ON ST. COLUMBA, VIRGIN, NUN AND MARTYR,
AT CÓRDOBA IN SPAIN,
IN THE YEAR 853.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Columba, virgin, nun, M., at Córdoba in Spain. (S.)
BY C. S.
§ I. The Saint's memory in the Martyrologies: the most celebrated cult in Spain of this Columba, not of the one of Sens or of another.
[ ] This is the fifth, but the first of her sex, among the martyrs of Córdoba who fall to be celebrated in this volume of September. Passed over by the older writers, For at the 15th day we gave SS. Emila and Jeremiah, and at the 16th SS. Rogellius and Servus-Dei, who suffered in that same city of Córdoba and in the same Arab persecution. She who today is added to these, St. Columba, virgin of Córdoba, was one who, turning away from the marriages of mortals — which both nobility of blood and comeliness of form and ample wealth easily provided for her — out of love of the heavenly Bridegroom, led a religious life eminent in all virtues in the monastery of Tábanos, and afterwards in the city of Córdoba itself near the basilica of St. Cyprian, and happily crowned it by an illustrious martyrdom. Ado and Usuard were ignorant of her, although the latter was at Córdoba a few years after her martyrdom, as we have already observed at the aforecited days. But in the latter place also we saw that not all the martyrs of Córdoba of that time were known to Usuard, or at least that not all were inserted into his Martyrology, since SS. Emila and Jeremiah are read in it, but not Rogellius and Servus-Dei; but for what cause, we do not know.
[2] In the Roman Martyrology of Baronius she is thus briefly announced at this day: she is today rightly inserted in the Roman and other Martyrologies, At Córdoba, of Saint Columba, virgin and martyr. A little more fully Pietro Galesini had gone before, in the Roman Martyrology likewise, saying on the same day: At Córdoba in Spain, of St. Columba, virgin and martyr, who, wonderfully adorned with all virginal virtues, burning with desire of Christ her bridegroom, whom alone she worshipped, with a joyful spirit gave her neck for him and underwent martyrdom. At the same day Tamayo celebrates her in his Spanish Martyrology with the following eulogy: At Córdoba in Baetic Spain, of St. Columba, virgin and martyr, who, while in the monastery of Tábanos she was gathering the white lilies of chastity and seeking the purple roses of the contest, that she might weave a variegated garland for Christ her bridegroom, entering the city and openly displaying the proofs of her faith, ran to martyrdom crowned with both crowns of flowers; and flying into the cleft of the rock, there the heavenly Dove found eternal security. Finally on this day they commemorate her in the sacred Benedictine Calendars: Ménard, Dorgain and Wion, as also others of more recent date in theirs, whom I pass over.
[3] That 17th day of September was our holy Virgin's birthday into heaven, St. Columba, as St. Eulogius witnesses, who expressly marks it; yet she was not always venerated in Spain on that day, but in one place on the 31st of December, in another on the 8th of January, in another on the 3rd of April, as Ambrosio de Morales testifies in his Scholia on St. Eulogius's Memoriale Sanctorum. Further, since on the 31st day of December St. Columba of Sens, likewise virgin and martyr, is celebrated in the Martyrologies, hence it came about that some judged that it was she, and not the Martyr of Córdoba, who was then venerated by the Spaniards, the one of Córdoba being passed over. The Breviaries increased the suspicion, in which Lessons of the virgin of Sens were prescribed, not of the one of Córdoba. But to each of these arguments the praised Morales has already rightly replied, contending that St. Columba, virgin and Martyr, whom the Spaniards are wont to follow with a special cult, is none other than the one praised by Eulogius. It will be useful to have reported Morales's own words, by which at the same time the notable cult of that same Saint will be proved.
[4] whose most celebrated He therefore, in his Scholia on book 3, chapter 10, on the occasion of the prayer in which St. Eulogius, closing his Life, invokes her, noted the following: As the divine Eulogius had written out more fully and even more eloquently the life and slaying of this holy Martyr, so also he willed here at the end to address her with a pious prayer. And of each the Virgin was most worthy: for as her life, full of outstanding examples of holiness, and her admirable constancy in death, deserved a longer sequence of history and the splendor of a more excellent style, so likewise, having attained a great dignity in heaven, she could bear to her own a more present and greater patronage with God, which ought eagerly to be sought. And this excellence of life and death in this Virgin, and this worthy invocation of her, to which Eulogius had already here made a beginning, make me believe that it is this our Columba of Córdoba, not that other Gallican one of Sens, whom all Spain everywhere so greatly celebrates with notable devotion. And there are besides several other reasons which move me, since there is none which could show the contrary.
[5] cult in Spain For what reason, I ask, could have moved us to venerate with so great a cult a Gallican Martyr far away from Sens — that is, from a most remote region of Gaul, so far as Spain is concerned — of whom we had only heard? The fame, I suppose, of her martyrdom, of which the Martyrologies make mention in almost a single word, and of which Equilinus wrote a very few things; while our Breviaries by no means agree in the Lessons or in the day of her festival. Columba of Sens was assuredly a most holy virgin, a strenuous martyr; but she herself, dwelling in heaven, and thence gladly hearing us, desires that we find and confirm the truth, and that we assert to her that lawful cult which is owed by Spaniards to a Saint of Spain. And that cult is so great, and so greatly notable and almost singular, that it ought to seem rendered not to a foreigner but to a native Daughter. There are very many shrines in the fields throughout Spain consecrated to the name of St. Columba, which are frequented with solemn rite and outstanding veneration of the peoples on appointed days. Parents, moved by devotion to this Saint, give her name to their daughters. The church of Burgos has among its dignities (as they say) an abbot of St. Columba. The church of Sigüenza has a priest of the primary dignity under the same name and honor. There is also in the same place, in the chief church, a chapel of this Saint, noble in structure, outstanding in cult, and notably rich in revenues: although in both places, the name being now corrupted, she is called St. Coloma, not Columba.
[6] So great a veneration, so varied a cult of religion, a devotion of very many attested by so many signs, is set forth, declared by so many testimonies, and always increased by so pious an inclination of minds — why should it be rendered to a foreign and not to a native Saint, to an alien and not to a fellow-citizen, to a stranger and not to a household and almost tutelary Saint? Should we, having one of our own country, seek out a foreigner? Was one of our own at hand, and should we call in a stranger? Assuredly we venerate one of our own, we honor a Spanish Martyr, and we deservedly seek out in her by lawful devotion a native patronage, owed to us by a certain right of a common fatherland. But
the day, you say, on which St. Columba's festival is celebrated in Spain — namely the last of December — is the birthday of St. Columba of Sens, not of the one of Córdoba; who, if she were venerated, ought to have occupied the 17th of September. I shall say indeed what I think. First, the Breviaries vary here. For that of Sigüenza has St. Columba on the 8th day of January, that of Coria on the 3rd of April.
[7] But I believe that, when some of our countrymen wished to celebrate St. Columba of Córdoba, and did not know the day on which she suffered martyrdom, she is not the one of Sens of the same name, and saw that on the last of December a Columba was venerated, thinking her to be the one of Córdoba, they assigned that day to her without distinction. But the Lessons relate the martyrdom of the one of Sens. Doubtless, as the birthday of our own Saint was unknown, so also were her life and passion, which were not commonly read in the books of the divine Eulogius. Thence they seized upon what was at hand, and what the same name gave them as though it were her own. This very thing we see done in the case of our own St. Marina, that is, of Galicia. There was nothing proper for them to read; they accommodated to her in part the history of St. Margaret. These things I had to say concerning the cult of our St. Columba; leaving meanwhile a free judgment to those who prefer to think otherwise. Thus far Morales, no less learnedly than piously, and finally modestly, claiming for the Virgin martyr of Córdoba the famous cult of St. Columba in Spain.
[8] These reasons pleased the most eminent Baronius in his Annotations on the Roman Martyrology, but the one of Córdoba, and to me too they seem such as to leave no room, or a very small one, for doubting. For the rest, when St. Eulogius's Work had been dug out of hiding after the middle of the sixteenth century, the people of Córdoba at least recognized this error, since they inserted into their Breviary Lessons excerpted from it, both of this holy Virgin and of the other martyrs of Córdoba, approved by the authority of Pope Clement VIII in the year 1601, the feast of St. Columba, virgin and martyr of Córdoba, being rightly assigned to the 17th day of September, on which Eulogius writes that she suffered, as we learn from Martín de Roa in his book on the Feasts and Saints of Córdoba at this very day, and in the Calendar which he prefixed to that same Work. Whether the other churches of the Spains, in which the cult of that same Virgin flourishes, afterwards followed that of Córdoba in this respect, is unknown to me; save that the praised de Roa complains that this had not yet been done in his own time.
[9] a virgin and martyr, Besides Baronius and de Roa, Marieta also, in the Historia Ecclesiástica de los Santos de España, book 3, chapter 25, and Antonio de Yepes in the general Benedictine Chronicle at the year of Christ 853, agree with Ambrosio de Morales. And Yepes indeed added besides another argument, by which he says he was the more moved to adhere the more firmly to that opinion. He observes, namely, that the Spaniards venerate that St. Columba whose body is kept in Spain; but that this is not the body of the martyr of Sens, since the French claim it for themselves; and thus, from the peaceful possession of the bodies on both sides, it is sufficiently proved that she is not the one of Sens whom the Spaniards venerate with so ready a mind, and accordingly no other than the Martyr of Córdoba. Of the body of St. Columba of Sens (for the people of Rimini too are said to claim her sacred relics for themselves) we must treat at the 31st day of December, on which she is venerated; but of the remains of the one of Córdoba we shall treat in the following §. The cited writers relate the same things concerning the famous cult of our Virgin from the praised Ambrosio, who himself also has the same in the general Chronicle of Spain, book 14, chapter 21, where he also says that St. Columba is held in great veneration in Galicia, Asturias and Portugal, the name being corrupted into Comba, and is honored with churches and feasts. But he also asserts that near Benevento there is a wealthy convent of nuns dedicated under her invocation; but this I leave to his own credit, since I have learned nothing elsewhere of this convent and its holy patroness.
[10] who is venerated today. A reply to Tamayo. To the reasons brought forward by Morales for the cause of the error another could be added, if Nájera, a city of the province of Rioja in Old Castile, was formerly called Senonae, as Yepes says in the general Benedictine Chronicle, Century 6, chapter 2, citing a certain privilege of king Ordoño II in which this is said. For since we are about to show below that the body of our St. Columba was anciently translated to Nájera or near it, it was the easier for the Spaniards to ascribe the deeds and the day of cult of the virgin martyr of Sens to their own Columba of Córdoba, if Nájera had ever been called Senonae. But let the credit of this appellation rest with Yepes, who himself also holds it suspect. Tamayo in the Spanish Martyrology at the 28th day of May reckons, besides the one of Córdoba, two other virgins of the same name in Spain: one, namely, of Aduri from the Chronicle of Julian, the other of Tricio from the Adversaria of Liutprand. To these he adds from other writers four others of Portugal: namely of Entre-os-Rios, of Tourega, of Coimbra and of Arche; and hence he concludes against Morales that from that famous cult of St. Columba in Spain nothing certain can be determined in favor of the one of Córdoba rather than another. But to these things I reply in few words that Tamayo, as to the first two, was deceived by the spurious papers of Julian and Liutprand; and that of the four Portuguese ones, the one of Coimbra was indeed given at the 20th day of July in our Work, but at the same time it was observed there that she is given only on this title, that popular writers testified that her relics were exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the royal monastery of the holy Cross. And concerning the other three our Sollier added on the same occasion that it is more truly said that they are known by name alone, and that of their cult nothing hitherto is established. There is therefore no reason why we should refer so famous a veneration in Spain to that Portuguese Saint, known only obscurely, or to others still less known, while we have a native Saint, illustrious no less in holiness of life than in martyrdom. Yet Tamayo's objection has this effect, that I do not dare to assert so certainly, with the writers cited above, that the Columba venerated in Portugal is the same as ours.
§ II. Her Life and Passion written by St. Eulogius: an account of the monastery of Tábanos in which she lived, and whose destruction she wept: the Martyr's wonderful deed: where her body is kept.
[ ] Her Life was written by St. Eulogius. The deeds of our St. Columba, St. Eulogius, priest of Córdoba, bishop-elect of Toledo and martyr, who also wrote the Acts of the other martyrs of Córdoba in the same Arab persecution, handed down to posterity a little more fully than those of others generally, in book 3 of the Memoriale Sanctorum, chapter 10. Of this Saint, whose Life you have illustrated in our Work at the 11th day of March, there is no need to note more here, save that he relates matters done for a great part perhaps under his own eyes, and that the man's holiness and station permit no doubt about his good faith in writing. That Life, moreover, embraces three states of the Virgin: namely the secular, under her mother's authority, who, being given over to worldly things, tried in vain to persuade her to marriage. The second, the religious, first in the monastery of Tábanos, and then in another within the city of Córdoba; and finally her martyrdom, to which, kindled by divine fire, she flew from the latter place. It is not necessary to illustrate each point here, since that can be sufficiently done in the Annotations to be subjoined to the Life after our custom: yet concerning the monastery of Tábanos, which our Saint made famous, and whose destruction she lamented, a few things must be said.
[12] Concerning the situation of this place, its founders and superiors, St. Eulogius, in book 2 of the Memoriale, chapter 2, An account of the monastery of Tábanos, writing of St. Isaac, a monk of that same house and a martyr, teaches the following. Suddenly burning with spiritual ardor and longing for the life of monks, (St. Isaac) sought the little village of Tábanos, which, lying in the northern parts among the steeps of the mountains and the thickets of the woods, seven miles distant from the city, is adorned with the fairest reports of men and handmaids of God in the practice of the monastic life. For in that same monastery he had his cousin Jeremiah, a man endowed with the highest reverence of the fear of God; who also, renowned in wealth and abounding in goods, and his venerable wife Elizabeth and their children, and almost their whole kindred, laying the foundations of that monastery at their own cost, had long since betaken themselves thither, to cleave to the perpetual service of the divine laws. There for three years Bl. Isaac, serving in his holy purpose under regular discipline, that is, under the most reverend abbot Martin, brother of the aforesaid woman, … sought out the judge, etc. But although that monastery supported women as well as men, do not suppose that they all dwelt under the same roof; for St. Eulogius expressly affirms the contrary in the Life to be given by us, num. 7, teaching that it was a double monastery, over both parts of which Martin so presided that Elizabeth had charge of the women, and access of the men to the women was rare. But let us hear St. Eulogius.
[13] Because the enclosures of the women, he says, were separated from the cells of the monks by high walls set between, in which she lived, and which by her examples— although they were governed by the rule of one father — yet these, shutting themselves away in their secluded little dwellings, gave to no one at all the opportunity of beholding them. But if from time to time either a fitting necessity pressed upon the brothers, or the pious kindness of guests required it *, the venerable Elizabeth alone showed herself to be seen through a window, who was prioress and true mother of the whole monastery. What Rule those of Tábanos professed we have not found: but the Benedictines reckon them among their own, which we can neither confirm nor deny. Further, our St. Columba was the sister of Martin and Elizabeth, by whose piety being kindled, after the death of her mother, who had always opposed the Virgin's pious desire, she betook herself thither, and there under the discipline of her brother and sister embraced the monastic life. Nor does it seem doubtful that, after the example of her sister and of her sister's husband Jeremiah, she expended her means, which her mother had left her, on endowing and advancing the monastery. And how greatly she made that same house illustrious by holiness of manners and by pious learning, it is easy to gather from the same St. Eulogius. I subjoin his words.
[14] she greatly advanced, There, he says, the holy Virgin, stripping herself of earthly things, clings to heavenly ones; and turning her mind to the study of the Scriptures, she becomes far more learned in investigating and discussing the obscurities of the sentences. The holiness of the blessed Virgin grows, and the widely spread fame of the monastery invites to her the resort even of cities situated far off, that they might be steeped in the teachings of such examples. Hence she herself was set over the other virgins to instruct them; and when thereafter, from desire of the solitary life, she had for some while lived in a cell remote from the rest, with the permission of her superiors, giving herself to God alone, she was again … called back to the community to instruct with divine nourishment the minds of her fellow-virgins. And each monastery was a school of holiness not only for its own inmates but also for outsiders, who frequently flocked thither, and as it were a training-ground for the schooling of martyrs. Hear St. Eulogius, book 2, chapter 10, speaking of the holy Sabigotho and her husband, martyrs. They visit the monasteries of men and of women, but especially the monastery of Tábanos, … because with the highest of monastic
rules of discipline it was making the whole West illustrious with the reports of an honorable fame. Thence the bravest athletes draw their lesson; thence they take their training; there they drink deeply of the cup of everlasting life; there the most holy Sabigotho frequently stays with the handmaids of God; there she learns the whole diligence of holy fear; there they place their two children * under the guardianship of the blessed women.
[15] and which, destroyed by the Saracens, she wept, From that same monastery also several of its inmates came forth to martyrdom, recorded by St. Eulogius. These are St. Isaac in the year 851, on the 3rd day of June; St. Jeremiah, praised above as Elizabeth's husband and Isaac's cousin, in the same year, on the 7th day of June; St. Fandila, from a monk of this place made priest of the monastery of St. Saviour, in the year 853 on the 13th day of the same month; and finally St. Digna the virgin, in the same year and month, but on the 14th day; concerning whom we have treated at the aforecited days in our Work, and whom in the same year our St. Columba — perhaps Digna's teacher, or at least her companion in the monastery — followed in martyrdom. But so great a celebrity of the monastery of Tábanos could not but be grievous to the heathen Saracens; especially since it could deservedly be held as a kind of armory whence divine weapons might be drawn against the impiety of their sect, and trained athletes might come forth. Hence I think it came about that among the other monasteries they willed this convent of virgins also to be destroyed, its nun inhabitants being transferred to the city, as St. Eulogius writes in the Life, num. 10, in these words: Meanwhile, when the fury of the persecution, which raged for the destruction of the churches, brought this gathering of women to the city, they betake themselves, to be shut away, to a small property which they had long before built for themselves in the neighborhood of the basilica of St. Cyprian.
[16] Of this destruction of the basilicas receive the following from the same Memoriale of St. Eulogius, book 3, by order of king Muhammad, chapter 3. Meanwhile, when the prince's savage conspiracy against God's company grew ever more frequent, and afflicted the worshippers of Christ everywhere, and even so not all rushed into their rite by a general collapse, as he trusted, he orders the newly built churches to be pulled down, and whatever shone with new adornment in the ancient basilicas, and had been added in the times of the Arabs in rough workmanship, to be broken down. Taking their occasion from this, the satraps of darkness overthrew also those roofs of the churches which, raised from the time of peace by the zeal and industry of the fathers, exceeded nearly three hundred years in number from the days of their founding. So he, concerning the persecution which raged more vehemently under Muhammad, son and successor of Abd-ar-Rahman. Yet perhaps the reader will wonder that the Moors granted the consecrated virgins whom they had driven out of the deserted mountains a place in their own royal city.
[17] But, as I have already suggested elsewhere, they desired Christians not so much to be destroyed as to be gathered into their own sect, lest the country be bereft of inhabitants; translated with the rest into the city. and therefore, besides the enormous tributes to be paid each month, they preferred by mockeries and curses and other reproaches of that kind gradually to root out the Christian religion from the minds of the natives, rather than to extirpate the natives themselves. Add that, as Eulogius says in the same place, chapter 4, the rising wars of rebellion, and Muhammad's army routed and cut down in several places, made him not a little anxious and hindered him from pouring out openly all his hatred upon the Christians. Hence I suppose it came about that he readily permitted the nuns of Tábanos to dwell in his city, because by that means he kept closed that famous training-ground of the Christian religion, to which, set in the mountains, we have seen that very many flocked; and by this humanity of his, such as it was, he in some measure gratified the noble families of Córdoba, of whom some of the nuns were born. For the rest, Morales notes in his Scholia on chapter 2 of book 2 that no trace of the monastery of Tábanos existed in his own time, and that he had not been able to determine its site by conjecture.
[18] Concerning the cause of the martyrdom, that question could here be raised again The wonderful deed of the Saint hastening to martyrdom which we touched upon at the 16th day of this month in SS. Rogellius and Servus-Dei: namely, whether it is lawful for a martyr to present himself of his own accord to the judge and to provoke him to inflict martyrdom: for she too presented herself of her own accord, as we have from St. Eulogius, whose words I subjoin. Now more ardently, he says, kindled in the love of Christ, with hurried steps panting to reach him whom she had faithfully served, and frequently urged to this also by certain revelations, on a certain day she broke out of her hiding-place, and the doors being silently unbarred, went out into the market-place; and although she was unacquainted * with the streets of the city, yet by careful inquiry she learns where the judge was staying. When she had come there and stood before his gaze, she makes profession of the Catholic faith, sets forth the Gospel truth, beats back the wicked doctrine, and declaring that one who presumes such things is the author of a great crime, exhorts the judge himself again, in very gentle words, why he should join himself to such sacrileges, etc. Certainly not only that voluntary approach of the holy Virgin to the judge, but also her clandestine departure from her monastery, exceeds the ordinary laws of prudence and of martyrdom.
[19] must be said to have arisen from a divine impulse But that these things arose from a special impulse of the Holy Spirit, who had vehemently kindled the ardor of martyrdom in St. Columba's breast, is proved by the revelations by which St. Eulogius testifies that she was frequently stirred to that heroic deed. The same thing is altogether urged by the holiness of her former life and her notable constancy in confession; which two things several authors, in the most eminent Prospero Lambertini, now Pope Benedict XIV, in his often praised and praiseworthy Work On the beatification of Servants of God and the canonization of the Blessed, book 3, chapter 17, reckon among the signs of the Holy Spirit's impulses. And her former life indeed St. Eulogius celebrates with the highest eulogies; nor does he less commend her perseverance in confessing. For twice, by his testimony, she confessed: first before the judge, then in the palace and in the council of the satraps; in both places bravely and steadfastly. Nay, that the mind of the most chaste Virgin was assailed in vain with blandishments and with the allurements of marriage and of wealth, the same biographer sufficiently indicates when he introduces her speaking thus before the satraps: Christ has no such bride as could prevail to be changed from the former agreement of his pledges. For who is richer than he, that you should believe me to be enticed by abundance of goods? Who is fairer than he, the form of whose beauty shines above the sons of men, that you should think me to be delighted by an earthly marriage? etc.
[20] it must be said to have arisen. Hence, when all the consuls (St. Eulogius continues after some words) perceived the Virgin's most steadfast constancy, and saw that one steeped in such oracles could not be changed, nor were able to bear the exhortation of her assertion, they at once order her to be slain before the doors of the palace. He finally adds a last act of virtue toward her very executioner, saying: The most sacred Virgin did not permit herself to be beheaded before she had honored the lictor with a reward. To these add the finding of her sacred body which had been sunk, in which Eulogius suggests that something of a prodigy intervened, as we shall presently see. Add finally the most celebrated cult of that same Saint in Spain, which venerates her as a true martyr in various places. Nor would I have these things thought to have been brought forward by me because I believed that her true martyrdom could deservedly be doubted; but lest I should pass by unremarked that illustrious deed of the holy Virgin, though more to be wondered at than imitated; and that I might show that nothing stands in the way of believing that it had for its author God, who is wonderful in his Saints.
[21] Another observation about this deed. Nor indeed was there wanting a reason which could urge that something singular be dared. For the impious Muhammad went on vexing the Christians daily more and more; and by the agency of certain men who wished to be held as Christians he had even compelled some to deny Christ, as St. Eulogius bitterly complains in chapter 5. Hence the weaker Christians had their fear increased, but the Moors gained no little arrogance, as though they were already triumphing over the Catholic religion. Hear St. Eulogius continuing in chapter 6. Meanwhile, while these evils were impending, he says, and the Church was being beaten with hardships of this kind, they say that the king, filled with immense gladness on this account, promised that he would inflict greater scandals upon the faithful: and, as has been noted elsewhere, that he would crush them with dire assault and molestation, if he should obtain a longer and prosperous success in reigning. So much so that very many of the nobles, mocking the constancy of the martyrs who had formerly died, would say to us: Where now has that virtue of your contenders gone? Whither has their magnanimity fled? Swallowed up by what, does their rashness lie hidden? Whither has their enfeebled fortitude withdrawn itself? Those who lately with hurried steps ran forward in rivalry to assail our teacher (Muhammad) were destroyed by due vengeance. Now let them be here, now let them come, only let them make haste, if, inspired from God, they truly maintain that contest. Everyone sees that in such a state of affairs the Virgin's deed was timely and glorious for the Church; both that weaker Christians might be confirmed in the faith by so heroic a deed, and that the mouths of blasphemers might be stopped, and the unbelievers might learn that they were vainly singing a triumph over a conquered religion and the former bravery of the faithful, while even unwarlike girls longed to shed their blood for it.
[22] The biographer's other statements we shall sufficiently illustrate in the Annotations, to be subjoined to the Life after our custom: The body first laid in the church of St. Eulalia, but concerning the holy Martyr's body some things remain to be said. St. Eulogius testifies that it was not, like the other bodies of martyrs slain in the same persecution, hung upon a gibbet, nor left in the street to the mockeries of the heathen rabble; but, clothed as it was in linen, was placed in a basket and plunged into the river; and after the sixth day, unharmed and entire, it was divinely brought to him by the skill of certain monks, and with due office earned an honorable burial in the basilica of St. Eulalia, virgin and martyr, which is set in the village of Fragellas. Yet what of the divine occurred in that raising of the body, Eulogius does not declare. Concerning the little town of Fragellas also, Morales in his Scholia says that he has nothing to say; but in the Chronicle he interpreted it of a quarter of the city, namely of Córdoba, or of a street called Fragellas; which Yepes, Marieta and de Roa also did: but whatever that place may have been, it is now unknown. Nor is it more certainly known how long that sacred body remained in the said basilica of St. Eulalia, or on what occasion it was afterwards taken thence and translated elsewhere; save that some suspect, not improbably, that this was done by the care of the faithful under the tyranny of the Saracens, namely lest it should be violated by those impious men.
[23] But that it was translated the praised writers agree, now in the priory of St. Columba, and at Nájera and they affirm that in their own time it was kept in Rioja, a province of Old Castile, partly in the royal abbey of St. Mary of Nájera, partly in the priory of St. Columba, subject to that same abbey. Let us hear Ambrosio de Morales for the rest. He, in book 14 of the general Chronicle of Spain, chapter 21, writes this in Spanish: The royal monastery of St. Mary of Nájera, of the Order of St. Benedict, possesses in the neighborhood there a priory,
called St. Columba, in which the body of that Saint is kept in the highest veneration, and is visited with a great concourse and devotion of the people of that district. But the holy head is in the said royal monastery, enclosed in a statue of the Saint, skillfully made and richly adorned, which I have seen. Concerning the foundation of the monastery of Nájera, Mabillon may be consulted, vol. 4 of the Annals, at the year of Christ 1052, num. 29. Of the same place Yepes treats at greater length in the Chronicle, Century 6, at the same year, chapters 2 and 11, where he sets out a catalogue of its abbots and priors.
[24] But concerning the priory of St. Columba, which he asserts to have been an ancient abbey before it was made subject to the monastery of Nájera — though he confesses that he does not know its beginnings — he treats both elsewhere and especially in Century 5, at the year of Christ 923, is kept. A reply to Tamayo's objections. where at the same time he observes that the holy Martyr's body nevertheless always remained in that priory after the abbatial dignity was extinguished, and continued to be honored with a notable cult. Against these writers Tamayo sets himself in the Spanish Martyrology, both at the 28th day of May, on the occasion of a certain St. Columba likewise a virgin, whom he records on that day as having suffered at Tricio or Nájera; and at the present day of September, contending that the St. Columba whose body is honored at Nájera is a martyr of Nájera, not of Córdoba. As the sole surety of his assertion he calls upon Liutprand in the Adversaria, num. 149 and 150; those, namely, which not so long ago learned critics, even Spanish ones, have already exploded as devised and feigned: for which reason my predecessors also, at the aforecited day of May, treated of her only among the Passed Over, following de Roa, who thinks with Morales and Marieta, and therefore referred the reader to the 17th of September.
[25] Are her relics in the town of Martos? Martín de Ximena, in the Episcopate of Jaén and Baeza and in the Annals of the same at the year 853, writes besides that in the town called by the Spaniards Martos, which by many is believed to have been Augusta Gemella Tucci, a tradition flourishes concerning relics of St. Columba of Córdoba and of other martyrs of Córdoba kept there in a certain chapel of the parish church of St. Martha; and that therefore that chapel is held in singular veneration. To this end he brings forward an ancient inscription cut in marble, which he affirms was formerly placed in the aforesaid chapel, but in his own time was seen in the prison. It is moreover written so doubtfully and is worn away in so many places that nothing certain for our argument can be drawn from it, save that these words, Augusta Gemella Tuccitana, and victoria & custodia sunt sancte Columbe, occur in it; but also Sancto martiris Cipriano is read there; the rest, by Ximena's own testimony, is wholly obscure, and therefore they can confirm that tradition little or not at all. Now I subjoin the Life from St. Eulogius.
Annotataperhaps imperaret*
* i. e. children
* i. e. unacquainted
LIFE AND PASSION,
By St. Eulogius, priest and martyr.
From his Memoriale Sanctorum, book 3, chapter 10.
Columba, virgin, nun, M., at Córdoba in Spain. (S.)
BHL Number: 1883
By St. Eulogius
CHAPTER I.
The Virgin's birth and country: her zeal for virtue in the world: marriage rejected: her entry and life in the monastery of Tábanos.
[ ] The author's preface. We are compelled, either by the number of those who contend or by the due pledge of our vows, to stretch our pen into a long sequence of discourse. Hence it is that, beyond what we supposed, the matter of the little Work, grown into a great volume, has almost exceeded the measure of moderation; because after so many deaths and the perils of unbearable hardships we would suppose that no one at all would attempt such things. Yet we are by no means silent about what we have begun, that we may recount the accounts of all, as we promised a.
[2] Meanwhile there was a certain noble and comely virgin, Columba by name, Having turned from marriage against her mother's will, born of the town of Córdoba, sister of the aforesaid abbot Martin and of Elizabeth, of whom we have made mention in what precedes b; who, while living most tenderly in her girlish years among her parents' goods, came to know the purpose of her sister Elizabeth, which with her husband Jeremiah c she was carrying out while still mingling with the common people (for long before they sought the monastery they consecrated themselves to Christ by many religious observances amid the gatherings of the people); and very often, leaving her parents' company, visiting her sister's house the more frequently, she longs to be consigned to such vows, and, panting, desires to be a servant of this purpose. Straightway therefore she desires to spurn all earthly things; but her mother opposes the Girl's intent, ready to resist; who also, roused with foul motions of anger against her daughter Elizabeth and her husband, complains grievously that they were thus enticing the mind of a Young girl; that as they had ruined themselves, so they wished to ruin her also, and that, breaking off her marriage and leaving the world blooming in its flower, they desired to cast her out among strangers for their comfort.
[3] But amid this struggle (as is the custom of the common people) the Girl is sought in marriage, her mother having died, she enters the monastery of Tábanos, and by frequent solicitations they long to entangle in worldliness one divinely assigned to the nuptials of the heavenly bridal chambers. And when neither would she consent nor would her mother desist from her being nonetheless given in marriage, the mother herself, by God's providence, being unexpectedly seized by the trouble of sickness, departed, taken out of the world by a swift summons. God's Handmaid remains, not so much saddened by her mother's death as gladdened by the favor of fulfilling her devotion without any man's hindrance. But while for some time both sisters lived in holy religion at the city, when the monastery of Tábanos had presently been completed at their own cost, as we have said, the men with the women betake themselves thither to serve Christ. There the holy Virgin, stripping herself of earthly things, clings to heavenly ones; and turning her mind to the study of the Scriptures, she becomes far more learned in investigating and discussing the obscurities of the sentences.
[4] The holiness of the blessed Virgin grows, and the widely spread fame of the monastery invites to her the resort even of cities situated far off, where, wondrously shining with virtues that they might be steeped in the teachings of such examples. And this Virgin, remaining under the governance of her brother Martin and of Elizabeth, excels in merits and goes before all in the grace of honorableness: praiseworthy in conduct, lofty in humility, perfect in chastity, firm in charity, attentive in prayer, apt to obey, merciful in showing pity, easy in forgiving, eloquent in preaching, ready in instructing. Shining also with these virtues, she drew the affection of all toward herself, being to all a rule and mirror of holiness. And because she was frequently assailed by the temptations of the adversary, therefore she offers herself up before the Lord by more frequent bendings of the knee *, fearing lest the labors long heaped up should perish by the onset of that most vile robber. Hence she is raised to a greater vigilance of holiness, and driven by fear of the enemy, more skillfully strives toward the height of the virtues by a stricter life.
[5] The tempter often wears her down with sicknesses, sends in weariness, holds out the beauty of men, urges a long life, and wearies her with various fancies. Compelled by these with horrible fear, she mourns exceedingly of rash judgment, lest by the fall of death she be separated from the fellowship of her Bridegroom, with so great an ardor of whose love she declared herself to be inwardly aflame that, wounded in mind by desire of him as by the scar of flesh cut away, she declared that she could in no way be healed d save by the sight of him alone in heaven. Never did she wound any sinner by her speech, however oppressed with graver sins; of no man's acts did she judge, of no man's salvation did she despair; nor did she despise anyone, though defamed by foul rumors. I know, she would say, the wiles of demons; I know the insolences of men, who sometimes assail with the mockery of cursing the very man whom the Almighty holds approved by worthier merits. For many things are condemned by human judgment which are approved and sanctified by the divine counsel.
[6] of detraction, of anger And for the most part men overstep the divine sentence by their own opinions, since they know not of what merit each one stands with him. And yet, as though already foreknowers of hidden things, they either proclaim one worthy or defame another as reprobate. Whereas assuredly they would judge more blamelessly if they returned to themselves; and if they considered how great or what a burden each man lies under, or for what debt he is guilty, they would by no means dispute blamefully about things unknown. But some do these things so that in truth the divine reproach, formerly uttered against us, may be confirmed, which says: Attend and hearken. No one speaks what is good; there is none who does penance for his sin, saying: What have I done? Who, neglecting the beam of their own crime, remain anxious about the motes of others, and whatever they have caught by the light right of whispering they nonetheless affirm to be true and by no means incredible. And never did the most gentle Virgin stir up anger without cause, unless perhaps when she saw either the little children e or one of the sisters negligent; whom she would rebuke humbly by the mere glance of her eyes.
[7] and shunning idle speech, and loving solitude Never at any time did she break out into insult of anyone; never was her mouth occupied with empty talk; never did she suffer old wives' and idle tales to be admitted to her hearing. Meditating very often on Christ in heart and Christ in mouth, she would more frequently sing with all affection that antiphon which the blessed Fathers fitted with sweet melody to the praise of the Saints: Open to me, O Lord, the gate of paradise, that I may return to that fatherland where there is no death, where sweet joy endures. She delighted to converse with those whose mind, girt with spiritual virtue, bore their members mortified with vices and concupiscences; nor did she grant to anyone access to see her, save perhaps to spiritual men, and that very rarely and late: because the enclosures of the women were separated from the cells of the monks by high walls set between; although they were governed by the rule of one father, yet these, shutting themselves away in their secluded little dwellings, gave to no one at all the opportunity of beholding them. But if from time to time either a fitting necessity pressed upon the brothers, or the pious kindness of guests required it *, the venerable Elizabeth alone showed herself to be seen through a window, who was prioress and true mother of the whole monastery.
[8] she lives in solitude; At a certain time therefore Columba asked of her fellow-sisters that within those enclosures, in some corner, a cell might be given her, in which, dwelling alone with herself, she might be free from the noise of the others. The holy sisters assent to her request, and by their consent furnish a help to the increasing of the Virgin's holiness, trusting that they too would receive some reward thence. For as the pursuit of holy conduct is worthy of a reward, so also is a religious affection toward those who live piously. Nor does a good consent stand far from deeds, when it is shaken not by weakness of mind but by failure of strength: so that when perhaps there is not vigor of body to perform such things, there may be an intention of mind to delight in the like. For the dealings of holy work are common, and are the more most pleasing to Christ the more simply, in perfect charity, we refer to our own advantage the pursuit of a brother's holiness.
[9] At length, having obtained the sisters' blessing, and being free from all doing of monastic cares, [called back to instruct the nuns, she shines with the gift of prayer and of tears.] the venerable Virgin, persevering much time in the contemplation of God and the meditation of the Scriptures, after frequent sighs and immense weepings, in which by a special gift she excelled from heaven above very many, returns again to the community to instruct with divine nourishment the minds of her fellow-virgins. For they relate that
she very often lay down in prayer for three and four hours, and even until midday; and while no sighs resounded, and her limbs were shaken by no sob, yet in great silence she brought forth weeping: so much so that beneath the mat f on which she prayed with her body prostrate, the pavement was shown wet with tears. Spending also a very great space of time g in supplications while standing, she was suddenly carried into so great a contemplation h that a twin streamlet of tears from either eye, running down to her chin and turned into one channel, flowed drop by drop with frequent dripping, as from a roof, upon the ground.
ANNOTATIONS.
perhaps fletibus*
perhaps imperaret*
CHAPTER II.
The company of virgins translated into the city: the desire of heavenly things and of martyrdom vehemently kindled in the Saint: her glorious confession and martyrdom: her body recovered from the river and buried.
[ ] Translated with the rest into the monastery in the city, Meanwhile, when the fury of the persecution, which raged for the destruction of the churches, brought this gathering of women to the city, they betake themselves, to be shut away, to a small property which they had long before built for themselves in the neighborhood of the basilica of St. Cyprian a. Here, being now settled, the most blessed Virgin wept incomparably and mourned abundantly both for her quiet, which she had enjoyed in the mountains, and for the tumults which she had encountered in the city. Yet always both with heart and with tongue she cried out: Thou knowest, O Lord, that I have not desired the day of man upon earth. Always she preached, always she prayed, always she sang psalms; always the praise and blessing of the Lord resounded in her mouth. And because the dwelling of the virgins adjoined the walls of the aforesaid sanctuary, and was divided from the vestibule of the altar only by the interposition of a wall, if she chanced to hear from the clergy singing any chant resounding in the praises of the Saints on the birthdays of the martyrs, at once, pricked by a certain gladness of heavenly desires, she broke out into tears; so that you would believe her no less to cry aloud within: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God! My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God?
[11] panting after heavenly things alone, For by those very bonds of the body, by which in this pilgrimage the mind of every Saint, held back and burned with a great thirst of heavenly desires, is separated from that ineffable brightness of the Saints — as if by the bars of walls standing in the way, that it may not reach with hurried step whither it wills, to the city of the living — believing that the burden of her members opposed her as from the other side, she weeps and says: My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God? Assuredly she desires to be with him with whom the Apostle, mortality being now dissolved, desiring to remain, used to say: To be dissolved and to be with Christ is better. But while St. Columba pressed unceasingly upon these prayers, since she inflicted upon herself, as I think, more of torment than a raging executioner would have laid on b — namely by continuing the labors of vigils, fastings and prayers — as though all these were small, torments brought upon her by her own and voluntary vow, so likewise she did not trust in her own merits, even if she practiced greater things.
[12] and eager for martyrdom, she presents herself to the judge, And fearing lest she should find the hundredfold fruit of her virginity void of profit with the Father, she aspires to the undoubted and ineffable gain of martyrdom, which sends even sinners by a straight path into the kingdom of heaven, since the Gospel says: The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away. Hence now, more ardently kindled in the love of Christ, panting with hurried steps to reach him whom she had faithfully served, and frequently urged to this also by certain revelations, on a certain day she broke out of her hiding-place, and the doors being silently unbarred, went out into the market-place; and although she was unacquainted c with the streets of the city, yet by careful inquiry she learns where the judge was staying. When she had come there and stood before his gaze, she makes profession of the Catholic faith, sets forth the Gospel truth, beats back the wicked doctrine, and declaring that one who presumes such things is the author of a great crime, exhorts the judge himself again, in very gentle words, why he should join himself to such sacrileges d. And he, marveling at her beauty and her words, led her at once into the palace and presented her to the council of the satraps.
[13] There still she professes, preaches, admonishes that all ought rather to take counsel for their own salvation and having professed Christ, than to persist in the empty deceptions by which they were attempting to turn her aside. She said also: Christ has no such bride as could prevail to be changed from the former agreement of his pledges: for who is richer than he, that you should believe me to be enticed by abundance of goods? Who is fairer than he, the form of whose beauty shines above the sons of men, that you should think me to be delighted by an earthly marriage e? What worship or sect is holier than the truth of the Gospel faith, which, promulgated through the whole world by the voices of the Apostles, promises to believers the reward of eternal hope: and it is beyond doubt in truth that every prophetic claim which dissents from it is anathema. Wherefore, leaving vanity, seek the true Leader of the Gospel; that you may better be called sons of light than the offspring of darkness and the progeny of death. For he said: He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die for ever.
[14] Therefore, when all the consuls f perceived the Virgin's most steadfast constancy, she is beheaded: her body cast into the river, and saw that one steeped in such oracles could not be changed, nor were able to bear the exhortation of her assertion, they at once order her to be slain before the doors of the palace. And when they had set her with the utmost reverence in the open square, the most sacred Virgin did not permit herself to be beheaded before she had honored the lictor with a reward: and so, bending her neck forward, at the fall of the blade g her delicate body is laid low. And without delay, clothed as it was in linen, the princes ordered the corpse to be placed in a basket and cast into the channel h; nor, as with the other corpses of the slain, did they leave it neglected before the doors or hang it upon a rack i, on the 15th of the Kalends of October, in the Era 891 k.
[15] Which, after the sixth day, unharmed and entire, was divinely brought to us by the skill of certain monks, and with due office earned an honorable burial in the basilica of St. Eulalia, virgin and martyr, which is set in the village of Fragellas l. it is recovered by the Christians. The author's epilogue. This has been related to us for our belief concerning her. For the rest, do thou, most sacred one, who profitably instruct the Catholic Church both living by the example of thy conduct and dying by the lofty patronage of thy merits, be mindful of thy worshipper; rescue me from the snares of the world, draw me away from the disturbances of the age, and grant me after death the rest of paradise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one and immortal God, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.