ON ST. POMPOSA, VIRGIN, NUN, AND MARTYR,
AT CORDOVA IN SPAIN,
IN THE YEAR 853.
PRELIMINARY SYLLOGE
On the Saint's cult, the monastery of Peña Mellaria, her life, and the time of her martyrdom.
Pomposa, virgin, nun, and martyr, at Cordova in Spain. (S.)
BY C. S.
At the 17th day of this month we gave St. Columba, widely famous for her life most holily led in the monastery of Tábanos, Rightly reported on this day in the Martyrologies; and afterwards for her martyrdom also. Her example presently brought forth another virgin martyr, Pomposa by name, plainly like her in life and in martyrdom, and finally her companion in burial. Of her the Roman Martyrology of Baronius has this at this day: At Cordova, in the Arabian persecution, of Saint Pomposa, Virgin and martyr. Of the same Galesinius had treated after his manner a little more at length in the likewise Roman Martyrology, and on the same day, in the words which I subjoin. At Cordova in Spain, of Saint Pomposa, Virgin and martyr, who, moved by the admirable piety of her parents and by zeal for sanctity, having cast away the fleeting things of men, and being dedicated to God in religion, led in the monastery of St. Saviour a virginal life joined with assiduous vigils, fastings, prayers, and studies of the sacred Letters; but burning with the desire of martyrdom, it came about by God's ordering that she came to the Arabian judge, an enemy of the faith, before whom, having freely professed the Christian religion, and having given her neck for Christ, she is crowned with the heavenly crown. Thus he, from St. Eulogius, whom Baronius also praised in his Annotations.
[2] At the same day Wion, Bucelin, Menard, and Dorgain reported her in the Benedictine Martyrologies as a virgin martyr of their own Order. yet she is venerated at Cordova on the 22nd. Other modern martyrologists I pass over; but in the older ones, such as Ado and Usuard, no memory of her exists, nor even in the appendices to the latter in our Sollier. Moreover, although this day is truly her death-day and birthday in heaven, as we shall prove from the aforesaid St. Eulogius, yet that not this but the 22nd of the same month is sacred to her among her own people of Cordova we learn from the Calendar prefixed to Martín de Roa's book On the Feasts and Saints of Cordova. But of the cult it is established from its very title, which is this: A Calendar of the Feasts and Saints of whom it is written in this book; at the days on which the church of Cordova celebrates them. And in that Calendar, as I have said, at the 22nd of September is read St. Pomposa, virgin and martyr; yet it is added: It was on the 19th day. For the rest, that I may not be forced to repeat the same things often, there belong likewise to her the things which we reported from Martín de Roa about the Offices of the martyrs of Cordova approved by the Apostolic See, at the 15th day in SS. Emila and Jeremiah, numbers 6, 7, and 8; at the 16th day in SS. Rogellus and Servus Dei, number 3; and at the 17th day in St. Columba, number 8. More, however, about St. Pomposa's cult than these things we have not found.
[3] Her parents found the monastery We have said above that St. Pomposa was plainly like St. Columba, her fellow-citizen, in life. Certainly, as the latter cultivated in the monastery of Tábanos, erected by her brother, her sister, and the latter's husband, a monastic life famous for virtues; so she too in the monastery of Peña Mellaria, founded by her parents, as it seems, for her sake, likewise shone before the rest as a nun. The matter itself will be sufficiently explained in the Life or Elogium to be given; but about the situation of the monastery and other things regarding it some things must here be noted. Of it St. Eulogius says thus: Her parents, having sold their patrimony, built the aforesaid monastery in that place which, because our elders saw honeycombs heaped up from antiquity by the industry of bees on that loftier rock, which remain to this day, was called Peña Mellaria. These words of Eulogius Ambrosio de Morales in his Scholia on the aforesaid Life illustrates by the following observation. They remain also, he says, until this time in which we write these things. For there is no doubt that the divine Eulogius means that loftier hill and rock which four miles from the city towers on the summit of the neighboring mountains, above the noble estate which is called el Albayda.
[4] The rock itself is called the Rock of Sancho Miranda. There the bees make honey every year in the openings of the rock. of Peña Mellaria, of which At the roots of its summit a very great spring flows out, which waters the neighboring gardens, planted with citrus trees of every kind. The site is exceedingly convenient for a monastery, and traces of buildings with ruins appear in more than one place. But it must be remembered that in chapter 8 the divine Eulogius placed this monastery not far from the city: therefore it must be believed that this rock indicates it. Otherwise we might have understood the notable place on the banks of the river Guadiato, which from the multitude of bees making honey among the rocks is commonly named Apiaria. But that place is distant nearly twenty miles from Cordova. Thus far Morales; and rightly. For in St. Eulogius, chapter 7 (for which 8 is wrongly assigned in the aforesaid scholia), that monastery of St. Saviour … is said to be situated not far from the city of Cordova on the northern side at the root of the Mellarian pinnacle. To these I add also another argument drawn from the Saint's Life itself.
[5] In it, among us at number 4, the same Eulogius writes that Pomposa, information is given: while she was hastening to martyrdom, after the nocturnal praises had been paid to God, going out of her monastery, came before the twilight of dawn to the city of Cordova, and entered it as the morning grew bright. But as easily as this can be understood of a journey of four Spanish miles, so little is it credible of a distance of twenty miles, especially in a Virgin who was making the journey on foot; unless one will have it that some prodigy intervened here, which would first have to be proved. Finally, to these I add also Aimoin, monk of St. Germain-des-Prés, who in the Translation of SS. George and Aurelius, book 1, chapter 2, number 10, in our work at the 27th day of July, page 462, thus noted the distance of the same monastery from the city of Cordova: It was separated from the city by more or less five miles. These things suffice about the situation. But that this monastery too was double, such as we showed the one at Tábanos to have been in the preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Columba, number 12 and the two following — namely of men and of women — is clear both from St. Pomposa's own Life to be given, in which express mention is made of brethren dwelling there and of Felix, a monk, abbot of the same monastery; and from the same St. Eulogius, of the same book 3, chapter 7, where St. Fandila, afterwards a martyr, a monk in the monastery of Tábanos, is said, the monks of the monastery of St. Saviour, which is situated not far from the city of Cordova on the northern side at the root of the Mellarian pinnacle, long imploring and asking it, to have been chosen and promoted unwillingly to discharge the priestly office there.
[6] But what was the reason why this monastery was not, like that of Tábanos, then already destroyed by the Saracens, in this she lived until her martyrdom. as we saw about that of Tábanos in the article on St. Columba, is not ascertained by me. It was, however, still standing in the year 858, when its abbot, Samson the presbyter, granted the bodies of the holy martyrs George and Aurelius, which lay buried there, to Usuard, the author of the famous Martyrology, and to Odilard his companion, to be translated to Paris, as may be read in the place just cited above. But to return to our St. Pomposa: from this monastery, having heard of St. Columba's martyrdom, she made her way to the city and to the judge through a badly bolted gate, to confess Christ; by a wonderful deed indeed, but one of which St. Digna, whose martyrdom you have reported in our work at the 14th day of June, and afterwards Columba also, had already given the example, and which must be referred to the impulse of the Holy Spirit, as we observed in the Commentary on that same St. Columba. Certainly St. Eulogius in the Life, number 4, ascribes that carelessness of the monk who badly bolted the gate to divine providence, that a way might be opened for the Virgin who had long been panting for martyrdom and had thus far been hindered from it by her own people. Consult also the Commentary on the aforesaid St. Columba, number 21.
[7] The Acts written by St. Eulogius: the time of the martyrdom. The Life of the Saint, as I have already often hinted, St. Eulogius, presbyter of Cordova and before his martyrdom chosen archbishop of Toledo, a contemporary author, inserted into his Memorial of the Saints, book 3, chapter 11, praising Felix, monk and abbot of the monastery of Peña Mellaria, in which she lived; and adding that he had learned more about her from him, which he passed over, in order to hasten to relating her martyrdom. But the time of her martyrdom he marked in this manner: the thirteenth of the Kalends of October, in the Era 891; that is, the 19th day of September of the year 853 of the common Christian era. And so indeed it is read in the Frankfurt edition, by the zeal and labor of Andreas Schott, which we use; but Ambrosio de Morales in the Scholia there observes the following: Era 897: so it plainly was in the ancient codex, but by a manifest fault of the copyist: since the martyrdom of St. Columba stirred up Pomposa on that very day; and in the following chapter also that slip of the writer is plainly convicted. Thus he, and rightly: for in chapter 12 Eulogius writes that St. Abundius the presbyter, ten months having intervened from St. Pomposa's martyrdom, suffered on the 5th of the Ides of July, in the Era 892, that is,
on the 11th day of July in the year of Christ 854, and therefore he meant to say that she was crowned in the Spanish Era 891. Besides, St. Eulogius was not among the living on the thirteenth of the Kalends of October of the Spanish Era 897, or the 19th of September in the year of Christ 859, having been crowned with martyrdom on the 11th day of March of that year, as was shown at that day in our work. And our Saint suffered under Mohammed, king of the Moors in Spain, who had succeeded to the kingdom his father Abd-ar-Rahman, who had his royal seat at Cordova.
THE LIFE AND PASSION
By St. Eulogius, presbyter and martyr
From his Memorial of the Saints, book 3, chapter 11.
Pomposa, virgin, nun, and martyr, at Cordova in Spain. (S.)
BHL Number: 6889
By St. Eulogius.
In the monastery of Peña Mellaria When therefore on that very day the rumor of the consummated martyrdom of the aforesaid virgin a had come to the knowledge of many, and was creeping not only through the whole city but also through the nearer places, a certain venerable virgin, by name Pomposa, from the monastery of St. Saviour which is established at the root of the Peña Mellaria, whither she had long since betaken herself with her parents, brothers, and kinsfolk to serve as a soldier for Christ b (from which formerly the most blessed Fandila, priest of the same place, had once come down c) — as soon as she learned that martyrdom from those who told it, on the next day she came swiftly. For this d blessed Virgin, beholding the holy manner of life which her parents and kinsfolk led at Cordova, from which they were sprung, straightway with eager mind assigning herself to such a vow, together with them despises the world, forsakes fleeting things, promises integrity, and strives with all effort to seek the things that abide for ever.
[2] Wherefore her parents, having sold their patrimony, built the aforesaid monastery in that place living most holily, which, because our elders saw honeycombs heaped up from antiquity by the industry of bees on that loftier rock, which remain to this day, was called Peña Mellaria. And there, settling themselves for the exercise of the monastic life, they relate that this blessed Virgin flourished among that assembly of her own kin the more beautiful for the grace of sanctity; and she who by age held the last place is made loftier than the rest, raised by the higher summit of innocence and of the merit of simplicity. And she remained so most strongly in the meditation of the Scriptures that, if it could be, neither by day nor by night was she free from reading, unless she were hindered by the storms of certain oncoming tempests. If perchance she felt anything heaped up to her own injury, she who was outstanding by the abundant grace of humility bore all things with a patient mind. She persisted in vigils, and lay more frequently upon fastings and prayers, by which, the Lord favoring, she might be able to keep inviolably the vow she had promised.
[3] There are many things which we have learned about her sanctity, as Felix, the servant of Christ, a monk and abbot of the same monastery, related to us; inflamed to martyrdom by the example of St. Columba, which, leaving them aside for the sake of avoiding weariness, we hasten as quickly as we can to that which without doubt sent her before to heaven. For since she bore a zeal for the highest holiness and served God faithfully, as soon as she learned of Blessed Columba's martyrdom, straightway burning inwardly with the fire of martyrdom, she becomes exceedingly gladder, refreshed by such news; and she ponders with a silent and solitary reflection by what steps she might attain to it. And O the wonderful calling of the Lord, and the entrance of the heavenly disposition laid open, by which no one predestined is cheated of the glory of martyrdom e; by which no one enrolled in the company of the Saints can be held by human ensnaring! For they relate that long enough before this time this Virgin would have flown to martyrdom, had she not been hindered by certain bars of her own people, who because of the raging persecutions kept her in deep custody.
[4] But what can the wretched condition of custody have in itself, she goes out by night and hastens to the judge, when, as it is written, Unless the Lord keep, they watch in vain who think that they in a human way keep anything? For when night came on, the nocturnal vigil being completed in the praises of God, one of her brethren, while the rest were returning to their bed for the sake of rest, as though divinely admonished and certainly not without the providence of the Lord, taking the key, contrary to his custom opened the gate of the monastery, and, only the smallest bolt being laid over it, pushed it to. To which she, silently approaching and secretly unbarring the door, goes through the darkness of the night, illumined by a heavenly light; and passing all that road, dreadful with vast solitude, before the twilight of dawn, as the morning grew bright she enters the city f, and does not delay to present herself to the gaze of the judge.
[5] To whom, setting forth the reason of the holy faith, and confounding the shameless prophet g with a simple exhortation, he at once decrees that she be slain with the sword, and thus, set before the doors of the palace, and having confessed Christ, she is beheaded, and at length her body is buried. her head being taken off, she is laid low on the thirteenth of the Kalends of October h, in the Era 891 i. And they, casting her corpse into the river, it is by the zeal of certain hired men heaped up [*] in a certain pit and entombed under much dust k. From which again, Christ favoring, after almost twenty days it was drawn out thence by the industry of certain monks, and, carrying it back to the aforesaid sanctuary of the blessed virgin Eulalia, it was there buried with the worthy ministry of priests and religious at the feet of St. Columba. Which we believe was nonetheless accomplished by divine dispensation; that those who in their life had loved one another with so great charity should in death also remain undivided in burial l, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning unto the ages of ages.
ANNOTATIONS.
perhaps congesto*