, col. 776., that those virginal corpses, in the place where they were rather hidden than buried by the heathen in deep pits, shine with signs and miracles, and display, by the working of their powers, the glory of their well-earned consolation both to the faithful and to the Gentiles. The Acts of the Translation printed and annotated by Pellizer (which we too subjoin below) expressly relate that the Translation took place in the year 880: But he who promised the Saints: Not a hair of your head shall perish, in the ninth year running after the twentieth from their passion, when the Christian name had now been spread far and wide through Spain, deigned to inspire a certain queen named Oneca to seek out solicitously the bodies of the holy Virgins, etc. From these things we clearly have that the finding and translation of the holy bodies is referred, as I said, to the year of Christ 880, it being posited, as above, that the holy Virgins were crowned with martyrdom in the year 851: for thus is found an interval of twenty-nine years, and so all things cohere excellently with one another.

[10] in the year 880 On the contrary, the chronology of Morales can in no way be reconciled with the Acts of the Translation. For in these it is read that the Christian name had already been spread far and wide through Spain when the Lord deigned to inspire Oneca to seek out the bodies. Now this by no means holds if the passion took place, as Morales will have it, in the year 839, and the Translation in the year 842, as is had from Garibay's instrument. Our Mariana warns in general De Rebus Hispaniæ, book VII, chapter 15. Vol. I, page 286.: Abderrahman, the second of that name, king of Córdoba, and Mahomad his son, men of crafty disposition, thought that they would do a thing equally pleasing to the gods above and to men by cutting off root and branch the remnants of the Christians; and they judged it to pertain above all to the means of establishing their rule if, the dissension of religion being removed, all their subjects should be bound together by one bond of society. Elsewhere he has De Rebus Hispaniæ, book VII, chapter 15. Vol. I, page 282.: Alhaca, king of Córdoba, died in the year … of salvation eight hundred and twenty-one… Abderrahman … succeeded in the kingdom; he reigned thirty-one years Compare Art de vérifier les dates, page 805.. Mahomad, his son and successor, died in the year 886 Ibid. page 806.. But already from the year 866 Alfonso (the third of this name) had mounted the throne of Oviedo, whose illustrious endowments of mind and body, says Mariana Ubi supra, page 292., and illustrious triumphs over the enemy, won him the surname of the Great. So that it may easily be understood that from these things there was some room for the faithful to spread the Christian name far and wide before the Translation, if this was made in the year 880; but not if in the year 842, as Morales will have it. At the beginning of his reign, indeed, Alfonso was tossed by the waves of adverse fortune Mariana, page 292., some rebelling against him, whom he quelled in the first year of his rule. When this had run its course into the next,… the king drove back to their own country the Moors who were besieging the city of León, punished with a huge slaughter of their forces; at the same time, from a desire of extending the bounds of the Christian dominion and of avenging himself on the fierce and barbarous nation, a treaty was struck with the Basques and the Franks Ibid. page 293.. Thereafter he several times routed and conquered the Saracens within their own borders Biograp. universelle. Under the word: Alphonse III.. See, at the end of this Commentary, the Acts of the Translation, where in the Annotations we add certain other things in confirmation of this thesis.

§ II. The various opinions of the learned are weighed concerning the place of the Martyrdom, which is proved to have taken place at Huesca in Aragon.

The place of the martyrdom differs among different writers: As regards the place of the martyrdom, and indeed of the birth, no less discord is found among the learned. St. Eulogius writes Patrol. vol. CXV, col. 775.: We have learned that in the city of Huesca, near the town of Barbitanum, there were two sisters, virgins …, born indeed of a Gentile father but of a Christian mother. And from the whole sequence of the narrative it follows that they suffered there or not far from there. But Morales, in the text of Eulogius, in place of the words in urbe Osca substituted in urbe Bosca, against the authority, as he himself admits, of the old exemplar, where it was Osca and not Bosca Ibid. col. 887.. Why he did this the praised Morales explains thus Ibid. col. 886 and following.: Wonderful is the variety of the Breviaries, as they call them, in naming these towns. This is established, that these two Virgins suffered not far from the city of Nájera, in the town which is now called "Castro viejo," which in Latin is called Castrum vetus. There the tomb of the holy Martyrs is shown, there are other traces of ancient remembrance, and there they are honoured with the highest veneration of the whole region as its foster-daughters and natives. This I can affirm as wholly ascertained and undoubted. Those names "Berbetanum" or

"Urbevetanum" and "Castro Bigeti," which are read in our breviaries, seem to be corrupted from Castrum vetus. What city Bosca was, I cannot explain. In the old exemplar it was Osca, not Bosca. I have restored the more usual name. For I do not believe that the holy Virgins were brought to Huesca, a city very remote in Aragon. The reasons for the altered text which Morales brings forward are very light, not to say wholly vain. Hence in the Notes to Migne's Patrologia it is rightly read Ibidem, col. 887. Note a.: That it was so in the old exemplar entirely induced us to put "Osca," not "Bosca," in the text, which Morales emended not very rightly: for besides the ancient exemplar of Eulogius, which reports that those Virgins suffered at Huesca, by the admission of the same Morales, all the Martyrologists who commemorate them, with Usuard leading the way and Baronius closing the column, confirm the same. But where this Osca was situated, authors vary, and the case is still before the judge. Some contend for the very well-known Osca of Aragon (Huesca); others do not hesitate to affirm that the Osca which Pliny mentions was near the city of Tucci (today Martos) in the kingdom of Giennum (in Spanish Jaén), while they leave it to others to examine whether this was the Osca of Eulogius. There are therefore three opinions concerning the place of the martyrdom, and hence also of the birth. Morales asserts that it took place at Nájera, in Rovigia (which today is part of Old Castile); there are those who say at Osca in the kingdom of Jaén or in Baetica, today Andalusia; most stand for Osca, a notable city of Aragon.

[12] Morales will have it that it took place Let us begin from Morales. The learned Risco notes España sagrada, vol. XXXIII, page 415 and following. that nowhere is it more clearly proved how many and how great changes the names of cities and regions, of towns, etc., underwent among the Spaniards, than from the Acts of SS. Nunilo and Alodia. In the most ancient Sanctorale of the monastery of Cardeña, which, by order of King Philip II, Ambrosio de Morales brought out from the Escorial, is read: Now it happened that in the Berbetan territory, near a most ancient place which is called Castro Bigeti, in the villa of Abosca, there were two Sisters, etc., which names indeed are now so deformed that from them alone it can in no way be determined where those holy Sisters were either born or suffered. This, says Risco Ibid. page 416., I affirm, that I have used the utmost diligence in searching out what the words Berbetano, Castro Bigeti and Abosca properly meant; which I have been able to find nowhere, neither in histories nor in ancient manuscript codices; so that of themselves those words give no help toward determining the sites or the locations of regions. He adds: From the text of St. Eulogius (which he cites according to the recension of Morales, and therefore reads Bosca for Osca) we have indeed a city called Bosca, and near the same a town which is called Barbitanum; but notice of either word occurs nowhere else. Hence it has come about that the Spanish writers who have treated of SS. Nunilo and Alodia have been compelled to investigate their native soil from other sources. And they thought that traces were found so manifestly impressed in Rovigia (to the Spaniards Rioja or Rioxa), a region of Old Castile, where were the Rucones peoples Baudrand. Novum Lexicon geographicum., that they persuaded themselves the words used by St. Eulogius and in the Sanctorale of Cardeña were to be referred nowhere else. So Morales, as we saw above, in the scholia on the Memorial of the Saints of blessed Eulogius; likewise in the Chronicle Book III, chapter 44.. Whence he does not doubt that the passion took place at Castrum vetus near Nájera, in the vernacular Nagera.

[13] at Nájera. Holding to the same traces, the very same had been handed down before Morales by Garibay, whom our Moret thinks Annales de Navarra, vol. I, page 261. was the very first of all to have stood for this opinion; by Lorenzo de Padilla, who interprets the words Barbetano or Berbetano as Bureva or Bureba (a small region of Spain in Old Castile Baudrand. Ubi supra.), which he extends as far as the town anciently named Bosca, near Castrum vetus. So also Vasaeus: In the town of Bosca, he says In Risco. Hisp. sagrad. vol. XXXIII, page 418., near Nájera, the sisters Nunilio and Alodia were struck with the sword in the month of October for asserting the faith of Christ. These are followed by Marieta, Mariana, Sandoval, Baillet and others Ibid.. The aforesaid Risco subjoins besides Ibid.: Father Anguiano, a native of that place, enumerating the traces of that martyrdom which are seen to this day in the vicinity of the city of Nájera, will have them born in the village of Bezares (to the south of Nájera See Atlas de l'Europe en 100 cartes, by Philippe Vandermaelen. Map 62.), which under the Arabs was called Bosca: for there in the parish church there is an altar dedicated to the same holy Virgins; women are commonly called Nunilo and Alodia; and the same holds in the town of Castrum vetus. And in that same place so constant a tradition of the martyrdom flourishes that even the very children will point out to you the place in which they were slain and dragged, as also the pit into which they were thrown and lay hidden. The place in which they were beheaded was anciently called Furcae (las Furcas), as is also read in the breviaries; today it is called Horcajos. There also still exists the well from which the bodies were drawn out, and near it is seen a spring named from SS. Nunilo and Alodia; next to the spring is a hermit's cell named from the same; and hence it has come about that both in Bezares and in Castrum vetus their festival is celebrated with a solemn procession on the 27th day of October, and that from time immemorial. (Compare what is to be said, n. 22 – 25, where a similar church in the vicinity of the city of Huesca will be treated of.) Moreover there is to be seen in the same place a rivulet which, running down from the Furcae (today Horcajos) as far as the aforesaid well, is called among the natives the Winding of SS. Nunilo and Alodia. Another monument of ancient cult, besides, is a monastery, namely, erected in their name a little after the passion; the memory of which occurs in the charter of foundation or testament of King García in favour of the notable monastery of St. Mary of Nájera in the year 1052. Yepes says he does not know in what exact place the monastery rose; he observes, however, that it stood not far from Nájera, as follows from the aforesaid charter of García, in which that king, enumerating the inheritances with which he enriches his monastery of Nájera, has among other things this: The inheritance of the holy Nunilio and Alodia. Argaiz writes that it was situated between the village of Castrum vetus and Bezares, two leagues from Nájera, in the place which is called Horcajos: but now it is destroyed and converted into a hermit's cell near the village of Bezares, whose inhabitants believe the holy Virgins to be their fellow countrywomen; and they come together with the vicar, who is a monk of St. Mary the Royal, for Mass on their feast-day. And these things Risco España sagrada, places cited., gathering together whatever he could find favouring the Rioja tradition, according to which SS. Nunilo and Alodia are held to have been both born and to have suffered in that tract, which Morales assumes as certain.

[14] but wrongly; Yet these things of themselves effect nothing else than that cult was rendered to the holy Virgins in that tract from of old, the cause and beginning of which are not necessarily to be drawn from a crown of martyrdom obtained in that place. For there are many other things which could have introduced such a cult, for instance certain notable relics, a benefit obtained from heaven by some distinguished man, and things like these. And as regards the monastery, it is indeed asserted, but not proved, that it was erected a little after the passion; nor do the words the inheritance of the holy Nunilio and Alodia manifestly denote a monastery; and that the village of Bezares was called Bosca under the Arabs is a mere assertion, resting on no testimony whatever. Nay, in general that father Mateo de Anguiano deserves no great credence, since in his Compendious history of Rioja, as witness Fr. Raymond of Huesca Historia de las santas Virgines y Mart. Nunilo y Alodia, page XXI., he alleges as expressly favouring him St. Eulogius, Usuard, the Roman Martyrology, and also Baronius; while the first three are far more conveniently, nay certainly, explained of Osca in Aragon; and Baronius, both in the Notes and in the Annals, passes over the place of the martyrdom in silence. Moreover, as the praised Risco observes España sagrad. Ibid. page 419., and I too shall show below, traces of the same kind, more numerous and clearer, are found in the Aragonese city of Osca (Huesca) and its vicinity; nay, they are such that it is altogether easy to suspect that those others were born or fabricated from these. For the rest, it is from this that some have supposed that two, nay even three, pairs of holy Virgins of the same name flourished in different places. But, says Risco again, a sincere love of truth and a mind estranged from all partisanship compel me to declare this expressly: namely, that only two holy Virgins called by such names are known, and that they were natives of Aragon and crowned with martyrdom at Huesca, as I shall evidently demonstrate in the Treatise on that church, which has not hitherto been published. And, but with a certain restriction, in Migne's Patrologia Vol. CXV, col. 887 and 888. Note a.: We reject the opinion of Morales, which banishes the holy Virgins to the Rucones; but we do not dare to settle the dispute between the Baeticans and the Aragonese. Antonio Yepes uses a similar expression Coronica general de S. Benito, vol. IV, fol. 83 recto.; but he himself hangs in doubt between the Aragonese and the people of Rioja; adding, however, that he does not wish to dispute about this question, as foreign to his purpose.

[15] others, with no better right, in Baetica The opinion which we put in the second place holds that the holy Virgins suffered at Osca, as St. Eulogius writes; but that a city situated in Baetica is meant. That is to say, Ptolemy, as witness Bruzen de la Martinière Dictionnaire géographique. Under the word: Osca., distinguishes two cities of Spain of the same name: the one, Osca of the Ilergetes, the other, Osca of the Turditani. Strabo mentions only the former: Toward the North from Ilerda (Lérida) Osca is distant 540 stadia Strabonis rerum Geograph. book XVII. Oxford 1807. Page 220.; Baudrand reviews both Novum Lexicon geog.: Osca, a city of the Ilergetes … now Huesca, a city of Aragon; another Osca in Baetica … now Huéscar or Guéscar, in the kingdom of Granada and on the border of Murcia, toward the mountains. As regards Osca of the Ilergetes, it is agreed among all that it is a city of Aragon, today called Huesca; it is otherwise with Osca of the Turditani. The annotator of St. Eulogius in Migne's collection Patrologia, vol. CXV, col. 887. note a. observes that the brothers Mohedano (namely Raphael and Peter Biographie universelle. Under the word Mohedano.) affirm indeed, as we said above, that the Osca which Pliny mentions was near the city of Tucci (today Martos) in the kingdom of Jaén;

but leave it to others to examine whether this was the Osca of Eulogius. Now Martos is a most ancient city of Andalusia, to the Romans Augusta Gemella Tuccitana, seventeen miles distant from the city of Giennum (Jaén) toward the west Guibert. Dictionnaire Géographique.; while Huéscar, on the opposite side, is at least three times as far from the same Jaén Compare the Atlas de l'Europe, by Philippe Vandermaelen, num. 83 and 84.; so that the brothers Mohedano differ very greatly from Baudrand, who, as I have already noted, moreover interprets Pliny of the Osca of the Ilergetes or the Aragonese: The Oscan peoples in Pliny Baudrand, vol. II, page 20. Eisenach 1677.. Baudrand is favoured by Karl Spruner, who a few years ago published a volume of geographical maps (seventy-three in number), by no means to be despised, and relating to the history of the middle age [Historisch-Geographischer Hand-Atlas, vom Anfang des Mittelalters bis auf die neueste Zeit von Dr Karl von Spruner. Gotha 1846.]. Map 35 shows the kingdom of the Goths in the Iberian peninsula and the state of the region from the year of Christ 477 to the year 711, where a little below the 38th degree of latitude and almost at the intersection of the 15th degree of longitude Osca is placed, in whose place Huéscar is had in maps numbers 37 and 38; of which the one delineates Spain up to the middle of the thirteenth century, the other up to the end of the fifteenth century. But Bruzen notes Dictionn. Géographique. Under the word: Osca.: Quite wrongly do the editors of Ptolemy refer both Oscas to one and the same city, today called Huesca: Osca of the Ilergetes is Huesca, situated in Aragon; Osca of the Turditani is to be sought somewhere in Andalusia. Which note indeed, adhering to the books of Ptolemy, is far more accurate than the others. Osca of the Turditani is placed in Map II of Europe [Claudii Ptolemæi Alexandri Geographiæ libri octo græco-latini. Revised by Petrus Montanus. Frankfurt 1605.] at the shore of the Western Sea, not far from the mouth of the river Baetis (today the Guadalquivir), while Huéscar comes fairly near to the head of the same river Spruner's Atlas, num. 37., so that the Osca of Ptolemy is distant from the present city called Huéscar by the whole breadth of Andalusia, as far as it extends from west to east. Wrongly therefore does the editor of Ptolemy note that the recent name of Osca is Huéscar Ptolemæi geograph. page 36..

[16] relate that they suffered. And all these things show sufficiently that what pertains to the site, nay even to the name, of the latter city is not ascertained. For the rest, this second opinion has few patrons, against which a decisive argument seems to me to be had from St. Eulogius. For he writes, as I have already rendered above, that he learned of the passion of SS. Nunilo and Alodia from the report of Venerius, bishop of Complutum (Alcalá de Henares). Now I do not easily understand how Eulogius, living at Córdoba, and therefore not far from Martos and indeed from Huéscar, should have learned what had been done as it were in his own vicinity from the report of Venerius, who had his see almost midway between Córdoba and Osca of Aragon, and therefore dwelt seventy Spanish leagues and more from the former city. The second opinion therefore does not seem admissible; there remains the third, according to which the Passion took place at Huesca in Aragon, and this, as I noted above, Manuel Risco considers certain, and not undeservedly, as will be established from the following numbers.

[17] That the Passion took place at Huesca in Aragon And in very truth there militates in its favour first the text of St. Eulogius, which the very words scarcely permit to be interpreted otherwise than of Osca, a city of Aragon; whence Morales too, to confirm his opinion, put Bosca for Osca, although he admits that Osca is had in the original Risco. España sagrad. vol. XXXIII, page 420.; and elsewhere, led by no better reason, he proposes that Oca should be read, a city which at that time either had already been overthrown or did not belong to the Moors Historia de las SS. Nunilo y Alodia, page XXI.; for the rest, Morales himself declares sufficiently that this latter reading is not much approved by him Ibid.. No less does Usuard favour it, who announces at this day: In the city of Osca, of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia, who, for the confession of Christ, wasted by long custody and punished with capital sentence, celebrated their martyrdom. And so in the pure text Sollerius. Martyrol. Usuardi, 22 Oct.. The testimony of Usuard is to be made of so much the greater account because he himself, with another monk of the same St. Germain-des-Prés named Odilard, travelled from Paris all the way to Córdoba in the year 858, and in going and returning stayed several days at Saragossa, where he could easily have learned what had happened at Huesca a few years before [Historia de las SS. Nunilo, etc. page XVI and following. — Likewise Flórez España sagrad. vol. X, page 387 and following.], which he afterward inserted in his martyrology. For the rest, his Announcement agrees excellently with the account of St. Eulogius. And these are two testimonies wholly contemporary, to which new weight is added from several other manuscript documents. For, as Moret has it Annales de Navarra, vol. I, page 281., the most ancient Sanctorales of Cardeña and of Toledo, likewise a very ancient codex of St. Eulogius, as also the breviaries of Pamplona and of Leyre, unanimously write Osca. So too an ancient codex of Leyre expressly records that the relics of the holy Virgins were brought from Huesca to the monastery through the zeal of Queen Oneca. The very same is confirmed from a charter of Peter the First, king of Aragon, given in the era 1135, that is in the year of Christ 1097, in which it is thus had: This is the charter which I Peter, by the grace of God king of the city of Huesca and prince of the Aragonese or Pamplonese, make: I give and grant to the Lord God and our Redeemer, and to the holy virgins and at the same time martyrs Nunilo and Alodia, who were martyred for Christ in the above-mentioned city, whose bodies rest … in the monastery of Leyre, etc. Hist. de las SS. Nunilo, etc. page XVII and following..

[18] is proved From what was said at num. 13 it is clear that Ambrosio de Morales founds his opinion on the place of the martyrdom on these or similar words of the Sanctorale of Cardeña and of the breviaries: In the Berbetan territory, near a most ancient place which is called Castrum Bigeti, in the villa of Abosca; and that the learned Manuel Risco himself admits that he could not attain the meaning of the words Berbetanum, Castrum Bigeti and Abosca, since he found them nowhere in histories or ancient monuments. But indeed, rejoins Fr. Raymond of Huesca Ibid. page XXVIII., this holds among foreigners, but by no means among our own writers: for those words are both familiar to the Aragonese and well understood. Whence D. Vicente Blasco de Lanuza, in vol. I of the histories of Aragon, page 517, expressly teaches that Ahosca is the town of Adahuesca, Castrum Vigeti the town of Alquézar, half a league distant from there, and the Berbetan territory, or, as St. Eulogius has it, Barbitanum, the district of Barbastro, which city of Barbastro was anciently called Berbetum Ibid.. The same Fr. Raymond adds that he inquired with great diligence what the aforesaid words meant, and that it is manifestly established to him that Vicente Lanuza's interpretation is right and true Ibid. page XXIX..

[19] from the words: Abosca, And first indeed he observes that the town of Adahuesca is called in old codices Ahuesca, Ahosca and Abosca; that the last word is the more ancient, from which, because of the likeness of the strokes of h and b, the copyists easily made Ahosca. He then adds that he has seen in the archive of the church of Huesca the original bull of Pope Innocent III, given on the 27th of May 1203, in which the pontiff, determining the boundaries of the dioceses of Huesca and Lérida, assigns to the former a certain tract besides the churches of Azlor, Alberola, Abosca and Colungo Ibid. page XXX.; the village of Abosca, today Adahuesca, lies about midway between the three others, and is distant only one league from the most remote of them. The execution of the aforesaid bull had been committed to Peter, archbishop of Tarragona, who on the 19th of November of the same year 1203, since the churches hitherto subject to the bishop of Huesca refused to submit themselves to that of Lérida, issued threatening letters, the beginning of which is: Peter, archbishop of Tarragona, to his beloved sons, the whole clergy and people of the churches of Presinen, Peralta… Azlor, Abosca, Alberola and Colongo, greeting Hist. de las SS. Nunilo etc. page XXXI.. Again, in the cathedral archive there is found a charter of renunciation of the year 1192, in which is read: The villa which is called Abosca. In an ancient manuscript martyrology the word Adahuesca is put for Abosca: On the 12th of the Kalends of November (21st of October) the passion of the holy sisters Nunilo and Alodia, who were born of a faithful mother in the town of Adahuesca. When they had attained the age of understanding and would not yield to the instigation of a certain perverse parent, by order of King Zumel the Hagarene they were beheaded at Huesca Ibid.; in the same way in the breviary published by order of D. Pedro Agustín in the year 1547: In the town which is commonly called Adahuesca; and Fr. Raymond notes that that prelate, who was learned, put Adahuesca where previously Abosca was read in the breviaries, because those words were synonymous and the former was now more commonly used; and finally he concludes: I could also gather together many other testimonies which are at hand to me, if those alleged hitherto did not prove the matter to the point of evidence Ibid. page XXXII..

[20] Castro Bigeti, There follows Castrum Vigeti or Bigeti (for among the Spaniards V and b are customarily used interchangeably), and it is the town which the Moors, on account of its fortified Citadel, called Alcazar (for in their language Alcazar sounds in Latin Arx [Diccionario de la Academia Española. Edicion abreviada, Paris 1826. Compare Du Cange's Glossarium.]), but which is now written Alquézar. Yet the ancient name has not entirely perished. Thus in an instrument of Peter IV it is had: Let all know that we, Peter, king of Aragon … sell… to Pedro Jordán de Urríes… Castrum Vigetum and our villa of Alquézar and its hamlets, situated in our kingdom of Aragon. The charter is given at Saragossa on the 5th of September 1357 Hist. de las SS. Nunilo, etc. page XXXII.. Likewise in an instrument of King Alfonso V, on the 8th day of March 1429: Castrum Vigeti of Alquézar, situated in the kingdom of Aragon, in the land of Barbastro Ibid. page XXXIII.. Finally it is established from other manuscripts that the land of Barbastro was called the Berbetan or Barbutan territory, in which are situated the villas of Adahuesca and Alquézar. Thus in the Concord entered into in the year 1080 between García, bishop of Aragon, and Raymond, bishop of Roda, with King Sancho intervening, is read: The whole Barbutan region … having on the southern side the Castles which are called Nabal and Salinas and Alquézar Ibid. page XXXIV.. And again in a certain manuscript commentary of the same eleventh century: What is now called Sobrarbe was formerly called the Berbetan territory. But when the men of Sobrarbe had lost Barbastro, from a certain mountain which is called Arbi,

because the Christians stood upon it, the Moors called them Superarbienses, that is, those standing upon that mountain. But now it is fitting to call them Barbastrans Ibid. page XXXV.. See all these things more fully in the often-praised Fr. Raymond of Huesca, who affirms that he had in his hands the aforesaid documents or their lawful transumpts. This, then, being posited, the difficulty raised concerning the place both of the origin and of the passion of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia vanishes. See Spruner's maps Historisch Geographischer Hand-Atlas. Gotha 1846. num. 37, where the Iberian Peninsula is shown up to the middle of the thirteenth century, and Alcuezar and Barbastro are marked; likewise map num. 38, from the year 1257 to 1479, where: B. Castro and Barbastro.

[21] and the Barbetan territory; What has been said hitherto is confirmed from the Acts of the translation, of which more than once above; in them the city of Osca and the villa of Oscha are treated of, where, as Pellizer observes Advertencia sexta., Osca (Huesca), in which the holy Virgins suffered, is clearly distinguished from the villa of Ada-Huesca, in which they were born. Then he adds: At the slope of the Pyrenees, seven leagues from Huesca, lies Ada-Huesca, half a league from the town of Alqueçar, which is the most ancient Castrum Bigetum in the territory called Barbetanum. Diego de Aynsa agrees, a native of Huesca and claiming those most illustrious Martyrs for his own fatherland Fundacion, excelencias, etc. de Huesca, book II, chapters 34 and 35.; he also refutes Morales, adding Ibid. page 287 and following. that what the latter urges is of no greater moment, namely that the relics could not have been transferred to the monastery of Leyre from a place so remote as the territory of Huesca. As if indeed, exclaims Diego, St. Stephen had not been translated from Jerusalem to Constantinople and thence to Rome. For the rest, it strikes the eyes of one inspecting geographical maps that Huesca is not much farther distant from the monastery of Leyre than Nájera, whence nevertheless Morales will have it that the sacred bodies were translated Spruner. Hand-Atlas, map 38..

[22] traces of whose passion are found both in the village of Adahuesca, We saw above at num. 13 that the cult which is shown to the holy Sisters in Rioja is the chief, nay the only, foundation of the opinion which establishes that they suffered there. But they are equally honoured both at Huesca and in the neighbouring territory. In the village, says Moret [Annales de Navarra, vol. I, page 283. Compare Diego de Aynsa, Fundacion, etc. page 281.], which is called Araguesca or Adaguesca, there has been seen from time immemorial the house in which the holy Virgins were born, which every year, when their feast came round, used to be adorned, and from of old was converted into a church, and that under their invocation, and this, as Fr. Raymond asserts Historia de las de SS. Nunilo, etc. page XXXVII., relying on local tradition and a manuscript charter in the archive of the same village, immediately after that region was rescued from the yoke of the Moors. Within the precincts of the church is a well, the same, as is reported, which was in the house, to which not only the inhabitants but also the faithful of the surrounding countryside come frequently and with immeasurable devotion, and not without benefits granted from heaven. Certainly Pedro Los Certales, priest and sacristan of that church, left written fourteen miracles in all, of which he affirms that he was a witness Ibid.. Since the parish church rose outside the walls of the town of Adahuesca, the inhabitants built another next to the church of SS. Nunilo and Alodia, which itself also was renewed on this occasion. The work was completed in the year 1772, and indeed in such a way that both sacred buildings were joined to each other: whence the church of the holy Virgins is now as it were a large chapel annexed to the parish church, in which, however, ecclesiastical worship is carried on separately: on the altar their relics are kept, and on the walls are seen pictures showing their life, martyrdom, burial and translation Ibid. page XXXVII and following.. And these things thus Fr. Raymond, an eyewitness, and he adds that in the castle of Alquézar there is still shown the prison from which, as constant tradition reports, both Sisters were led to the judge. Diego de Aynsa also notes that women in the town of Adahuesca are commonly called Nunilo and Alodia Fundacion, etc. page 281., and he testifies Ibid. page 290. that at the instance of Jerónimo Claveria, archdeacon of the cathedral church of Huesca, Clement VIII in the year 1604 granted a plenary indulgence to every one of the faithful who on the day sacred to the holy Virgins should visit their house in Adahuesca, converted, as we have said, into a church.

[23] and on the hill of the Holy Martyrs, Then in another place he treats at length Ibid. page 604 – 606. of the hill named of the Holy Martyrs. That is to say, at the second milestone from the city of Huesca, on the opposite bank of the river Isuela, there rise two hills, separated from each other by a small interval: the one is called by various names: the Hill or Height of Zumac or Cimac, from the corrupted word Zumahil, who governed Huesca when SS. Nunilo and Alodia suffered; of the Furcae, because there were there the forks or gibbets on which those condemned to death were hanged Fundacion, etc. book II, chapter 35, page 286.; of the holy Martyrs, because thither, after their martyrdom was consummated, both holy Virgins had been carried by order of the tyrant, and, committed to the earth after a fashion in that place, had remained there for some days. Afterward this last name of the hill came to be more commonly maintained. The other hill is called the Height of Sancho (el Pueyo de Sancho), because that king, investing the city with a siege in the year 1094 Ibid. page 32., had pitched his camp here. Between the two hills the aforesaid King Sancho built a church in honour of Jesus the Nazarene and of the holy Virgins Nunilo and Alodia Ibid. page 605.. Which, however, is to be understood not as though he himself had completed the building, since at the beginning of the siege he fell, struck by an arrow, on the 4th of June of the same year Ibid. page 35.; but that he decreed that it should be founded and left the execution of his command to his son and successor Peter, who took the city by storm Ibid. page 33 and following.. What we have said of the church is also had in a charter of King John II, given on the 4th of May of the year 1478: We have learned from the report of the faithful that the church of the holy Nunilo and Alodia, situated on the height of Cimach outside the walls of our city of Huesca, in which the aforesaid Virgins, while they lived among men, had their own home (nor is it inconsistent that they had or dwelt in a house both at Huesca and in the villa of Adahuesca), flourished with much religion and was made illustrious by many miracles, which the glorious King Sancho, our great-grandfather of immortal memory, during the siege of the said city against the pagans, wonderfully built in honour of Jesus the Nazarene and of the same Virgins, together with a hospital joined to the same church, in which many pilgrims, orphans and poor were refreshed. Thus far the charter or Privilege of John II Ibid. page 605.. There was also in the said church a sodality or confraternity under the title of Jesus the Nazarene, SS. Nunilo and Alodia, and SS. Agatha and Barbara. In the year 1328 that sacred building had been rebuilt, as follows from the testament of D. Raymond Acutus (22nd of May, in the year just mentioned): Likewise I institute and ordain twelve secular priests in the church of the blessed virgins Nunilo and Alodia, Agatha and Barbara, which I built or caused to be built; of which twelve priests let one be Prior, and let the others serve and celebrate in the said church perpetually at the hours of the day and likewise of the night for my soul and those of my family, etc. Ibid.. Again another rebuilding or restoration is indicated, made at the expense and by the industry of the aforesaid sodality.

[24] where are a church and a hospice; Finally, Diego de Aynsa wrote about the year 1619: This church is now seen in that form in which it was presented by the Sodality. The high altar is most ancient, and represents the whole passion of the holy Martyrs Nunilo and Alodia. At the top of the altar there is an image of the Crucified, of no less antiquity Ibid. page 606.. This sanctuary, as having been founded by their predecessor Sancho, was perpetually held in the highest esteem by the kings of Spain, and enriched with great privileges, by name by John II in the year 1478 and by Ferdinand the Catholic in the year 1510, as follows from very many instruments. In the hospice of the same church pilgrims were maintained for three days, whence it is permitted to infer, says Diego de Aynsa, that they flocked thither in numbers. Now this holds on the feast-days of our holy Virgins, of St. Agatha and St. Barbara, and especially of the Finding of the Holy Cross. The feasts were celebrated by the clerics of the Sodality, who were five in number (and no more) in honour of the five wounds of Christ, and all initiated into the priesthood. A hermit now resides in the church Ibid.. These things we have taken somewhat at length from a known eyewitness, so that it may appear that the traces at Huesca are at least as clear as those others recited at num. 13 from Father Anguiano (a witness of no very great weight). And these things Diego de Aynsa, book IV, chapter 20. But he had said in book II, chapter 35 Ibid. page 285.: On the hill of the holy Martyrs (el tocal de las Martires) there is, as I shall say lower down in book IV, a hermit's cell, and that very ancient, in the very place where SS. Nunilo and Alodia had been laid, to which every year, on the 21st day of October, the clergy both of the cathedral church and of the parish churches, as also the whole city, used to go by way of procession. Which, although it has not been done any longer since the year 1603, nevertheless the devotion has persevered among the people, so much indeed that scarcely anyone is found in the city who on the said day does not go to the hermitage of SS. Nunilo and Alodia. Finally, toward the end of the past century, Fr. Raymond wrote Historia de las SS. Nunilo y Alodia. Edit. 1796. Page XXVI. that the church of the holy Virgins was very poor, and committed to the keeping of some hermit, nay, near to ruin. God grant, he says, that in the heart of those devoted to the holy Virgins there may be stirred up a desire of repairing a monument which ought to stand for ever.

[25] and in the very city of Huesca. And in the city itself, into which from the aforesaid hill, a few days after their death, the sacred bodies are read to have been carried by order of the Moors, there still exists the well into which they were thrown and, covered over with stones, lay hidden for nearly two years; which is to be seen in the parish of St. Peter, opposite the church named from the Holy Saviour Fundacion, etc. page 286.. In the year 1603, at the expense of the city of Huesca, new ornaments were placed above the well, especially images of each holy Virgin and Martyr, with a metrical inscription added, by which the reader is reminded that this place was dyed with the blood of SS. Nunilo and Alodia, who came from their native village to Huesca to meet death for Christ. Compare Fr. Raymond, who explains all these things at length

Historia, etc. page XXIV., adding Ibid. page XXV. that D. Vicente Novella, doctoral canon of the holy church of Huesca, in order that so precious a monument might be commended the more earnestly to posterity, took care in the year 1791 that its front should be renewed in squared stone with the inscription: In this well were the glorious bodies of the holy Nunilo and Alodia. The faithful commonly drink its waters devoutly and with confidence. In the same square, not far from the aforesaid well, and indeed on the very ground of the martyrdom, a church was built in honour of the Saviour and of the holy virgins and martyrs Nunilo and Alodia, and Aynsa suspects that this was done shortly after the city was rescued from the yoke of the Moors; the first clear mention of that church, however, is found in the year 1226 Ibid. page XXII.. In a later age it was rebuilt, and to the title of the Saviour and of the holy Virgins was added also the title of St. Stephen the protomartyr; it was repaired in the times of Diego de Aynsa, namely in the seventeenth century, but in our days, says Raymond Ibid page XXIII., because, the annual rents having been lost, it was no longer possible for divine service to be carried on in it decently enough, it was converted into a school for boys, where both I and most of the people of Huesca learned our first letters thirty years ago. There were then still to be seen the high altar, the pulpit and six chapels, namely three on each side. Finally D. Francisco Puey bought that place in the year 1766, in which he erected some houses and a public oratory dedicated to the Saviour and to the holy Virgins Nunilo and Alodia, and enjoined upon his heirs that every year they should take care to have thirty-three Masses celebrated there, and this on the more solemn days Historia de las SS. etc. page XXIII.. Diego de Aynsa concludes this whole disputation Fundacion, etc. page 291. with testimonies taken from the breviaries of Huesca and of Pamplona. In the former, published in the year 1547, it is had: In the Berbetan territory, near the most ancient place which is called Castrum Vigetum, a town which is commonly called Adaguesca, two Sisters left as little children by their father, an unbeliever as is believed, but instructed from infancy in the faith of Christ by their Christian mother, of whom the elder was called Nunilo and the younger Alodia, etc. But in the other, published in the year 1588 and approved by Sixtus V in the preceding year, we read: Nunilo and Alodia, sisters, born not far from the city of Huesca of noble parents, but of a Gentile father and a Christian mother, etc. Which proper Lessons, as also others of particular Saints, the bishop of Huesca Belenguer de Bardaxí had reprinted in the year 1614 with a new approbation of Paul V. To me the opinion which establishes that the holy Virgins were both born and suffered in Aragon is not only the more probable, but I hold it altogether certain.

§ III. Tamayo de Salazar is refuted, who establishes three pairs or Couples of holy Virgins of the same names.

Tamayo invents three couples of Martyrs of the same name; On the Acts of the translation published by Pellizer Papebroch wrote with his own hand: Tamayo… invents three pairs from ridiculous foundations; others put two, as we hinted above at num. 14. And in very truth Tamayo writes Martyrologium Hispan. 18 April.: Among our people I discover three couples of martyrs of this name, if we believe Father Bivar, who also finds them at different times, in these words: "The first I do not hesitate to establish before the year of Christ 714, or the devastation of Spain; after these, others in the year of Christ 851, according to the testimony of Eulogius; and the last at the year of Christ 950, which Luitprand almost saw." But Julian too himself professes the same couples in this series: "Held in esteem are SS. Nunilo and Alodia, virgins and martyrs, of whom certain ones of the same names are believed to have suffered long before the overthrow of Spain (which certainly does not agree with Laurentius Ramirez); certain ones under the Moors in the year 848; certain ones about the year 951. Some Osca of Baetica has as patronesses; some Tritium; some Osca of Aragon." How lightly these things are asserted is already clear, and not obscurely, from what has been said above, and is made clearer from the very proofs which Tamayo subjoins in the same place Page 697 and following.. The first is deduced from the Canonica of St. Peter of Taberna, in which is read: He (Bentius, bishop of Saragossa) consecrated also an altar in honour of St. Stephen the protomartyr, in which he placed two fingers from the body of the same martyr; … and the head of St. Nunilo and the shoulder-blade of St. Alodia. Behold, says Tamayo, already the memory of these Saints and the translation of their Relics from Saragossa to the monastery of Taberna at the year 714, in which the destruction of Spain occurred; by which description is expressly confirmed the opinion of Julian, who says: "Certain ones before the overthrow of Spain Ibid. page 697.."

[27] the first is deduced from the Canonica of St. Peter of Taberna, The whole assertion, therefore, rests on the testimony of the Canonica, which is a writing set down in an ancient or Gothic character and preserved in the monastery of St. John de la Peña among the Aragonese. That is to say, a certain monk, as Briz Martínez has it Historia de S. Juan de la Peña, book II, chapter 20, page 353 – 358., named Balastutus (in Latin Belascutus Tamayo, ubi supra.), broken with age and sickness and now on the point of death, by order of Abbot David narrated to the brethren standing around what he held in memory; another of the monks took down in writing what was said by the dying man; and hence the Canonica was born. Briz adds: I confess that a man infirm and of so advanced an age could have erred in some things, especially where things done before his own times were treated of; and it is certain that he gave the names of certain prelates in the wrong order. These things indeed Briz wrote rather indulgently, probably taking care not to depreciate too much a writing which was kept in the monastery of which he himself was at once abbot and historiographer. Certainly Jerónimo Blancas, a writer of sincere, as Papebroch has it Acta SS. 29 June, page 439., and ancient good faith, who treats much of this Canonica [Aragonensium rerum commentarii. Hispania illustrata, vol. III, page 579 and following.], passes a more severe judgment. For after he has recited what pertains to the arm of St. Peter the apostle Compare Papebroch. Acta SS. loc. cit., which, with other relics (in particular the head of St. Nunilo and the shoulder-blade of St. Alodia), Bentius, bishop of Saragossa, is narrated to have carried in his flight into the church of St. Peter of Taberna, the praised Blancas adds Hispania illust. vol. III, page 579 (bis).: What credence is to be given to these things I would not dare to affirm… But I am astounded that the relics of so many Saints, and, what is a great thing, the arm of St. Peter the apostle, were ever brought to us, and preserved so long (if it is so) in the same monastery of Taberna; since we find no memory of so great a thing, neither in the early annals nor in the later ones, whether ours or foreign. I hear, however, while I write these things, that in the monastery of Obarra, to which the said monastery of Taberna was attributed, a certain arm is held in the greatest honour under the name of St. Peter the hermit, not however of the apostle. Perhaps the error arose from the likeness of the name. Papebroch also writes in notes set in the margin Acta SS. Ubi supra.: The manner in which the Aragonese say they received the arm of St. Peter seems incredible. Jerónimo Blancas also doubts about it, etc.

[28] which is shown to be of no authority Afterwards that learned man Manuel Risco treated of the Canonica expressly España sagrada, vol. XXX, page 131 – 137 and page 198 – 203. For since from it Cyriacus and Bentius had been inserted into the catalogue of the bishops of Saragossa, it had to be investigated, in the Treatise on that church, by what right this held. Risco pronounces that both were wrongly intruded, and asserts that the Canonica itself is supposititious, and more recent by several centuries than the age which they ascribe to it; written, moreover, by a man wholly ignorant of historical matters, who coined times and persons and deeds at his own pleasure Ibid. page 202.. And above all the learned man reproves Blancas and Briz Ibid. page 198.; the former because in reciting the text of the Canonica he suppressed those things by which it could be rendered suspect; the latter because, collecting synoptically what is contained in the whole text, he used artifice. Whence he does not hesitate to call both guilty of some dissimulation. Joseph Pellizer was the very first of all to make the Canonica public in full, at the beginning of his Annals. Moreover, it is far from established concerning the antiquity of that writing. Jerónimo Blancas says indeed Hispania ill. page 579 (bis).: But I will affirm most truly that I found all those things so set down in the said very old codex of La Peña, written in ancient letters and on parchment that old. But indeed, rejoins Risco España sagr. page 200 and 201., the writing produced and read by those authors (Blancas and Briz) is a transumpt or copy, set down in the year 1415, as is established from the very codex of the Canonica; whence he also concludes with full right that those writers vainly wish the antiquity of the original manuscript to be commended from the parchment which they had in hand. Finally, the title of the Canonica is of this kind: From a very old codex of St. John de la Peña, written on parchment in ancient letters, here is had the Canonica of St. Peter of Taberna Ibid. page 201.. Further, since we have from Briz that the manuscripts of the monastery of St. John de la Peña were consumed by fire about the beginning of the foundation, it is not easily understood from what original the transumpt praised above was copied. And if, Risco further infers, that original manuscript survives, why do Briz and the others not rather cite it than a mere transumpt made in the fifteenth century?

[29] is demonstrated; Another reason which renders the Canonica suspect is the very many manifest hallucinations occurring everywhere in it, which see in Risco, places cited. Lastly, there must not be passed over here what St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa from the year 631 to the year 651 Ibid. page 142., hence half a century before Bentius according to Briz's own opinion, wrote in answer to the priest Jactatus: But concerning the relics of the reverend apostles, which you have earnestly asked should be sent to you by us, I relate faithfully that I have none of the martyrs in such a way that I can know which belong to whom. It was the decision of my predecessors and lords that, since commonly, whether by stealth or even unwillingly and constrained by the charity of many, they were compelled either to give or to go without some of those which they had, the titles should be removed, lest any indication should lie open to the knowledge of all, and they should be put under one enclosure. Yet some seventy have been reserved, among which those which you seek are not at all found. From these, in Risco's opinion Ibidem., the Canonica becomes suspect again, giving the names of very many Saints whose relics the pretended Bentius carried off with him in his flight from Saragossa. But whatever may be the case with this last argument, what has been said hitherto effects sufficiently that the Canonica is to be reckoned of no authority, and hence vain

is Tamayo's first couple of holy Martyrs of the same name.

[30] likewise the third is rejected, The second Couple St. Eulogius supplies to Tamayo. About this there is no one who doubts. The third will be supplied by Luitprand, who was spending his life during these times, and in his Chronicle as given by Ramírez added this memorial, writing: "Nunilo and Alodia suffer this year (951), while I am alive, at Castrum Vergeti, that is Castellón, in the Castra Vinaria in Bastetania." Which he repeats in the Adversaria, although in the assignment of the year there is a fault in the codex of both. So Tamayo Martyrologium Hispan. 18 April. page 697., whom we have elsewhere proved must be numbered among the old forgers, together with his Luitprand and others. He adds Ibid.: Vasaeus favours the opinion of these men in the Chronicle at the year 950. And in very truth he writes at the aforesaid year Hispania illustrata, vol. I, page 719.: In the town of Bosca near Nájera, for asserting the faith of Christ, the sisters Nunilo and Alodia were struck with the sword in the month of October, whose bodies are said to have been carried into Italy and to be preserved at Bologna. The Breviary of Seville says they suffered in the following year (namely 951). But since Vasaeus at the year 850 says nothing of other martyrs of the same name, it is easy to conclude that he placed in the tenth century those holy Virgins who had undergone martyrdom in the preceding century. Moreover the words: In the town of Bosca near Nájera, declare sufficiently that different persons are not meant. For the rest, that Vasaeus is here hallucinating is evidently shown from what immediately precedes at the same year 950: For the faith of Christ there suffered at Córdoba Aurelius, George, Felix, with their wives Natalia, Crescentia and Liliosa. In the town of Bosca etc. Now there can be no doubt that the same persons are recorded in this place as in St. Eulogius, chapter 10, book II of the Memorial of the Saints, whose title is as follows: Of the holy martyrs Aurelius, Felix, George, Sabigotho and Liliosa Patrologia Mign. vol. CXV, col. 777.. And these most certainly suffered about the same time as SS. Nunilo and Alodia, praised by St. Eulogius.

[31] and the pretended translation of the relics to Bologna is weighed, But as regards the cult and translation at Bologna, Briz agrees with Vasaeus: The two Martyrs of Rioja, he says Historia de S. Juan de la Peña, page 182., although of the same name, are different from those of Huesca; their bodies rest at Bologna in Italy. But among the Italians I find no mention of these relics; neither in Ferrari's catalogues Catalogus SS. Italiæ; likewise Catalogus general., nor in the books of Carlo Sigonio, whether on the History of Bologna Opera, vol. III. Milan 1733. or on the bishops of the same city Ibid.; nor in Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. II., nor in the five volumes of Giovanni Battista Melloni on the saints of Bologna Atti o Memorie degli nomini illustri in santita. Bologna 1786., nor in the dictionary of Gaetano Moroni, published in these years, where at the words: Nunilone and Alodia, not even by a word is a cult or translation at Bologna indicated Dizionario de erudizione storico-ecclesiastica. Venice 1840 – 53.. The author inclines to the views of Ambrosio de Morales, yet hangs in doubt concerning the year of the martyrdom. For the rest, he does not subject the matter to special examination. Whence he is cited by us here for this reason only, that it may be established that he, although living and writing in the pontifical dominion, nowhere heard that relics of our holy Virgins, or of others of the same name, were preserved at Bologna. Besides, neither Vasaeus nor Briz confirms his statements by any argument. Baillet insinuates Vies des Saints, 22 Oct. page 347. that this tradition first gained some ground from Vasaeus; wrongly, however, if credence be given to Tamayo, who himself also rejects that translation: What, he says Martyrologium Hispan., 18 April. page 698, shall we say of the opinion of Juan Vasaeus, who with full mouth declares that the bodies of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia were carried into Italy and are preserved at Bologna? Which Father Bivar also approved, as given by Laurentius Ramírez, moved to assert this, as he himself indicates, by the report of Julian, Adversar. 294, fol. 66, where these formal words are read in the printed editions, after he had made a period about a triplet of such holy Virgins: "They say that the first (Virgins) suffered at Bologna and that their bodies are preserved there." From him I should believe that Vasaeus also received his opinion, as Father Juan de Mariana did from Vasaeus, and the subsequent writers from these… I confess that I had digested the words of Julian related above, until, unrolling the manuscript codex of Julian, we fell upon the aforesaid place, which is without a numerical mark in my copy, and there I read through these words: "They say that the first (virgins) suffered at Baniana, and that their bodies are preserved there." These things having been discussed, I am again tossed about as if suspended on a swing, and I shudder at what Baniana may be; until, looking into the geography of Ptolemy, among the peoples of the Turduli of Baetica I read Baniana, in Greek Βανιάναμ, in this series: "Caecila, Baniana, Corduba etc… Relying on this text of Ptolemy, I suspect that formerly near this city the holy Virgins were crowned with martyrdom and entombed there; namely those who are held to be the more ancient, before the disaster of Spain, whose relics Bentius, bishop of that city, translated from Saragossa to the monastery of Taberna." Thus far Tamayo, according to whom the native source of the translation to Bologna would lie hidden in the writings of Julian. Now here he deserves no credence. And let the same judgment be passed on the other authors cited by Tamayo, and so also on Tamayo himself, as we said above in the Acts of St. Mellonus, Preliminary Commentary, num. 2, and elsewhere Vol. VIII of October, in the Acts of St. Veranus, page 454..

[32] translation. As regards Francisco Bivar, of the Cistercian order, Nicolás Antonio touches upon his Commentaries and Apologeticum on the chronicle of Dexter thus Bibliotheca nova, vol. I, page 407.: As they display many proofs of learning, which will always protect their author's fame lest crimes not his own should harm him; so it is made more plain every day that it turned out little happily for him, to those who seriously contemplate the malignity of the field so laboriously cultivated by him, and now condemned to perpetual sterility among the best judges of truth. This one thing in Tamayo's words cited above is of some moment, that he calls to memory Baniana, a city of the Turduli. For it would not be an absurd conjecture that Bononia was fabricated from Baniana, on account of the likeness of the letters. In fact Ptolemy mentions that city in book II, chapter 4 [Geographiæ libri octo græco-latini, recogniti a Gerardo Montano, page 35. Frankfurt 1605.]: The Turduli, among whom are the inland cities: Setia… Caecila, Baniana, Corduba the City (Κορδύβη μετρόπολις); so that I wonder that this was passed over by Christoph Cellarius and by his editor and annotator Conrad Schwartz [Notitia orbis antiqui, book I, chapter 1, section 2. Where of Baetica, page 65 – 79.]. From the tables or maps added to Ptolemy Geographiæ libri, etc. At the end of Europe, Map II. it may be seen that Baniana is a few miles distant from Córdoba, and that both cities are placed on the same bank of the river Baetis (today the Guadalquivir); while the town of Martos (compare num. 15), on the opposite bank, is notably farther distant from Córdoba Spruner, Atlas num. 37.. Finally, to this point relates a letter from the archive of Leyre, written formerly to the abbot of that monastery by the beneficiary of the village of Adahuesca, named Pedro Los Certales. The letter is dated the 6th of October 1737, a copy of which Father Andrés Artola, S.J., sent me from Spain. The praised beneficiary humbly begs the abbot to deign to inquire about the pretended relics at Bologna (for Pedro Los Certales holds them to be false): for this, he says, concerns as much your royal monastery as my church. Here, however, there is no one who has even the least communication with the city of Bologna; while with you, in view of the celebrity of your monastery, there are certainly at hand not a few aids by which information about such relics could easily be obtained from the people of Bologna, and at the same time an authentic copy of the instruments, if any exist. And it is added: Since there is hope that the diocese of Lérida will press the holy See to obtain a proper Office of our holy Virgins, namely because they are believed to have been natives of it…, there is no doubt that information from Bologna would contribute very greatly to vindicating their birthplace for our village, on which the petition to be made at Rome for the Office was chiefly founded. Whether the abbot of Leyre had this matter treated at Bologna, and whether any or what answer came from there, I am wholly ignorant: for I have nothing else, besides the letter just cited, nor do I know anything from the archive of Leyre on this subject. For my part, to conclude at length, all things having been weighed, I embrace the opinion of Manuel Risco España sagrada, vol. XXXIII, page 420., namely that there are only two holy Virgins of this name, and that they suffered at Huesca in Aragon. Compare above, num. 14.

§ IV. Of the feast-day of SS. Nunilo and Alodia, and of the perpetual cult of the Relics in the monastery of Leyre, and of their present state.

The principal feast-day The feast is announced in the martyrologies of Usuard, the Roman, and Tamayo's Spanish; likewise in Briz Martínez Historia de S. Juan de la Peña, page 182. on this day, the 22nd of October, namely on the very day on which, according to St. Eulogius, the holy Virgins sealed the faith with their blood. But Ambrosio de Morales Patrologia Mig. vol. CXV, col. 888. Compare Fundacion, etc. page 286. will have it that the martyrdom took place on Thursday the 21st of October, and indeed about the first hour after noon; and this he gathers from his most ancient codex of the Sanctorale, set down in Gothic letters six hundred years ago, he says, and he adds: Since the divine Eulogius had erred in the year, as we have shown (that this is false we saw above), hence also the day could not be rightly marked. And in Usuard's martyrology indeed the feast of these holy Virgins occupies the twenty-second day of October, which is also kept in our breviaries; but the diplomas of the kings, as will presently appear, establish the twenty-first day. There is cited Ibid. page 888 and 889. a diploma of Sancho the Great, king of Navarre and Castile and Aragon, given in the era one thousand and sixty, on the twelfth day of the Kalends of November (that is, in the year of Christ 1022, on the 21st of October); and Morales concludes that this was their feast in the monastery of Leyre from the following words of the diploma: The charter was made as above in the presence of many who had come to adore God and to celebrate the festival of the holy Martyrs in the aforesaid monastery. Similarly the festival occurs on this same 21st day, as witness Fr. Raymond Historia de las SS. Nunilo y Alodia, page XXI., in the breviaries of Huesca both ancient and more recent; likewise in those of Lérida, Pamplona and Leyre, as also in the ancient one of Toledo, which is cited by Morales and Moret. The old martyrology of the church of Huesca also

in manuscript has: On the 12th of the kalends of November (21st of October): the passion of the holy sisters Nunilo and Alodia… Ibid. page XXXI.. And these things indeed thus Fr. Raymond. Yet in the Proper of Pamplona of the year 1647, which I have in hand, the feast is indicated on the 22nd of October, although at the end of the fifth lesson it is asserted that the martyrdom took place on the 12th of the Kalends of November. Diego de Aynsa reports something similar Fundacion, etc. page 286., namely that the feast of the holy Virgins is indeed celebrated at Huesca on the 22nd of October; not because they suffered on that day, but because on the preceding day, the 21st of October, there occurs the festival of the holy Eleven Thousand Virgins, and in the cathedral church is preserved the head of St. Ita, who was a companion of St. Ursula. Does some similar reason perhaps hold in the diocese of Pamplona? For the rest, a little before, the same Diego de Aynsa had said Ibid. page 285. that a hermit's cell is found near Huesca, in the place where SS. Nunilo and Alodia had been beheaded (compare num. 24), and that the feast is kept there on the 21st of October, on which day the clergy of the cathedral church, the parishes and the city are accustomed to go thither by way of procession.

[54] 21st and 22nd of October. But as for Morales concluding from these things that the martyrdom took place on the same day, and therefore that St. Eulogius erred as in the year so also in the day of the passion, this would certainly have to be established by a stronger argument. For it is known that very frequently, and for innumerable reasons, the feasts of Saints are kept in the churches on another day than that of their deposition, as follows even from one or two of the examples set down above. In my opinion, St. Eulogius, a contemporary witness, keeps his credit. Of the year I spoke above at num. 3. As regards the day, St. Eulogius says: They fell under the stroke of the sword on the eleventh of the kalends of November, in the era given above, namely 889, that is in the year of Christ 851, in which the dominical letter was D Art de vérifier les dates. Table chronologique, page 18., and therefore the eleventh day before the kalends of November, or the 22nd of October, fell on a Thursday, as may be seen in the perpetual calendars Ibid. page 120.. In general, then, it can be said that the feast of SS. Nunilo and Alodia is kept in certain churches on the 22nd of October, in others on the 21st. This latter day is also given by D. Pedro Sainz de Baranda in the Spanish calendar which was very recently published [Colleccion de documentos ineditos para la historia de España, vol. XXII, page 265 and following. Madrid 1853.]. But the Translation is celebrated on the 18th day of April, as the same Baranda reports Ibid. page 324., and before him Tamayo de Salazar in these words: In the monastery of the Holy Saviour of Leyre in Vasconia, the translation of the sacred pledges of SS. Nunnilo and Allodia from the Aragonese city of Huesca. Nor does the third Lesson of the Proper of Pamplona of the year 1647, at the 22nd of October, differ, which concludes thus: The Lord … inspired Oneca, queen of Navarre, to search for them (the bodies) religiously and solicitously; which, being at length found, she translated with honour to the most celebrated monastery of the Holy Saviour of Leyre on the fourteenth of the kalends of May (18th of April), where they are venerated by throngs of people. Finally Manuel Risco reports España sagrada, vol. XXXIII, page 418. that in the villages of Bezares and Castrum Vetus in Rioja, on the 27th day of October, in honour of the same holy Virgins and Martyrs, a public procession is held to the hermit's cell which was erected there. Compare what was said at num. 13. And so much concerning the feast-days. Now we proceed to the Relics.

[35] Testimonies concerning the cult of the holy Relics: From constant tradition it follows that from the time of their Translation, of which above at num. 9 and 10, the Relics of SS. Nunilo and Alodia were perpetually preserved in the monastery of Leyre as long as it existed, and were held there and in the neighbouring region in great veneration. Those sacred pledges, says Moret Annales de Navarra, vol. I, page 258. Pamplona 1684., were always in the greatest honour, especially with the kings of Navarre, who had recourse to the protection of the holy Virgins, and not in vain, both in wars and in the dangers of diseases, whence also, in testimony of a grateful mind, they erected from its foundations a sacred building there. Elsewhere the same Moret had already written Ibid. page 248.: The kings of Navarre redeemed them from the hands of the barbarians and placed them in their own kingdom eight hundred years ago, and ennobled their seat with notable veneration and great gifts; so much so that in the first four centuries there was no prince in Navarre of whom it is not established from lawful instruments that he made some splendid donation to the holy Virgins. Let an example be the testament of King Sancho made in the year 1052, the original of which our John Perier saw, and of which he copied out some part, as he himself testifies, on the 6th of May 1722, when he was at Pamplona. It begins thus: In the name of the Lord. This is the charter of testament which I Sancho, by the grace of God king, make together with my wife Queen Lady Mayor to the honour of God and of the Holy Saviour of Leyre. Great indeed is the title of donation… Coming into the monastery of Leyre, which is built to the name and glory of the Saviour of the world and of blessed Mary his mother, the charter of donation and confirmation was made in the monastery of Leyre before witnesses on the 12th of the kalends of May, the year 1052 running. So in the slip written by the hand of Father J. Perier. The neighbouring peoples of Navarre and Aragon also obtained splendid benefits through the invocation of the same holy Virgins. Against the bites of rabid animals an effective remedy is held throughout the whole surrounding region in the touching of the holy Relics. Concerning which, in Antonio Yepes Coronica general de S. Benito, vol. IV, fol. 83 recto., Fr. Benito Ozta, a monk of Leyre and an eyewitness, reports: Through those glorious Virgins we obtain in our monastery immense favours from God; and in this whole region it is seen especially how much they avail with the Lord in two calamities, of which they are particularly patronesses; the one is the bite of rabid dogs: and this miracle is perpetual, that not a single person who has come hither with lively faith to implore their protection has been driven into madness. It has also happened that those who came in a state of great fury, as soon as they reached the monastery, had their madness instantly calmed, as if they were suffering no evil any longer, and they confessed and died with great contrition. The other is when the earth is dried up with heat, and recourse is had to the same to obtain rain. In which kind not so long ago, says Moret Annales de Nav. vol. I, page 259., there occurred a singular miracle, which Yepes also records, loc. cit., in almost the same words. That is to say (so Moret), when the reliquary in which their sacred bones are contained had been carried by way of procession as far as the spring near the monastery, named after the holy Virgins, Fr. Antonio de la Reque, Prior of the monastery, immersed one of the bones in the water; and when he drew it out, it dripped ten or twelve drops of blood. At this sight abundant tears of the bystanders flowed with sobs. Nor did they doubt that they had been heard, as the event also proved. For after a long drought a copious rain fell. To this day, adds Moret, the linen cloth sprinkled with that blood is preserved, together with a public instrument witnessing the event; and since I have obtained a copy of this, I set it down here; so much the more because it does not altogether agree with Moret's narration: for this has some things which are not read in the instrument, for example the number of the drops; likewise in place of the name de la Reque, Larrigui is written.

[36] namely one In our copy, which we recently received from Spain, the following inscription is set before the instrument: Authentic testimony of a miracle which the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia wrought. The tenor, some things in the preamble pertaining to the style of the court being cut away, is of this kind: In the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand six hundred and three, on the fifth day of the month of May, before me, notary public, and the witnesses written below, appeared the Reverend D. Pedro Sánchez, priest, native of Liédena in the diocese of Pamplona, rector in the town of Algemesí in the kingdom and diocese of Valencia, asked and requested by the very Reverend D. Abbot and the monks of the monastery of Leyre that, as one of the witnesses who together with the magistracy of Lumbier, Liédena, Yesa, Vigüezal and Castillonuevo were present in the said monastery on the first of October, some forty-six years ago more or less, to ask for rain, of which there was the greatest need for the sowing, he should say, an oath having first been taken and his hand laid on his breast, what he saw on the aforesaid day while one of the bones of the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia was immersed in the water; he therefore (Pedro Sánchez), his hand laid on his breast, said that this is the truth: namely, that he remembers that, when the inhabitants of the above-said villages had come together with their vicars, likewise the magistracy of the town of Lumbier and the municipal presidents of the aforesaid places together with clerics, subdeacons and deacons, he saw a solemn procession proceed from the said convent, the divine office having first been celebrated; that Fr. Antonio de Larregui, Prior, a man of sixty years, carried the little chest in his hands; he, when they had come to the spring of the holy Virgins (for so it is called), distant from the monastery about a stone's throw, drew out (from the little chest) one of the bones of the holy Virgins, and immersing it once, a second and a third time, implored the divine mercy with many cries and tears; and at the third immersion, from the broken bone, dry for so many years now, there came forth a little stream (arroyito) of blood; then the said monk, raising his voice, cried out once and again: A miracle, a miracle! and together with the veil (almayzar) which held the relic he gathered up the blood. Thereupon they returned in procession to the said convent, giving thanks to God, who in the sight of all had deigned to show a miracle in those holy bones for His greater glory and the veneration of these holy relics; then on the same day or the next following a most copious rain fell. The praised witness added besides that, after the office and procession were finished, it seemed good to the Prior, who had carried the Relics (the little chest), and to the other senior monks of that holy house (there follow the names of certain monks and others), because our Lord had openly worked in those holy bones, that from the alms collected from the people present an ornament (un retablo) should be made to the honour of the holy Virgins, and that thenceforth three lamps should be kept burning by means of alms, which it should be permitted to collect every year in the neighbouring villages, a man being appointed to go round the threshing-floors in the month of August, asking at most a measure and a half of wheat; and that all answered that this thing, as holy and just, was greatly approved by them. But what effect these things

had, the aforesaid witness does not know, since it is forty years and more since he set out for Valencia for the sake of his studies. And these are the things which may be truthfully said about that event. Concerning all of which, thus said and testified, the same aforesaid D. Pedro Sánchez required me, Martín Vendrell, notary, to draw up a public act, to the most profitable effects that may be permitted; which (act) was in fact drawn up by me, the said notary, in the aforesaid town of Algemesí, on the day, month and year above-said, and in the presence of the witnesses Juan Bona and Gabriel Castell. The subscriptions follow.

[37] and another miracle; The account of another miracle likewise is had in the same manuscripts of Leyre, copies of which we have received. In the year 1757, in the month of May, there broke out and gained strength in the village of Yesa an epidemic which the physicians judged to be a kind of pestilence, and it lasted for several months, so that the people were not a little afflicted: for within a few days eleven in all of the more conspicuous inhabitants had died. Seeing which, the civil rulers (Regidores) with the vicar D. Alejandro Arbizo determined to go to the monastery (of Leyre) to beg humbly the Reverend abbot D. Alberico Álvarez de Eulate and his holy community that some monks should come down to them with the Relics of the holy Virgins. The said D. abbot called his monks together and decided to send six monks with the relics and burning torches, on the day sacred to St. Firminus, that is the seventh of July, after Matins had been sung. The inhabitants of the village of Yesa went out barefoot to meet the holy Relics, all, both adults and children, uttering lamentations. The Relics were placed on the altar, and at once a solemn Mass was begun. When this was finished, a general procession was held, and the Relics were carried to all the sick, beginning with Lorenzo Pérez, who lay despaired of by the physicians, able now for two days neither to eat nor to drink, and having his eyes closed. As soon as they had been brought into his chamber, he opened his eyes and venerated them; but at once he fell again into lethargy. But when the Relics had been carried to another sick person, a messenger came to the monks that the man whom they supposed dead was asking for food; which also was given him, and the said Lorenzo rose on the third day in good health. All the other sick also soon began to recover, nor did anyone thereafter succumb to the evil. And these things happened just as they are here set forth. Since then the inhabitants go every year by way of procession to the monastery on the day of the Translation of the holy Virgins.

[38] likewise a grant of relics A splendid proof of this veneration and cult is also furnished by the translation of certain parts of that sacred deposit made in the year 1672 from the monastery of Leyre to the village of Adahuesca, which Fr. Raymond describes very fully Historia de las Santas Nunilo y Alodia, page XLII – LII., but which we here present only summarily. It had long been in the wishes of the inhabitants of the aforesaid village to have something of the relics of SS. Nunilo and Alodia, which they might deposit and venerate in the very building in which the blessed Virgins and Martyrs had been brought into the light. After many attempts made in vain, they pressed the monks of Leyre more strongly in the year 1667, calling in also the intercession of men of the highest rank, that at long last they might obtain their wish. But they received such an answer that all hope now vanished. They therefore had recourse to Mary of Austria, the queen, who was administering the kingdom for her son Charles II, a minor; she wrote to the monks of Leyre, signifying that she would be most grateful to them if what she asked were obtained. All the monks judged that the queen's wishes should be satisfied, with the sole exception of D. Robert Diez de Ulzurrun, who affirmed that he had seen in the archive of the monastery a papal bull by which it was provided, under pain of the major excommunication, that no distribution of the Relics should be made without the previous licence of the apostolic See. It was decided, therefore, that such a licence should be sought at Rome; which, however, for what reason I do not know, was not put into execution; and the matter rested for some time. But in the year 1671 three leading men, all natives of Adahuesca, for devotion's sake and clad in the manner of pilgrims, came to the monastery, which they entered barefoot, and prayed long before the tomb of the holy Virgins; then one of them, D. Pedro Bahilo, said Mass, at which his two companions assisted not without tears. The abbot at that time was that very Robert Diez de Ulzurrun mentioned above, and he lay in bed, suffering severely in his shins, which pain indeed had come upon him shortly after he had opposed the distribution of the Relics; and thenceforth the evil grew worse almost every day, nor was it relieved by any remedy.

[39] in the year 1672; The lord abbot had also begun to fear that perhaps he suffered these things because he had offended the holy Virgins by alleging a supposititious bull (for at that time there was no such bull; but Robert himself afterward obtained such a rescript from Clement X, given at Rome on the 15th of October in the year 1672 Historia de las Santas Nunilo y Alodia, page XLII.). While he was turning these things over attentively in his mind, he heard that the aforesaid pilgrims had arrived. At which news he was greatly gladdened: for he hoped that they had come furnished with the due licence obtained from the holy See. He ordered them to be brought before him at once; and having embraced them, he asked the cause of their coming; but soon his joy was turned to grief when he understood that they had come to the monastery for the sake of devotion alone. What more? The abbot confessed his deceit or lie, and exhorted the pilgrims to return home at once and to spur on their fellow citizens to renew their petition, which this time would without any doubt be fulfilled. Without delay letters were procured from the viceroy, from the bishops of Lérida and Huesca, and from not a few other leading men. These having been obtained, a new supplication was made to the abbot and monks of Leyre, which, being at once received with the favourable votes of all, filled the inhabitants of the village of Adahuesca with incredible joy. These at once set their hand to the work, that the translation might be made with solemn pomp. They therefore deputed five of the leading citizens to receive the sacred relics. Then on the first day of September of the year 1672, D. Antonio Naya, vicar in Adahuesca, sang a votive Mass of the holy Virgins, two other clerics from the number of the deputies assisting, after which the same abbot Robert, adorned with the pontifical insignia, drew out from the ivory chest in which both sacred bodies were two shin-bones, the one of St. Nunilo, the other of St. Alodia; likewise the end part of a rib, which he placed in a little chest prepared for this purpose, which then, locked with two keys, he handed over to the deputies, a countless people looking on together with the monks. About the third hour after noon the deputies set out, carrying away the precious treasure, which the abbot also wished to accompany, not only, as the other monks of Leyre did, within the precincts of the monastery, but all the way to Adahuesca; whither they arrived towards nightfall on Monday the 5th of September in the year 1672. As they drew near, all the inhabitants of the aforesaid village came to meet them, and also a huge multitude from the neighbouring region. Incredible was the exultation of all when the sacred pledges were deposited in the church by the abbot of Leyre. And on the following day, namely the sixth of September, the same abbot of Leyre handed over the two keys of which above, and an authentic instrument concerning all these things was made by Juan Cortillas, royal notary, in which it was also provided that both shin-bones should be kept in the building of SS. Nunilo and Alodia, but the part of the rib in the parish church. Then the abbot solemnly celebrated the sacred rites, and for three days the festival of the translation was celebrated both in the church and among the people. Four years later the shin-bones were enclosed in two crystal tubes, adorned with silver, in such a way indeed that the sacred bones could be seen but not touched; likewise for the little chest in which they had been brought a silver case of no small weight was substituted. Fr. Raymond testifies that he drew this narrative from a manuscript book of Francisco Morcat, a native of Adahuesca.

[40] as also Briefs of the Popes, We saw above that Robert de Ulzurrun, when he was Prior of the monastery of Leyre, refused the petition of the inhabitants of the village of Adahuesca because, as he falsely asserted, there existed a pontifical Brief by force of which it was forbidden to take away anything from the relics of the holy Virgins; but afterward, having been made abbot, he fully satisfied the wishes of the same inhabitants on the 5th of September in the year 1672, as I have just said. It may be conjectured, however, that he had already for some years been pressing the pontiff that it should not be lawful to take away any part of the sacred treasure: for Pope Clement X, in a Brief to the abbot and monks of Leyre, given on the 15th of October 1672, has these words: Wishing to provide benignly, as far as we can in the Lord, for the conservation and maintenance of the sacred relics (as is piously believed), and especially of the bodies of the holy virgins and martyrs Nunilla and Aloydia, which are asserted to be preserved in the church of the Holy Saviour of Leyre, a monastery of monks of the Cistercian order in the diocese of Pamplona …; inclined by the prayers humbly presented to Us on this matter in the name of the same abbot and monks of the said monastery, we by apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, interdict and forbid that henceforth any person whatsoever, whether regular or secular, of whatever grade, condition, quality and dignity, even ecclesiastical, and exercising whatever authority, superiority and office, and worthy of individual mention, should dare or presume to lend the aforesaid relics or any part of them to other churches, monasteries, pious places or any persons whatsoever; and to open and show the holy reliquaries, or under any pretext, device, reason or occasion sought out, to take them out and carry them away from the said church or its sacristy, or to permit and consent that they be taken out and carried away, and opened and shown, under the penalties of excommunication latae sententiae, and, as regards regulars, of deprivation of active and passive voice, to be incurred by the very fact, without any declaration. Nevertheless D. José Pérez, priest at Castrum Vetus in Rioja (compare num. 15), sought such relics from the abbot of Leyre in the year 1726, as again follows from another copy of ours, where among other things I find that the aforesaid Pérez had already previously obtained from the same abbot six small pieces of silver cloth and of white damask silk and of purple cloth (I should think two small pieces of each kind) which had touched the holy bodies of those Virgins; but now, since Pérez was about to place carved images of the holy Virgins in their hermitage near Bosca, he earnestly begs the Reverend D. Abbot that, if it can be done, he would grant him a relic from an arm or a finger, by which the cult might be increased, and the veneration, and the solace of the sick and paralytics, and he adds that examples of such grants are not lacking.

[41] processions, indulgences. Many other indications occur in our praised copies of the cult perpetually shown to the sacred remains of SS. Nunilo and Alodia. Such is the following request of the inhabitants of the town of Roccaforte, made on the 10th of June 1625: The town of Roccaforte is accustomed, for devotion's sake, to go by way of procession to the holy house of the Holy Saviour of Leyre, to venerate

the holy Virgins, on account of the comforts which it has always obtained by their aid in public necessities. Since therefore so great a drought now weighs upon us, we desire to have recourse thither to obtain help. Wherefore we humbly beg your reverence to deign to give us leave to hold a procession on Wednesday morning, etc. Finally Pope Clement XII granted indulgences in the year 1735, which the abbot published in the following year, as follows from this rescript of his: We, D. Diego de Ocón y Elías, abbot of this our monastery of the Holy Saviour of Leyre, of the Cistercian order, after maturely examining two Briefs of our most holy father and lord Clement XII, the one given on the 14th day of September of the year just past, 1735, the other on the 20th day of the same month and year; the former of these grants that the altar which in this church is dedicated to the holy virgins and martyrs Nunilo and Alodia be privileged, so that on the day of the commemoration of all the faithful departed, likewise on the days within the octave, as also on every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, a plenary indulgence may be gained, and a full and entire liberation of a soul from purgatory, through any sacrifice of the Mass celebrated at the said altar by any priest whether regular or secular on the aforesaid days, on this condition, that fourteen Masses be celebrated at it each day; the latter (Brief) contains the grant likewise of a plenary indulgence to all who, having duly confessed, shall have approached holy communion and shall visit this our church from the first vespers of the feast of the holy Virgins and Martyrs until the evening of the following day, praying to God for the ordinary ends. The grant was valid for seven years.

[42] An account What befell the holy Relics after the recent suppression of the monastery of Leyre, and through the civil disturbances in Spain in our age, the following Account will teach, made by the Reverend D. Lino Undiano, parish priest in the city of Sangüesa, and submitted to us by the often-praised Father Andrés Artola, S.J.; and it is as follows, rendered from the Spanish into Latin: I the undersigned, rector (abad) of the united parishes of St. James and of the Holy Saviour in this city of Sangüesa, certify that in the book of the baptized (which, begun in the year 1801, ends in the year 1835 and is in my hands) there is found at the year 1821 a note written by my predecessor D. Pedro de Uriz, which runs thus to the letter: "By virtue of the commission of the most illustrious lord D. Joaquín Javier de Uriz y Lasaga, bishop of Pamplona, given on the sixth of November of the past year eight hundred and twenty, to receive the sacred furniture of the monastery of Leyre, which has been suppressed by the law on regulars, I received from D. Joaquín Redín, in whose hands was the administration of the said monastery, on the twenty-eighth day of February of the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, five reliquaries and one reliquary-case in which were the jaws of the holy virgins and martyrs Nunilo and Alodia. One of the five aforesaid reliquaries (and it is of ivory) contains the bones of the said Saints; another, but of wood, their garments. (The remaining three reliquaries belong to other Saints, who are indicated.) The above-said Right Reverend lord bishop granted to the town of Adahuesca, whence those holy Virgins are believed to have originated, both reliquaries, namely the ivory and the wooden, in which are their bones and garments; after, however, there had been extracted by his (the bishop's) order two notable relics for the cathedral church of Pamplona; likewise four parts of ribs, to satisfy the devotion of certain villages; likewise one notable relic and another small one for the church of St. Mary of this city of Sangüesa; likewise two notable ones for the churches of St. James and of the Holy Saviour, and at the same time a Collar (in Spanish Corbata) from the reliquary in which the garments are kept; and besides, the reliquary-case containing the jaws of the aforesaid holy Virgins. On the thirtieth of August of the current year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one I handed over the aforesaid two reliquaries of the holy Virgins to D. Manuel Alen, parish priest in Adahuesca, D. Lorenzo Arnal, priest, D. Joaquín Larrosa, parish priest in Sasa, D. Rafael Los Certales, D. Raimundo Jiménez and D. Mariano Nasarre, who had been deputed by the magistracy (Ayuntamiento) to receive the relics, and who gave me a written receipt, as the whole is established from the instrument which was drawn up on the same day by D. Miguel Lora, royal notary of this city.

[43] concerning the present state of the Relics On the following day, the thirty-first of August, both reliquaries were placed on the high altar of the church of St. James, where a solemn Mass was sung at the sixth hour of the morning in the presence of the magistracy, the lord parish priest of Adahuesca celebrating. Then they were placed on biers prepared for the purpose, and a procession or supplication was arranged through the streets called the Amadores, Media Villa, Rúa, Prado de San Francisco, as far as the bounds of this convent (hasta la espalda de este convento as far as the back of this convent); here those four clerics of this city (Sangüesa) who had carried them thus far set down the biers on which the reliquaries were placed; which from there four of those men carried as far as Adahuesca, who, eighteen in number, had come from the same village (Adahuesca) with the above-said deputies to take up the relics. And so that all these things may be established, as also the authenticity of the said relics, I sign this writing with my hand. Sangüesa, the thirty-first of August of the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one. (It was signed) Dn Pedro de Uriz, abad." After this D. Lino Undiano continues in this manner: This also I certify, that both urns (or reliquaries) of which above, having been restored to the monastery of Leyre after this convent was re-established in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three or twenty-four, came (after the last suppression of the monasteries, made about the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six) to this my parish church of St. James (of Sangüesa); I do not know, however, in what year or under what circumstances the translation was made (namely from the monastery of Leyre to Sangüesa), although I have asked many by whom I thought I might be informed on this matter; whence I conclude that it was done secretly on account of the circumstances of the times.

[44] in the town of Sangüesa. For my part, I found both reliquaries in my said church in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in which I was appointed rector of this parish by the Right Reverend lord Severo Andriani, bishop of Pamplona. They are kept in one of the two cupboards which are in the high altar of the said church, where are placed the relics belonging to the parish, as also the reliquaries of Leyre. The cupboards, locked with a key, are opened on feast-days of the first class, so that veneration may be shown to all the sacred pledges kept there during Vespers and the high Mass. A solemn feast is also celebrated on the Sunday following the feast of St. Martin, which we call the Sunday of the Relics. On the preceding day vespers are sung, and on the Sunday itself Terce and the Mass, not without solemnity and with the relics exposed to the veneration of the faithful. When the Mass is finished, the celebrant lays aside the chasuble or planeta and puts on the cope, some priests wear a red stole, the reliquaries are brought out from the cupboards, which the celebrant and the other priests carry; the hymn Sanctorum meritis is sung, and a procession is made as far as one of the side altars which are at the entrance of the presbytery; there the reliquaries are set down. Then the Deacon goes up into the pulpit with the catalogue of all the relics, and while he reads it out, the priest raises each relic for the veneration of the faithful in the order in which they are named by the Deacon. Among these are numbered two notable relics of SS. Nunilo and Alodia, granted to this church by the Right Reverend lord bishop Uriz. The veneration having been shown, they return to the high altar while the same hymn is sung. Then the priest sings the prayer Propitiare. Finally the reliquaries are restored to their cupboards, and so an end is put to the solemnity. In confirmation I have given the following testimony. Sangüesa, 26 Nov. 1855. It was signed: Lino Undiano, abad.

[45] in the town of Sangüesa. From which it is established that at Sangüesa, in the church of St. James, there are two reliquaries, of which the one contains the garments, the other the bones, of our holy Virgins; likewise two notable parts of the bones with the Collar; and finally the reliquary-case in which the jaws are enclosed. Nor must it be passed over in this place that the reliquary containing the sacred bones bears an Arabic inscription, but now not altogether entire. Among other words are distinctly read: Nunilon and Allod. In the judgment of D. Pascual Gayangos, at present professor of the Arabic language at Madrid, that reliquary is without any doubt the most ancient Arabic monument which can be found in all Spain. But some have doubted of what material it was, namely whether of wood or rather of ivory. It is expressly called of ivory, as we saw above, in the Account of D. Pedro Uriz. The Reverend D. Barasoain, secretary of the Right Reverend lord bishop of Pamplona, sent us a small particle cut from the aforesaid reliquary, which I had examined at Brussels by skilled men. Beyond all doubt it is of organic animal material, hence not wooden, but indeed of ivory. Nor was it difficult to test this: for when a flame was applied to our particle, the horny material at once betrayed itself by the smell. For the rest, Fr. Raymond wrote these things toward the end of the past century Historia de las SS. Nunilo y Alodia. page XLI and following.: The bodies of the holy Virgins are kept in a cupboard of the high altar on the gospel side, in an ivory case with an Arabic inscription, etc.

ACTS OF SS. NUNILO AND ALODIA, VIRGINS AND MARTYRS.

From the Memorial of the Saints of St. Eulogius, bishop. Migne's Patrologia, vol. CXV, col. 774 and following.

Nunilo, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

Alodia, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

BHL Number: 6252

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Birth From the report of a most holy man and one of venerable paternity, Venerius, bishop of Complutum, we have learned ^b that in the city of Huesca ^c, near the town of Barbitanum, there were two sisters, virgins (of whom the one was called Nunilo, the other Alodia), born indeed of a Gentile father but of a Christian mother. These, when after the death of their impious parent their mother entered into a second and Gentile * marriage, and they could not freely hold the faith of Christ, the stiff-necked paganism of their stepfather ^d standing in the way (for the minds of the girls were already being watered from the holy fountain of Christ), spurning their mother's bed ^e, are most faithfully cherished under the nurture of their maternal aunt.

[2] and piety from infancy. At once their holy infancy began faithfully to cleave to Christ the Lord, and, forgetting their father's rite, they began to keep inviolate the religion of the Crucified, laying it up in their most tender and sanctified minds. And since they excelled in the honours of birth, and shone with the highest torches of dignities, their purpose could not lie hidden from the city, as the holy conversation of the faith which they bore gave forth its fragrance and its light. For indeed they had already reached the first flower of youth, and the report of their holiness had filled almost the whole province: and all were astonished that a twin beauty of roses had sprung forth from among the brambles. Hence the ancient enemy, jealous and grieving at the loss of his members, while he trusts that by the terrors of governors, at his envious pleasure, those already marked out for the bridal chamber of the eternal Spouse can be changed, brings on the sacred Virgins, by hastening it through harsh deaths, the reward that had been deferred.

[3] And therefore at the instance of his satellites he insinuates the cause of the holy Virgins to the prefect of the city, They are set before the prefect of the city; who

at once orders them to appear before his gaze ^f. Trying to entice them with a vain promise of gifts, he likewise exhorts them concerning abundance of possessions and marriages with most illustrious young men: if they would call their minds away from this religion of Christ, they would certainly be restored to their own birth and rank, and besides be enriched with an affluence of many riches. But if with too obstinate a spirit they should trample on the governor's counsel, they would be given over on the last day to the torture of torments, and at the last would perish by the avenging sword.

[4] having bravely confessed Christ, To him the blessed Virgins, animated by the Holy Spirit, constant and fearless, said in confession: How do you order us, governor, to turn away from the piety of God, whom holy piety, shining through us with its light, has made to know that nothing is richer than Christ, nothing happier than the Christian faith, through which the just live, through which the saints have conquered kingdoms? Without Him there is no life, without Him perpetual death holds sway; to remain with Him, and to live in Him, is true solace; to depart from Him is eternal perdition: from whose fellowship we will in no wise depart in this life; because, entrusting our integrity to Him, we hope one day to be admitted to His bridal chamber. For the advantages of passing things, with which you think to entice us, reckoning them as nothing, we despise with this view, because we have known that all things under the sun are vain. Nor are we troubled by the threat of punishments, which we know to avail but for a little while: nay rather, death itself, which you propose as the last terror, we long for with that most grateful affection with which we believe that through it we shall without delay ascend to heaven, go to Christ, and cleave unshakably to His embraces.

[5] they are handed over to wretched women to be corrupted; The governor, observing the constancy of their faith and the virtue of their profession, commends them separately to be instructed to certain wretched women endowed with skill in the profane rite, and warns them, with such terrors as he can, that they should not be strengthened by conversations with one another or with any of the faithful. And the women, receiving the Virgins of Christ, daily expound to them the poisonous dogma of the sacrilegious cult, and with sleepless care, offering the cup of a putrid sewer to those already refreshed with the heavenly manna, they wear themselves out with fruitless labour.

[6] finally they are struck with the sword, But when the women reported this obstinacy of theirs to the governor, after some days the Virgins were led out into the forum and set up as a public spectacle ^g, and confessing Christ and detesting the enemy of the faith they fell under the stroke of the sword *, on the eleventh of the kalends of November, in the era given above ^h.

[7] and shine with miracles. Their bodies, left in the place where they had fallen, are watched with the utmost zeal of the soldiers, lest the Christians should secretly steal them away and hide them for the benefit of their patronage ⁱ. Yet they say that those virginal corpses, in the place where they were rather hidden than buried by the heathen in deep pits, shine with signs and miracles, and display, by the working of their powers, the glory of their well-earned consolation both to the faithful and to the Gentiles. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

daughter; she reports the sight to her father; who, wretchedly blinded, said: Leave her; let the devil by whom she is deluded remain in her. When the prayer was finished and the day was dawning, St. Alodia asks that she may be allowed to meet her Sister. When this had been granted, amid tears of joy they are joined in mutual embrace; and St. Nunilo says: Stand firm, my Sister, in the faith which we promised to our spouse Jesus Christ. Alodia answers: I believe firmly; and do not doubt that I shall do what I see you doing. Let us fast today and persevere in prayer; for tomorrow we must die. On the same day they are set before the judge; the promises and threats are renewed, certainly in vain. There was present then also a priest who, not bearing the force of the torments, had fallen away from Christ. To him the judge said: Go apart with them, and see that they too do what you have done. That wretched man therefore assails the holy Virgins in every way. I, he says, was a Christian and a priest; but now, that I may live, I say that I am a Moor. Do you say the same (Moret adds Annales de Navarra, page 271.: Before one or two or three witnesses); afterwards you will do as you please; thus you will avoid death. The holy Martyrs answer: Must one not die once? Without doubt, he replies. Is it not then better, they answer, to die for Christ that we may live eternally, than to prolong a life soon to be exchanged for eternal death? The priest, seeing that he made no progress, returns to the judge.

* Another reading: gentilium.

* Another reading: corruunt.

THEIR PASSION

From manuscript Breviaries and Sanctorales.

In Ambrosio de Morales, in the Scholia on St. Eulogius, book II, chapter 7, num. 6.

Nunilo, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

Alodia, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

When the sacred Virgins were prepared to be slain ^a, then the king commanded the lictor, saying: Strike with the sword and cut off their heads. But the lictor asks the king three times whether he should strike? And when for the third time he had heard that he should strike, he said to the elder (St. Nunilo): Stretch out your neck. Then St. Nunilo said to her younger Sister: See, Sister, that you do not do otherwise than I am about to do. To whom St. Alodia answered: Do not doubt at all, Sister, that I shall do otherwise. And at once St. Nunilo, springing forward with eager mind, seizing her hair and binding it round her head, says to the lictor: Strike quickly. He brought down upon her the sword raised on high: bringing it down not on the middle of the neck but on the jaws; whence he did not entirely cut off her head. And as her body fell to the ground, her legs were a little uncovered. Her Sister, seeing this, hastening, drew down the garment and covered them. At this deed the multitude of men marvels. The faithful rejoiced, the unbelievers pined away. And the wicked king said to the executioner: Leave off now; do not strike. Then he said to St. Alodia: What will it profit you if you die? Consent to us, and you shall live with us with much honour. To whom the Martyr answered: I will not consent; make haste, strike me, lest I go on alone. And raising her eyes, she saw the soul of her Sister in the form of a dove surrounded by angels, and she said: Wait for me, Sister, wait for me a little. O wonderful power of the Most High! The girl who could not have shunned the sword flashing not far off did not fear it as it was about to descend upon her own neck; but taking the linen garment with which she was clothed, she bound it about her leg, and wiped her face with her hair. Then, kneeling over the body of her Sister, she offered herself to the striker, who with one stroke cut off her head. And thus the Martyrs on one day, at one hour, victorious, consummated their martyrdom in peace, on the fifth day of the week, the twelfth of the kalends of November.

ANNOTATION.

TRANSLATION

of the holy virgins and martyrs of Christ Nunilo and Alodia.

From José Pellizer de Salas.

Nunilo, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

Alodia, sister, virgin and martyr, at Huesca in Spain. (S.)

BHL Number: 6253

FROM PELLIZER.

After the passion Accordingly ^a in the eight hundred and eighteenth year after the Resurrection of our Saviour and His Ascension into heaven, while Abderrahman, king of the Saracens, was reigning in the parts of the Spains, the faith began to grow so fervent that not only men but also women, against the rage of the tyrants, kindled by diabolical instigation in the persecution of the faithful, were prepared to fight fearlessly with eager mind and to overcome the devil in his members. Among whom, in the territory of the city of Huesca, there were in youthful age two sisters, most holy virgins called Nunilo and Alodia, Christians from their very cradles, flourishing in all good works. These, neither terrified by threats, nor deceived by blandishments, nor delighted by promises of perishable honours, fought manfully against Ishmael, the governor of the aforesaid king, who by his rabid command raged cruelly against the Christians (sic), and, the devil being overcome, they went on triumphant with the palm of victory to Christ, whom with the honour of virginity they had sought on earth with pure intention of mind. But the tyrant, overcome, or rather the devil in him, first cast their bodies to the wild birds, that they might not be buried by the Christians with due honour, and that their memory might be blotted out from the earth; then he threw them headlong into a deep well, which he filled with a mass of huge stones, that there they might lie hidden in age-old oblivion for ever.

[2] Queen Oneca But He who promised the Saints: Not a hair of your head shall perish, in the ninth year running after the twentieth ^b from their passion, the Christian name having now been spread far and wide through Spain, deigned to inspire a certain queen named ^c Onneca to seek out solicitously the bodies of the holy Virgins. She, sprung from a most illustrious family of the Pamplonese, taught from girlhood in divine lessons, bearing the love of Christ in her breast, besought Him with the whole love of her mind, continually cleaving to His precepts with ready devotion. For she was constantly occupied with fasts, vigils and prayers, and the care of her mind kept watch over the poor and pilgrims. Bishops and abbots and the whole ecclesiastical order she honoured with great gifts, and she magnificently enriched churches and monasteries with her means. Among other places, the monastery of Leyre was desirable and lovable to her (to him), because she had learned that it had formerly been chosen by her forebears for the service of God, built, and endowed with their possessions and estates ^d. This at that time a certain religious abbot, a prudent man, mature, strong in morals and good works, named Fortunius, a kinsman of the queen herself, ruled fittingly, and adorned spiritually with the precepts of the rule, having gathered with him many servants of God in the confession of the name of Christ. This monastery, then, the said queen very often frequented for the sake of prayer, as she did very many places of the saints and servants of God. And it happened that, coming there in the time of Lent, while she was serving God in those salutary days, applying herself to sacred prayers and frequently giving attention to readings, she found among other things in the Book of passions ^e how the aforesaid holy Virgins in youthful age, rejecting the world for the love of Christ, loved not their lives unto death, and gave up their bodies to be slain with the sword; and how they lay in the deep, cast down without honour. Grieving therefore, and bearing excessive solicitude in her heart, she begged the venerable abbot with tears that all, applying themselves tearfully to prayers and vigils, should beseech God, the hearer of the good, that He would deign to reveal to them a fitting way of recovering the bodies of the holy Martyrs, to the praise and honour of His name. She too in the same way did not cease to entreat unceasingly the Lord, the Saviour of the world, that, loving and merciful, He would grant effect to her affection.

[3] the remains of the holy Martyrs Meanwhile, as they persisted in continual petition with tears, the clement ears (ear) of the Almighty, which is wont to hear His own when they ask for just things, were not absent from their prayers. For to a certain man named Auriatus, born in the villa which is called Casas, when he was given up to sleep, a voice was brought saying: Auriatus, go in haste to the city of Huesca; there, divine grace showing the way, you will find the bodies of the holy Nunilo and Alodia, hidden in a deep pit; drawing them out from there, transfer them to the place which I shall show you. Awakened and made certain by this vision, the servant of God, hastening, came quickly and joyfully to the monastery, and reported to the abbot mentioned before the things which had been told him as warnings while he slept. When the servant of God had heard his words as he reported them, filled with great joy he announced it to the queen and to the whole college of monks. Then all who were present, rendering unceasingly the greatest thanks and innumerable praises, glorified the all-powerful Lord, who had deigned to hear the prayers of His own. And very quickly the abbot and the queen, by common decree, all doubt being set aside, take care to send Auriatus with speed (unacquainted with the roads and the regions for the purpose of trade) to the city of Huesca, wares and most faithful companions being given him, to accomplish the work of the Saints; and they forewarn him most carefully, begging with great prayers, that in the city, if he could not find any indication of the business committed to him, he should not fear to go from there to the villa of Oscha ^f. He promised to obey their petition very willingly, and to fulfil with the utmost devotion, the power of Christ helping, all that had been suggested to him. After this

all, from the great even to the small, hoping in Him who said: "Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, praying, you shall receive," more willingly and more frequently add many prayers to prayers, vigils to vigils, alms to alms, that the benignity of the All-powerful might deign to send them swift help for accomplishing the salutary work.

[4] orders them to be sought Accordingly the already-mentioned Auriatus, most willingly obeying the commands of his lords, without sloth sets out on the journey; and he goes with his companions praying to God, who had deigned to reveal to him the vision related above, and who had destined him to accomplish that work, that He would not wish so great a journey to be spent in vain; but, as He had promised, would deign to show them the place of His treasure. After, then, they had come to the city, and the business to be accomplished there had been long delayed, they did not cease with one mind to entreat the intercession of the Martyrs with continual prayers, that at their entreaty they might deserve to find the desired place. And it came to pass that by their intervention it pleased the divine piety to assent to their prayers. For as they were wishing to depart from the city and go on to the aforesaid villa, there came friends and acquaintances of Auriatus. Joining himself to them, he narrates the history of the affair, for what cause he had come there, and what vision had been shown on this account. Whence they, understanding that this had been done by the inspiration of the grace of the Divinity, render immense praises to God, wondering greatly and greatly rejoicing.

[5] and carried to the monastery of Leyre. And some of them said that they were of the tribe of the blessed Virgins, and knew without doubt the place where their bodies lay hidden; and if he were to be brought to the venerable place, they promised not only to show it, but also to bestow help with eager mind. To whom Auriatus, filled with immense joy, answered that they should not hesitate or fail for the carrying away and veneration ^g, but that many gifts would also be given them. And they indeed, promising, and giving him safe pledge, bade him and his men come with them to their lodging. And there, having called together their kinsfolk and neighbours, who knew nothing of the matter or the place, at the first watch of the coming night, with the stars and the moon shining, they went secretly and cautiously, with great devotion of humility, to the place in which they believed the bodies of the Saints to be buried. There, then, prostrate on the ground with tears, they besought the Lord with the whole affection of their minds that He would grant them the desired help for accomplishing the work, and would show the place of the well [h] in which the bodies of the Martyrs were hidden. Then, when after digging a little they found the mouth of the well, there came forth an odour of such sweetness as if all kinds of well-scented spices were present there. They therefore, refreshed by the sweetness of the divine fragrance and comforted by the divine joy of the showing, began to dig eagerly, to draw out the mass of stones with all speed of mind, until they came to where, at the bottom of the well, the bodies of the Martyrs lay. Drawing these out from there, as they had long desired, and wrapping them with great veneration in the cleanest linen cloths, they gathered them into new little sacks. And so, at the very dawn of day, setting out on the journey with speed, they carried with them the precious pearls which by the gift of God they had found.

[6] and to be brought to the monastery of Leyre. And when they had departed from the bounds of the city, the citizens bidding farewell and going to their own homes, Auriatus and his men to the monastery, sending ahead a messenger to carry the longed-for message to them, came hastening and rejoicing happily to their country. And Enneco ⁱ, the most serene king, and Guilgesindus the bishop, a most worthy priest of the Lord, invited by the abbot of Leyre, with many other abbots and priests, as well as innumerable peoples of Catholics whom the fame of so great a thing had gathered together from different parts, went forth to meet them, wonderfully singing the praises of Christ with modulated voices to those who were bringing such joys, and they received the holy and venerable treasure with great honour and immense gladness in the monastery of Leyre, on the fourteenth of the kalends of May. On which day also many sick deserved to receive health through the intercession of the holy Virgins and Martyrs of Christ. Which the Lord Jesus Christ deigns to do today ^k to the praise and glory and honour of His name, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and is glorified, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

The place of the well. A chapel has been built Advertencia septima. over the mouth of that well; water was also drawn from it to be drunk by the sick. It was renewed in the year 1603, and the well locked with a key. There also are seen effigies of the holy Virgins, with a metrical inscription which Diego de Aynsa reports Fundacion, etc. de Huesca, page 287., and which is of this kind, rendered word for word from the Spanish into Latin:

This place was dyed with the blood Of Nunilo and Alodia, two holy Sister virgins, who offered Eagerly their throats to martyrdom, Zumahil, set over them By King Abderrahman, practising such cruelties; From their fatherland, the villa of Adaguesca, They came to die for Christ in Huesca (Osca).

his brother D. Fortunius García. For the rest, it is also established from the following Instrument of St. John de la Peña, which is an original Advertencia nona., that these three, Guilgesindus the bishop, Fortunius the abbot and García the king, were contemporaries. This, from Pellizer, who, as he himself teaches us, was the first to bring it to light entire Ibid., we set down in part:

In the name of the Lord and by His grace. García son of Enneco reigning as king in Pamplona, and Bishop Gulgerindus in the bishopric in Pamplona, and Abbot Fortunius in the monastery which is called Leyre. These three made a rule-house, a monastery (sic), by the name of Fonte Frida, and built a church of St. Mary and consecrated it and gave to it a great donation… Witnesses Micano son of Menco, Gutu son of Munio, etc.