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docpiplup · 8 months ago

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9th part of the bookscans of Al Andalus. Historical Figures, here's the previous part

Eulogio and Álvaro de Córdoba: pursuing martyrdom

Under the reign of Abd al-Rahman II the Mozarabs of Córdoba, that is, the Christians who lived in Muslim lands, specifically those who lived in the emiral city, enjoyed prosperity and the tolerance typical of this emir. Anywhere in al-Andalus, from Córdoba to Mérida, from Seville to Zaragoza, the Christian churches were open for worship. The clergy could exercise his ministry, quietly, as long as he did not proselytize among the Muslims. There were convents of monks and nuns who lived without being bothered The Christian religion in Moorish lands had certain limitations such as the external manifestations, carrying out processions or ringing the bells. The Christian and Muslim communities lived together, without further ado, without problems... The clerics of both religions ignored each other, sure as were, in each faction, to be the possessors of the absolute truth. Now well, belittling religion in public, blaspheming, questioning dogmas of faith or apostatizing, carried within the Muslim religion the penalty of death, which was applied equally, depending on what crime it was, whether if the person was Moor or Christian.

Having made this exposition, it is worth highlighting that the Mozarabs of Cordoba had adopted many ways and fashions of the Muslims. Young Christians learned Arabic, studied and wrote poetry, just like the Islamic youth. Mixed marriages were not uncommon, after one of the spouses, usually the woman, converts to the other religion and it was also common for Christians, and very Christians, to maintain their own harem... It could not be denied that the brilliant Muslim civilization was conquering the Mozarabs, to the great displeasure of the priesthood class and some Christian religious fanatics.

This "Islamization", even if it was superficial, of the Christians aroused the suspicions of the abundant Christian clerics and Orthodox laymen, of way that a, let's say, Mozarabic opposition party emerged in Córdoba, led by the priest Eulogio and his faithful friend and biographer, Álvaro. Eulogio belonged to a rich Mozarabic family and one of his brothers was official in the Umayyad administration; two others were merchants prosperous, and his sister Anulona had become a nun. Eulogius himself had been ordained a priest in Córdoba, without much problem, and had his charge of the parish of San Zoilo. He had met his soul friend, Alvaro in the courses taught by Abbot Spera-in-Deo. As we can see, It can be not said that Christians suffered type of coercion to practice their religion, but in all faiths there is always the seed of fanaticism. Furthermore, an unfortunate incident was going to cause a crisis of great proportions.

The clergyman Perfecto, from the Cordoban church of San Acisclo, one day began to argue with some Muslims about

of the goodness of Jesus Christ and Muhammad, about which of the two had more merits. At first the discussion was on friendly terms, but later tempers were heating up and it seems that the Christian ended up insulting Muhammad. Momentarily nothing happened but someone ended up reporting Perfecto to the the cadi who ordered him to be arrested and sentenced to death. On April 18, 850, day of great holiday in Islam because that year was the date of the Breaking of the Fast, it was beheaded before the plebs who always enjoyed these barbaric spectacles.

Eulogio and Álvaro already had a martyr for the faith and began their propaganda among the Mozarabs of Cordoba, telling them about the torture suffered by the clergyman executed, opposing the Umayyad regime, raising spirits in such a way that every day the number of discontented Christians inclined to the ideas of Álvaro and Eulogio. On the other hand, the Córdoba police were more active than never against the Mozarabs. And suddenly a wave of mysticism, unknown until moment, took over the Christians of Cordoba, eager to suffer the martyrdom and achieving sainthood in the quickest way possible, which was achieved easily insulting Allah, cursing Muhammad and reviling Islam. That madness seemed unstoppable...six monks from the Tábanos monastery, a priest named Sisnando, a certain Isaac, also from the Tábanos monastery, a guard palatine named Sancho, the monk Teodomiro, the deacon Pablo... they all went to insulting Muhammad before the qadi and even inside the main mosque. The madness of martyrdom had taken hold of them like a malignant fever that spread before the

amazed eyes of the Muslims. In less than two months they had been eleven Mozarabs executed. Even two nuns, Flora and María, were executed on November 24, 851, after the Muslim authorities tried to convince them to recant to avoid the death sentence, but there was no way to achieve it. In prison Eulogio found Flora and was fascinated. It seemed like a angel and, perhaps without reaching him, he fell in love with that woman. When knew that she had been beheaded, he celebrated her death with a greater passion typical of a lover than of a clergyman who was insistently seeking, the martyrdom.

Abd al-Rahman II could have drowned this revolt in Mozarabic blood, but, so different from his father, he preferred to tackle it by another sensiblebway. Not all the Mozarabs, both clerics and laymen of Córdoba and from other places in al-Andalus, agreed with the extremists led by Eulogio and Álvaro. They feared that, in the end, the emir's reaction or the town, ended up attacking all of them and, as in so many sometimes, the righteous paid for sinners. So they approached Abd al-Rahman and proposed holding a council, presided over by Recafredo, metropolitan of Seville. The emir accepted this council to which, in addition, the bishops of all the Andalusian dioceses attended, the Umayyad government itself being represented by a Christian official, Gómez.

The Council opened in the year 852. Gómez, the official representative of the Government, exposed the futility of that sacrifice of lives that occurred by the exalted, asking the ecclesiastical authorities to disavow that non-

sense. Saúl, bishop of Córdoba, was the only one who defended martyrdom and the martyrs that had already occurred. The rest closed ranks with Recafredo who ruled that, from now on, the Christians of al-Andalus were prohibited from voluntarily seek martyrdom. This was considered suicide and as such he would be condemned by the Church. The leaders of the Mozarabic opposition party were arrested, among them Eulogio and the bishop of Córdoba, and imprisoned. It seemed that the waters were returning to their channel, but there was still some irreducibles who continued uttering blasphemies against Islam in the mosques in order to ensure martyrdom, and there were new convicts who were executed in the month of September 852. Six days later the emir died, unexpectedly, and the Christian extremists considered that the death was due to divine punishment.

When Abd al-Rahman II's son, Muhammad, acceded to the throne, Eulogius was released and left Córdoba. He visited Pamplona and lived for some time in Toledo, always recounting the "sufferings" of his life and his fanatical theses. When he returned to Córdoba he was met with the bitter disappointment that, even his most fervent supporters had opted for the peaceful route or, for the most part, were willing to abandon that intransigence that had only caused inconvenience and death. That's not why Eulogio let himself be discouraged. Him and his friend Álvaro, they returned to their preachings and the Mozarabic spirits stirred again... but Muhammad was not like his father. Faced with this situation, he ordered the demolition of the Tábanos monastery, which he considered the center of all unrest and possibly it was like that. Furthermore, the matter was becoming complicated because the Toledoan

Mozarabs who had listened to the sermons of the fanatic Eulogio, were also beginning to appear agitated and restless, choosing Eulogio as metropolitan of the city. The emir, of course, did not ratified this election.

Between the years 853 and 858 there were at least fourteen other martyrs volunteers, but Eulogio couldn't get them to finish him off. For more abundance, in those days, two French monks arrived in Córdoba, Usuard and Odilard, from the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près, to request the remains of the martyrs from the emir and take them with them to France.

These two monks, at first, came to Spain, by order of their superior, Hildouin II, to collect the remains of S. Vicente de Zaragoza, patron of his abbey, but, having arrived in Barcelona, they had news that the saint's body was no longer in Valencia, where it was led, and that the hopes of being able to find him were zero. However, if they wanted to take advantage of the trip, they could go to Córdoba, where they found the relics of the Mozarabic martyrs who had been executed only a few years ago. This is what our French monks did. They arrived in the Umayyad capital and lived there for about two months, taking steps to allow them to take the relics of Jorge, Aurelio and Natalia, who had achieved martyrdom in July 852, what they achieved after quite a bit of effort. They started the journey back with his goal almost accomplished. They did not have S. Vicente, but they did returned with the remains of three martyrs, but when they arrived in France they found themselves with the unpleasant surprise that their community was refugee in

Esmans, since Paris was occupied by the Normans. A few years later, the monk Usuard received the commission from the monarch Charles the Bald to prepare a martyrology, and in it he included some references to those Andalusian martyrs, so that the Spanish saints passed to the French saints.

Muhammad's patience was wearing thin. In 859 Eulogio was imprisoned, and if we follow the great Dozy, the event occurred in the following way.

In Córdoba there lived a young woman, Leocricia, daughter of Muslims, but through a nun in the family, had converted to Christianity. She ended up confessing it to his parents who tried to get her to return to the bosom of the Mohammedan religion, but since they could not obtain it, they began to mistreat her. Leocricia was afraid that in the end her conversion would become public and asked Eulogio and his sister Anulona for help. Maybe Eulogio saw in Leocricia many of the traits of the already martyred Flora, who had so much shocked in his heart, and he promised that he would be by his side unconditionally.

Leocricia pretended to return to the faith of her elders and her parents trusted again in it, so they found it natural that one day, it would come out richly dressed and jeweled to go, as she said, to a wedding. But where she went to Eulogio and Anulona's house so they could take her to the house of one of her coreligionists and hid her.

Seeing that she did not return, the parents and the Córdoba police began the search of the girl, but they could not find her. It was his friendship with Anulona that cause of her perdi-

tion because she spent a day with her, and the servant who was to pick her up to return to her hiding place, she did not arrive until dawn. Fearing to be recognized if she went out at that time, she decided to stay one more day with her friend, until nightfall. But a spy or simply someone who knew where the fugitive was, told the cadi who sent soldiers to arrest Leocricia and Eulogio, who at that time was reaching his sister's house.

Brought before the cadi, Eulogio declared that he had taken care of instruct the young woman in Christianity in the same way as he would with the Muslim leader if he asked. Leocricia, confessed of apostasy, was sentenced to death, but Eulogio was only sentenced to be whipped.

Perhaps out of pride, Eulogio did not settle for the punishment of whipping. Everyone died before him! All his life preaching martyrdom, martyrdom that many of his supporters had suffered with joy, and he I was going to be less holy than them! It was something he couldn't consent. He was taken to the council room where one of the dignitaries who knew him since he was young, he asked him why he had such a desire to die, if there was no something in his life worth keeping. If he retracted of his continued blasphemies against Muhammad and Islam, he would be forgiven immediately.

The cultured Muslim society felt more pity than hatred for the fanatics and they also felt that they had to proceed to shed blood with those who seemed to have gone crazy. But for Eulogio there was no longer a possible retreat. If he had retracted, the contempt of his people would be even worse than death. So he stood firm

and he bravely climbed into the scaffold, prayed briefly and placed his head on the slash that was severed with a well-aimed blow. It was March 11, 859. Four days later Leocricia suffered the same fate.

His death caused a great impact in Christian Spain and immediately, Eulogio became a saint, a multitude of miracles were attributed to him everywhere.

Some years later, Alfonso, king of León, in a truce signed between him and the emir Muhammad, stipulated that one of the conditions was that the remains of S. Leocricia and S. Eulogio would be handed over, something that Muslims gave them a thousand loves.

Deprived of their most fiery champion, the Mozarabs of Córdoba were calming down on their own. Practically all types of opposition ceased and only on rare occasions there was the case of a new martyrdom.

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