Part 18

Eulogius belonged to one of the principal families of Cordova, then in the hands of the Moors, who had constituted it their capital. These Mohammedans, who had ruined the Gothic kingdom in Spain, had not succeeded in trampling out Christianity. They did, indeed, suffer Christians to exercise their religion, and for this indulgence they obliged them to pay a heavy tax, but Christians were strictly forbidden, on pain of death, to make converts. Eulogius had a fellow scholar at Chute-Clar, a monastery on the north-west of Cordova, named Alvar, to whom he was warmly attached, and who became afterwards his biographer. On reaching his maturity, Eulogius taught letters in Cordova, and was ordained priest. In the year 850, the Moors began to persecute the Christians, and the metropolitan bishop of Andalusia, Reccafred, instead of defending his flock against the wolves, basely taking the part of the king, Abderahman, arrested all the clergy of Cordova, together with their bishop, and threw them into prison. S. Eulogius, from his dungeon, wrote an exhortation to two virgins, named Flora and Mary, exhorting them to stand fast in the faith. "They threaten to sell you as slaves, and dishonour you, my daughters, but know that whatever infamy they may heap upon you, they cannot defile the virginal purity of your souls." But these holy maidens were spared this terrible humiliation, being executed with the sword.[41] S. Eulogius and the other prisoners heard with joy of their triumph, and celebrated a mass of thanksgiving to God in their dungeon.

[41] It is not known what the occasion of the persecution was, and why the metropolitan sided against the bishop of Cordova and his clergy, but there is every probability that it was because they had attempted the conversion of some of the Moors; and Reccafred, as a moderate man, preferred quiet and toleration to missionary efforts and persecution.

Six days after, S. Eulogius and the other priests were released; and he at once composed a metrical account of the passion of the virgins Flora and Mary.

Under Mohammed, the successor of Abderahman, the persecution became still more cruel, and S. Eulogius was constantly employed in encouraging timorous Christians, who, to escape death, or the irksome disabilities and petty tyranny to which they were subjected, were prepared to desert Christ.

The number of martyrs at this time was very great, and Eulogius collected all the acts of their passion into a history, in three books, entitled "The Memorial," which still exists. He then composed an "Apology" against those who disputed their title, as martyrs, because, firstly, they wrought no miracles like the ancient martyrs; secondly, they had offered themselves to death; thirdly, they had died by a stroke of the sword instead of through lingering torture; fourthly, they had not been killed by idolators, but by Mohammedans, who worshipped the One true God.

After the death of the archbishop of Toledo, the clergy and people of that city cast their eyes on Eulogius, as his successor. But God was about to crown him with martyrdom. There was in Cordova a girl named Leocritia, who had been converted from Mohammedanism to Christianity. For a Moslem to profess the religion of Christ was death. To save her, Eulogius hid her in the house of his sister, Annulona, and when the officers of justice were in pursuit of her, he conveyed her from one Christian house to another. But this could not last long. The place of her concealment was discovered, and Leocritia was taken, and Eulogius, for having secreted her, was also confined. He was ordered to execution, and was decapitated on Saturday, March 11th, 859, and Leocritia suffered the following Wednesday, and was buried in the church of S. Genes, at Cordova. Because March 11th usually falls in Lent, the Church of Cordova transfers the feast of S. Eulogius to June 1st, the day of the first translation of his body, and observes it with an Octave. The body was afterwards carried to Oviedo, together with that of S. Leocritia, on Jan. 19th, 883, and a third translation took place to Camarasanta, in 1300. For Flora and Mary, see November 24.

S. PETER THE SPANIARD, H.

(DATE UNCERTAIN.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authorities:--A Life from MS. of Babuco, published by Bollandus.]

S. Peter was the son of noble parents in Spain, and was brought up in the profession of arms. In the army he distinguished himself as much by his zeal for souls and purity of life, as by his courage. His parents having insisted on his marriage, he yielded with great repugnance, for his heart was drawn elsewhere, and he desired to live a virgin life to his dear master Jesus. The marriage ceremony took place, and when the banquet was over, he retired to the bridal chamber, where he saw the fair young girl who had given him her hand lying asleep on the bed. She looked so pure and innocent in her slumber, that he gazed on her with reverence, and kneeling at her feet, prayed long and earnestly; and then stealing away, left the house, and fled the country. Taking his passage on a boat for Italy, he reached the eternal city, and going forth into the Campagna, found a place suitable for a cell, and there buried himself from the world.

March 12.

SS. PETER, GORGONIUS, DOROTHEUS, MAXIMA, AND OTHERS, _MM. at Nicomedia_, A.D. 302. S. PAUL OF LEON, _B.C. in Brittany_, A.D. 573. S. GREGORY THE GREAT, _Pope, D._, A.D. 604. S. PETER, _Deacon of S. Gregory, at Rome_, A.D. 605. S. MURAN, _Ab. of Fathinis, in Ireland, circ._ A.D. 650. S. THEOPHANES, _Ab. C., at Constantinople_, A.D. 820. S. ALPHEGE THE BALD, _B. of Winchester_, A.D. 951. _See September 1._ S. BERNARD, _B.C. at Capua_, A.D. 1109. S. FINA, _V. in Tuscany_, A.D. 1253.

SS. PETER, GORGONIUS, DOROTHEUS, MAXIMA, AND OTHERS, MM.

(A.D. 302.)

[Usuardus, those of SS. Jerome, Bede, &c., the Irish Martyrology of Tamlach, and the Roman Martyrology. Authorities:--Eusebius, lib. viii. c. 6, and the notices in the Martyrologies.]

The Emperor Diocletian having discovered that Peter, one of his officers of the bed-chamber, was a Christian, ordered him to be tortured. Then Gorgonius and Dorotheus, two other officers, filled with indignation, exclaimed, "Why, Sire, dost thou thus torment Peter for what we all profess in our hearts?" The emperor at once ordered them to execution, together with Migdo, a priest, and many other Christians of Nicomedia. Eusebius says that Peter was scourged till his bones were laid bare, and that then vinegar and salt was poured over the wounds; and as he bore this without showing anguish, Diocletian ordered him to be broiled on a gridiron slowly, and his flesh, as it roasted, to be taken off slowly, so as to protract his torments. Gorgonius and Dorotheus, after having been tortured, were hung.

S. PAUL OF LEON, B. C.

(A.D. 573.)

[Venerated in Brittany, in the Churches of Léon, Nantes, &c., and introduced into later Martyrologies. Authority:--A life written by Worwonock, monk of Landevenec, in the 9th cent., but rewritten, or added to, in the following century by an anonymous monk of the abbey of Feury.]

Paul, son of a Welsh prince, was a disciple of S. Iltut, along with S. Samson and Gildas. At the age of sixteen he left his master, and retired across the sea into a solitary place among his Brittany moors, where he erected an oratory and a cell. In course of time, other young men, seeking like himself a better country than earth, congregated about him, and he became their superior. He received priest's orders along with twelve of his companions. Near his congregation lived a prince named Mark, who invited him to come into his territory, and instruct his people in the Word of God. He accordingly went with his twelve priests to Vannes, and was well received by the king. After he had spent some time in that country, he felt a desire to go into solitude once more. Therefore he went before the king and asked him to let him depart, and to give him a bell; "For at that time," says the chronicler, "it was customary for kings to have seven bells rung before they sat down to meat." Mark, however, refused to give him the bell, being vexed that Paul should leave him. So the holy man went his way without it. And before he took boat to depart, he visited his sister, who lived in solitude with some other holy women on a little island in the Morbihan. And when all was ready for his departure, and the boat was on the shore, he said, "Sister, I must depart." Then she wept, and entreated him to tarry four days. And as he saw her tears, he consented to remain three days. Then, when he was about to depart, she said, "I know, my brother, that thou art powerful with God. Therefore I pray thee grant me my request." And he said, "Say on." Then she said, "This island is small and incommodious for landing, being violently beaten by the angry surge. Pray to the Lord that he extend it a little, with a gentle shore, into the sea."

"Ah, my sister!" exclaimed the holy man, "thou hast asked what is beyond my strength. But let us together beseech the Lord to be gracious, and grant thee thy desire." So they both kneeled down and prayed. Then the sea began to retreat, and leave smooth yellow sands, where all had been blue water before. So the nuns hasted and ran and told the brother and sister, and they rose, and went down to the sea, and stepped on the newly recovered land. And now follows a part of the legend which has evidently sprung up among the peasants of the Morbihan to explain the existence of the Druidical circles and avenues in the islet. The story goes on to tell that the sister gathered pebbles and laid them round the land laid bare, and strewed them down the road she and her brother had taken. And lo! these pebbles grew into tall pillars of rude rock, and the avenue is to this day called the road of S. Paul.

Then Paul stepped into his boat, followed by his disciples, and they rowed to the island of Ouessant, and the port where they disembarked was called Portus-boum, and at the present day is Paimbœuf. Then Paul tarried there many years till God called him to work again. And he took boat and went ashore and travelled through Brittany, till he came to Count Withur, a good man and lord of the country under king Childebert. And Paul settled in the island of Batz, which was off the coast, near the small town encompassed with mud walls, which has since gone by his name. And there he found wild bees in a hollow tree, and they were swarming, so he gathered the swarm and set them in a hive, and taught the people how to get honey. He also found a wild sow with its litter, and patted her gently, and she became tame. Her descendants remained at Léon for many generations, and were regarded as royal beasts. Probably this legend points to S. Paul having taught the people to keep pigs.

One day Paul was with the count Withur, when a fisherman brought the count a bell he had picked up on the shore; Withur gave it to S. Paul, who smiled and said that though king Mark had refused him a bell, yet now God had sent him one, after many years of waiting and wishing for it.

"That bell," says the historian, "has received from the people a special name, on account of its colour and shape, for it is green and oblong." S. Paul erected a church at Léon, and was appointed its first bishop. Withur could only obtain his consecration by having recourse to an artifice, for he knew that Paul could not be persuaded to accept the dignity. He gave him a letter to king Childebert, and entreated him to take it in person to the king, as it contained matter of urgent importance. Paul, full of simplicity, and eager to oblige his friend, hasted to court. And when the king broke the seal and opened the letter, he read that Withur had sent Paul to be ordained bishop, and invested with the see of Léon. Then Childebert caught a staff from a prelate who stood by him, and said, "Receive the pastoral dignity, to discharge thy office for the good of many souls," and he called three bishops to him to ordain Paul. Then the holy man wept, and implored the king to desist, but Childebert turned a deaf ear to his entreaties, and had him consecrated, and then sent him back to Léon, where he was received with the liveliest demonstrations of joy. He built a monastery on the isle of Batz, and filled it with monks, and thither he retired whenever he could escape from the business of his see. He lived to a very advanced age, and laying aside his episcopal government, ordained three of his disciples in succession to it, and survived two of them. His body reposed in his cathedral church, but his relics were dispersed by the Huguenots in the religious wars of the 16th century.

In art he is represented either (1) with a bell, or (2) with a cruse of water and a loaf of bread, as he lived on nothing else, or (3) driving a dragon into the sea, to signify that he expelled the Druidical superstition out of Brittany.

S. GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, D.

(A.D. 604.)

[Roman and all other Western Martyrologies; by the Greeks on March 11th. Authorities:--A life by Paulus Diaconus, another by Joannes Diaconus, 9th cent., the writings of S. Gregory, &c. The following is in part condensed from the elegant life of S. Gregory by the Count de Montalembert, in his Monks of the West.]

S. Gregory the Great will be an everlasting honour to the Benedictine Order and to the Papacy. By his genius, but especially by the charm and ascendancy of his virtue, he was destined to organise the temporal power of the popes, to develop and regulate their spiritual sovereignty, to found their paternal supremacy over the new-born crowns and races which were to become the great nations of the future, and to be called France, Spain, and England. It was he indeed, who inaugurated the middle ages, modern society, and Christian civilisation.

Issued from one of the most illustrious races of ancient Rome, the son of a rich senator, and descendant of Pope Felix III., of the Anician family, Gregory was early called to fill a dignified place, which, in the midst of the Rome of that day, the vassal of Byzantium, and subject to the ceaseless insults of the Barbarians, retained some shadow of ancient Roman grandeur. He was prætor of Rome during the first invasion of the Lombards. In the exercise of this office he gained the hearts of the Romans, while habituating himself to the management of public business, and while acquiring a taste for luxury and display of earthly grandeur, in which he still believed he might serve God without reproach. But God required him elsewhere. Gregory hesitated long, inspired by the divine breath to seek religion, but was retained, led back and fascinated to the world, by the attractions and habits of secular life. At last he yielded to the influence of his intimate and close relations with the disciples of S. Benedict in Monte Cassino, and obeying the grace that enlightened him, he abruptly broke every tie, devoted his wealth to the endowment of six new monasteries in Sicily, and established in his own palace in Rome, upon the Cœlian hill, a seventh, dedicated to S. Andrew, into which he introduced the Benedictine rule, and where he himself became a monk. He sold all that remained of his patrimony, to distribute it to the poor; and Rome, which had seen the young and wealthy patrician traverse its streets in robes of silk covered with jewels, saw him now, in 575, with admiration, clothed like a beggar, serving, in his own person the beggars lodged in the hospital which he had built at the gate of his paternal house, now changed into a monastery.

Once a monk, he would be nothing less than a model of monks, and practised with the utmost rigour all the austerities sanctioned by the rule, applying himself specially at the same time to the study of the Holy Scriptures. He ate only pulse, which his mother, who had become a nun since her widowhood, sent him, already soaked, in a silver porringer. This porringer was the only remnant of his ancient splendour, and did not long remain in his hands, for one day a shipwrecked sailor came several times to beg from him while he was writing in his cell, and finding no money in his purse, the Saint gave him that relic of his former wealth.

Continually engaged in prayer, reading, writing, or dictation, he persisted in pushing the severity of his fasts to such an extent, that his health succumbed. He fell so often into fainting fits, that more than once he would have sunk under them had not his brethren supported him with more substantial food. In consequence of having attempted to do more than others, he was soon obliged to relinquish the most ordinary fasts, which everybody observed. He was in despair at not being able to fast even on Easter eve, a day on which even the little children abstain, says his biographer. He remained weak and sickly all his life, and when he left his monastery, it was with health irreparably ruined.

Pope Benedict I. drew him first from the cloister in 577, to raise him to the dignity of one of the seven cardinal deacons, who presided over the seven principal divisions of Rome. Pelagius II., successor to Benedict I., chose S. Gregory to head an embassy to Constantinople to congratulate the Emperor Tiberius on his accession in A.D. 578. During his stay at the imperial court, S. Gregory refused to have any intercourse with the patriarch Eutychius, who had published an heretical treatise on the nature of the resurrection body. On his death-bed, however, Eutychius acknowledged his former errors. After six years of this honourable and laborious exile, he returned to Rome, and regained the shelter of his monastery of S. Andrea, the monks of which elected him abbot soon after his return. He enjoyed there for some time longer the delights of the life he had chosen. Tenderly cherished by his brethren, he took a paternal share in their trials and spiritual crosses, provided for their temporary and spiritual necessities, and specially rejoiced in the holy deaths of several among them. He has related the details of these in his "Dialogues," and seems to breathe in them the perfume of heaven.

The tender solicitude he bore to souls was on the point of separating him from his dear monastery and from Rome. Seeing one day exhibited in the market some poor pagan children, of extraordinary beauty and fairness, who were said to be of the country of the Angles, "Not Angles," said he, "but Angels." Then hastening to the pope, he begged him to send missionaries into that great island of Britain, where the pagans sold such slaves; failing others, he offered himself for this work, surprised the pontiff into consent, and prepared instantly for his departure. But when the Romans understood his intention, the love with which they had formerly regarded him was re-awakened. They surrounded the pope as he went to S. Peter's, and intreated him to recall Gregory. The astonished pope yielded to the popular voice. He sent messengers after Gregory, who overtook him at three days' journey from Rome; and led him back forcibly to his monastery. It was not as a missionary, but as a pope, that he was to win England to the Church.

In 590, Pelagius II. died of the plague, which then depopulated Rome. Gregory was immediately elected pope by the unanimous voice of the senate, the people, and the clergy. It was in vain that he refused, and appealed to the emperor Maurice not to confirm his election. The Romans intercepted his letter; the imperial confirmation arrived. Then he disguised himself, and fleeing from Rome to seek some unknown retreat, wandered three days in the woods. He was followed, discovered, and a second time led back to Rome, but this time to reign there. He bowed his head, weeping, under the yoke imposed upon him by the Divine will and the unanimity of his fellow-citizens.

It was during the interval between his election and the imperial confirmation that, filled with a paternal anxiety for the safety of the people, he organized a great procession, with solemn litanies, to seek to avert the wrath of Almighty God. It proceeded from seven stations in the city, in as many divisions, to the Church of S. Maria-Maggiore. The first company consisted of the secular clergy, the second of the abbots and their monks, the third of the abbesses and their nuns, the fourth of children, the fifth of laymen, the sixth of widows, and the seventh of matrons: each band was led by the priests of the quarter of the city from which it came. While the procession lasted, eighty persons in it died of the plague; yet S. Gregory persevered, and the prayers of the city were heard. This was the origin of the "Greater Litanies," which were afterwards held on S. Mark's Day, and which acquired the popular name of "_The Black Crosses_," from the penitential hue of the vestments and banners used therein. While the procession defiled before Gregory, he saw an angel appear upon the summit of the Mole of Hadrian, putting back his sword into its sheath, the image of which, standing upon the colossal mausoleum, has given its name to the castle of S. Angelo, and perpetuated to our day the recollection of S. Gregory's vision.

The supreme pontificate, perhaps, never fell upon a soul more disturbed and afflicted than that of this monk, who saw himself thus condemned to exchange the peace of the cloister for the cares of the government of the Church, and the special defence of the interests of Italy. Not only then, but during all his life, he did not cease to lament his fate. "I have lost," he wrote to the sister of the emperor, "the profound joys of repose. I seem to have been elevated in external things, but in spiritual I have fallen." To the patrician Narses: "I am so overcome with melancholy, that I can scarcely speak. I cannot cease considering the height of tranquillity from which I have fallen, and the height of embarrassment I have ascended." To his friend Leander: "I am so beaten by the waves of this world, that I despair of being able to guide to port this rotten old vessel with which God has charged me. I weep when I recall the peaceful shore which I have left, and sigh in perceiving afar what I now cannot attain."

The poor monk who showed so much despair when he was thrown into the political whirlpool by the unanimous voice of the Romans, could yet perceive with a bold and clear glance the dangers of the situation, and adopt a line of conduct most suitable to the emergency of the times. First of all he concerned himself with the Lombards. After nine years' exertion, in overcoming Byzantine repugnance to acknowledge any right whatever on the side of the Lombards, he concluded a peace between the two powers, which made Italy, exhausted by thirty years of war and brigandage, thrill with joy. It was of short duration; but when hostilities recommenced, he entered into direct negociations with king Agilulf, and obtained from that prince a special truce for Rome and its surrounding territory. He had besides found a powerful advocate with the Lombard king in the person of the illustrious queen Theodelinda. This princess, a Bavarian and Catholic by birth, had gained the hearts of the Lombards. The queen was always the faithful friend of the pope; she served as a medium of communication between him and her husband. Gregory, from the very beginning of his pontificate, had exhorted the Italian bishops to make special exertions for the conversion of these formidable heretics.