Eulogius of Córdoba
Encyclopedia
Saint Eulogius of Córdoba ( (died March 11, 859) was one of the Martyrs of Córdoba
. He flourished during the reigns of the Cordovan emirs Abd-er-Rahman II and Muhammad I
(mid-9th century).
and Navarre
, and priesthood was conferred only on men thirty years of age.
and held land in Córdoba from Roman
times. The Muslim rulers of Iberia, at the beginning of the 8th century, tolerated the creed of the Christians and left them, with some restrictions, their civil rule, ecclesiastical hierarchy, monasteries, and property, but made them feel the burden of subjection in the shape of pecuniary exactions and military service.
In the large cities like Toledo
and Córdoba
, the civil rule of the Christians did not differ from that of the Visigothic epoch. The government was exercised by the comes (count), president of the council of senators, among whom we meet a similarly named ancestor of Eulogus. The saint, like his five brothers, received an excellent education in accord with his good birth and under the guardianship of his mother Isabel. The youngest of the brothers, Joseph, held a high office in the palace of Abd-er-Rahman II; two other brothers, Alvarus and Isidore, were merchants and traded on a large scale as far as Central Europe
. Of his sisters, Niola and Anulona, the first remained with her mother; the second was educated from infancy in a monastery where she later became a nun
.
, an illustrious writer of that time.
In the meantime he found a friend in the celebrated Alvarus Paulus, a fellow-student, and they cultivated together all branches of science
, sacred and profane
, within their reach. Their correspondence in prose and verse filled volumes; later they agreed to destroy it as too exuberant and lacking in polish. Alvarus married, but St. Eulogius preferred the ecclesiastical career, and was finally ordained a priest by Bishop Reccafred of Cordova.
During 848, Eulogius visited monasteries in northern Iberia, among them San Zacharias, where he received texts of St. Augustine, Horace, Juvenal and Virgil and brought them back to Cordoba.
This humility shone particularly on two occasions. In his youth he had decided to make a foot pilgrimage
to Rome
; notwithstanding his great fervour and his devotion to the sepulchre
of the Prince of the Apostles
(a notable proof of the union of the Mozarabic rite
Church with the Rome
), he gave up his project, yielding to the advice of prudent friends. Again, during the Muslim persecution, in 850, after reading a passage of the works of St. Epiphanius he decided to refrain for a time from saying Mass that he might better defend the cause of the martyrs; however, at the request of his bishop, Saul of Córdoba, he put aside his scruples. His extant writings are proof that Alvarus did not exaggerate.
They give an account of what is most important from 848 to 859 in Iberian
Christianity, both without and within the Muslim
dominions, especially of the lives of the martyrs who suffered during the Muslim persecution, quorum para ipse magna fuit. The earliest account of the Quran in a language other than Arabic is credited to Eulogius, who translated Sura
al-Ahzab
verse 37, around the year 857.
In 858, a virgin named Leocritia of a noble family of the Moors was converted and sought his protection against her irate parents. St. Eulogius hid her among friends for a time, but eventually they were all discovered and condemned to death. St. Eulogius was beheaded on March 11, 859, and St. Leocritia four days later on March 15, 859.
St. Eulogius was chosen to fill the vacant Archepiscopal See of Toledo, but could not be consecrated as Archbishop of Toledo, owing to his imprisonment shortly before his execution by beheading
. St. Eulogius left a perfect account of the orthodox doctrine which he defended, the intellectual culture which he propagated, the imprisonment and sufferings which he endured; in a word, his writings show that he followed to the letter the exhortation of St. Paul
: Imitatores mei estote sicut et ego Christi.
St. Eulogius is buried in the Cathedral of Oviedo
. His feast day is March 11.
Martyrs of Córdoba
The Martyrs of Córdoba were forty-eight Christian martyrs living in the 9th century Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus, in what is now southern Spain; their hagiography describes in detail their executions for deliberately sought capital violations of Muslim law in Al-Andalus...
. He flourished during the reigns of the Cordovan emirs Abd-er-Rahman II and Muhammad I
Muhammad I of Córdoba
Muhammad I was the Umayyad emir of Córdoba from 852 to 886 in the Al-Andalus .-Biography:Muhammad was born in Córdoba...
(mid-9th century).
Birth
It is not certain on what date or in what year of the 9th century he was born; it must have been before 819, because in 848 he was a highly-esteemed priest among the Christians of CataloniaCatalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
and Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
, and priesthood was conferred only on men thirty years of age.
Family
The family of the saint was of the nobilityNobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
and held land in Córdoba from Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times. The Muslim rulers of Iberia, at the beginning of the 8th century, tolerated the creed of the Christians and left them, with some restrictions, their civil rule, ecclesiastical hierarchy, monasteries, and property, but made them feel the burden of subjection in the shape of pecuniary exactions and military service.
In the large cities like Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
and Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
, the civil rule of the Christians did not differ from that of the Visigothic epoch. The government was exercised by the comes (count), president of the council of senators, among whom we meet a similarly named ancestor of Eulogus. The saint, like his five brothers, received an excellent education in accord with his good birth and under the guardianship of his mother Isabel. The youngest of the brothers, Joseph, held a high office in the palace of Abd-er-Rahman II; two other brothers, Alvarus and Isidore, were merchants and traded on a large scale as far as Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
. Of his sisters, Niola and Anulona, the first remained with her mother; the second was educated from infancy in a monastery where she later became a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
.
Career
After completing his studies in the monastery of St. Zoilus, St. Eulogius continued to live with his family the better to care for his mother; also, perhaps, to study with famous masters, one of whom was Abbot SperaindeoSperaindeo
Speraindeo was a Córdoban Mozarabic abbott, teacher of Eulogius and Alvarus Paulus.Few details are known about his life. He was the abbot of the Monastery of Santa Clear, near Córdoba, during the era of the caliphate. Apart from his writing, he worked to conserve Latin Christian culture in Muslim...
, an illustrious writer of that time.
In the meantime he found a friend in the celebrated Alvarus Paulus, a fellow-student, and they cultivated together all branches of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, sacred and profane
Sacred and Profane
Sacred and Profane is a 1987 novel by Faye Kellerman. It is second in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series.A Fawcett Crest Book published by Ballantine Books.Timeline: About six months after The Ritual Bath, starts Christmas Eve, Decker is 39....
, within their reach. Their correspondence in prose and verse filled volumes; later they agreed to destroy it as too exuberant and lacking in polish. Alvarus married, but St. Eulogius preferred the ecclesiastical career, and was finally ordained a priest by Bishop Reccafred of Cordova.
During 848, Eulogius visited monasteries in northern Iberia, among them San Zacharias, where he received texts of St. Augustine, Horace, Juvenal and Virgil and brought them back to Cordoba.
Character
Alvarus Paulus has left us a portrait of his friend: "Devoted", he says, "from his infancy to the Scriptures, and growing daily in the practice of virtue, he quickly reached perfection, surpassed in knowledge all his contemporaries, and became the teacher even of his masters. Mature in intelligence, though in body a child, he excelled them all in science even more than they surpassed him in years. Fair in feature [clarus vultu], honest and honourable, he shone by his eloquence, and yet more by his works. What books escaped his avidity for reading? What works of Catholic writers, of heretics and Gentiles, chiefly philosophers? Poets, historians, rare writings, all kinds of books, especially sacred hymns, in the composition of which he was a master, were read and digested by him; his humility was nonetheless remarkable and he readily yielded to the judgment of others less learned than himself."This humility shone particularly on two occasions. In his youth he had decided to make a foot pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
; notwithstanding his great fervour and his devotion to the sepulchre
Sepulchre
The rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel are a group of hundreds of rock-cut tombs constructed in Israel in ancient times. They were cut into the rock, sometimes with elaborate facades and multiple burial chambers. Some are free-standing, but most are caves. Each tomb typically belonged to a...
of the Prince of the Apostles
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
(a notable proof of the union of the Mozarabic rite
Mozarabic Rite
The Mozarabic, Visigothic, or Hispanic Rite is a form of Catholic worship within the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, and in the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church . Its beginning dates to the 7th century, and is localized in the Iberian Peninsula...
Church with the Rome
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
), he gave up his project, yielding to the advice of prudent friends. Again, during the Muslim persecution, in 850, after reading a passage of the works of St. Epiphanius he decided to refrain for a time from saying Mass that he might better defend the cause of the martyrs; however, at the request of his bishop, Saul of Córdoba, he put aside his scruples. His extant writings are proof that Alvarus did not exaggerate.
They give an account of what is most important from 848 to 859 in Iberian
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
Christianity, both without and within the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
dominions, especially of the lives of the martyrs who suffered during the Muslim persecution, quorum para ipse magna fuit. The earliest account of the Quran in a language other than Arabic is credited to Eulogius, who translated Sura
Sura
A sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...
al-Ahzab
Al-Ahzab
Surat Al-Ahzab is the 33rd sura of the Qur'an with 73 ayat.Verse 5: Adoption in Islam.Ayat 6 contains a reference to the term Mother of Believers.Ayat 25 contains a reference to Battle of the trench....
verse 37, around the year 857.
In 858, a virgin named Leocritia of a noble family of the Moors was converted and sought his protection against her irate parents. St. Eulogius hid her among friends for a time, but eventually they were all discovered and condemned to death. St. Eulogius was beheaded on March 11, 859, and St. Leocritia four days later on March 15, 859.
St. Eulogius was chosen to fill the vacant Archepiscopal See of Toledo, but could not be consecrated as Archbishop of Toledo, owing to his imprisonment shortly before his execution by beheading
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
. St. Eulogius left a perfect account of the orthodox doctrine which he defended, the intellectual culture which he propagated, the imprisonment and sufferings which he endured; in a word, his writings show that he followed to the letter the exhortation of St. Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
: Imitatores mei estote sicut et ego Christi.
St. Eulogius is buried in the Cathedral of Oviedo
Cathedral of San Salvador (Oviedo)
The Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Saviour is a Roman Catholic cathedral and minor basilica in the centre of Oviedo, in the Asturias region of northern Spain....
. His feast day is March 11.