ON S. FANDILA THE PRESBYTER, MONK AND MARTYR OF CORDOVA.
IN THE YEAR DCCCLIII.
Preliminary Synopsis on cult & time.
Fandilas, Presbyter, Monk & Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
G. H.
[1] We proceed to set forth illustrious Martyrs, suffering at Cordova under the Saracens. Of these we have given on day III of this month June, S. Isaac the Monk; on day V, S. Sancius the youth, raised in the royal court; & on day VII, SS. Peter the Presbyter, Walabonsus the Deacon, Sabinian, Westrebund, Habentius, & Jeremiah; to whom on this day we add S. Fandila, Monk & Presbyter; more to be given hereafter. He was a Monk in the Tabanensian cenobium, situated in the parts of the North, between the precipices of the mountains, seven miles from the city, but afterwards destroyed by the Saracens, A Monk, the Monks fleeing to the city, as S. Eulogius teaches book 3 chap. 10. A Presbyter or Priest he was created, A Priest, at the asking of the Monks of the cenobium of S. Salvador & by the judgment of the Abbot: under King Mahomad, son & successor of Abderrahman the King, dying in the year DCCCXXXIX: but his son Mahomad reigned until the year DCCCLXXIV, under whom Era DCCCXC, A Martyr in the year 853. or year of Christ DCCCLIII, by martyrdom he was crowned on the day XIII June, as is established from the Acts of SS. Anastasius, Felix & Digna, crowned on the day next after S. Fandila. The Acts S. Eulogius edited, book 3 of the Memorial of Saints: from whose chap. 1 & 6 we set forth some things, Acts by the author S. Eulogius. & then more from chap. 7 we relate; from chap. 8 to subjoin, on the following day, the martyrdom of SS. Anastasius, Felix & Digna. Usuard, who lived at the same time, inscribed S. Fandila on his Martyrology with these words: On the same day on the Ides of June, S. Fandila the Presbyter, who at Cordova the city, with head cut off, undertook martyrdom. Followed Petrus de Natalibus book 5 chap. 147, Bellinus, Greven, Molanus, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Canisius, & with them various Martyrologies, both manuscript & print , Martyrologies & especially the Roman, in which these things are read. At Cordova, of S. Fandila the Presbyter & Monk, who in the Arab persecution, with head cut off, for the faith of Christ underwent martyrdom. More also from the Acts Ambrosius Morales, born of Cordova, sets forth, book 14 of the History of Spain chap. 19; Joannes Marietta, book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History on the Saints of Spain chap. 8; & Acts in Spanish. Villegas in the Flowers of Saints; Martinus de Roa, on the Saints of Cordova fol. 94 & following; where he subjoins some things, which from the Spanish into Latin Joannes Tamayus Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology published on this day XIII June, which we also subjoin. Ferrarius, I know not for what cause, referred Fandila to day XVI June.
ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM.
By the author S. Eulogius in the Memorial of Saints.
Fandilas, Presbyter, Monk & Martyr, at Cordova in Spain (S.)
BHL Number: 2823
FROM MSS.
Book 3 chap. 1
[1] Mahomad having attained the empire of his father, immediately breaking forth into ready hatred against us, on the very day, After the Christians ejected from the palace, on which crowned with fasces, he ascended the throne about to reign, dismissing all the Christians from the palace, he promulgated them unworthy of principal court service. These again afterwards, no long interval, under tributary census he prescribed, & deprived many of royal reward, who long had been fed with military rations. And because it is written: As the judge of the people is, so are also his ministers; Ecli. 10, 2 to these at the same time he commits the helms of the city, who with like zeal of controversy laboring against the people of God, would afflict, overturn & oppress him everywhere: that they would not only not at all presume their own Vates (i.e. prophet) to be defamed, but also forced by terrors would confess the abominable worship. Thus also unbearable sorrow, & truculent persecution from all sides, meeting us, immersed very many in the snare of prevarication.
Chap. 6
[2] These evils meanwhile threatening, & the Church being beaten by such afflictions, & the insult of the Chiefs against the Martyrs, they say on this account the King filled with great gladness, was promising to himself to bring more numerous scandals on the faithful, & by dire incursion and trouble to crush them, if a favorable success in reigning he should obtain longer: so much that most of the Chiefs, mocking the constancy of the formerly passing Martyrs, reported to us; Whither now has gone that virtue of your Athletes? whither has fled their magnanimity? whither absorbed does their boldness hide? where has their enervated fortitude withdrawn itself? who lately with hastened steps competing rushed to attack our Dogmatist, justly avenged were destroyed. Now let them be present, now will they come, only let them hasten, if divinely inspired they preserve in truth that contest.
Chap. 7
[3] When therefore against us they were insulting with such derisions, & with this mockery were almost wearying our consummated misery by disasters; S. Fandila of Guadix, studies at Cordova. a certain youth Fandila, a young man comely in appearance, of honest life approvable, holy & God-fearing Presbyter, these slaughters & cruel hazards, the door & approach first of exercising martyrdom, under the privilege of this tyrant, opened. So he from the city Accitana (Guadix) born, coming to Cordova for the sake of learning, passing almost his whole youth there under the teaching of a tutor; immediately as he came to adolescence, delighted by monastic life, Tabanensian Monk, there to the Monks he joined himself, continually serving God as a soldier. He several places having passed through & changed, in which his ardent devout mind could not rest, finally betook himself to the Tabanensian cenobium. There for some time under regular discipline or governance of the Abbot Martin remaining, he more perfectly shone in fear of the Lord .
[4] & a Priest at S. Salvador's, And because he was of highest humility & great obedience, therefore by the grace of sanctity, with which he shone from heaven, the Monks of the cenobium of holy Salvador long imploring , which not far from the city of Cordova in the part of the North at the root of the pinnacle of Mellaris is situated, to the Sacerdotal office pre-elected unwillingly, & (as I might say) violently, by the insistence or judgment of his Abbot, the holy ministry he undertook; & nonetheless of fasts, vigils, & prayers more than usual increasing his labors, he was walking from virtue into virtue, about to see the Lord in Sion, raised by the ladders of merits. Whose venerable life, & necessarily imitable conversation by all , when sufficiently with worthy proclamation of praises, by the report of the same Brothers and Sisters, over whom he presided, is unfolded; yet more magnificently is declared, that crossing flourishing youth with a more robust mind, he did not hesitate to subject himself to the martyrial sword.
[5] He preaches the Gospel: Therefore with the perfection of the fear of the Lord accompanying him, when despising all earthly things he had suspended his mind in heaven, & he was wishing rather to be dissolved, & to remain with Christ, than to cling to fleeting things; on a certain day with steadfast countenance standing before the Judge, he preaches the Gospel, shut in prison, reproaches the immodest prophet, & he attests that the assembly bound to noxious worship's filth (unless coming to its senses it apprehend the faith of piety) shall pay with vindictive fires of punishments. Hence thrust in prison, & constrained with chains, in dwellings of robbers he was bound, by principal sentence afterward to be beheaded.
[6] Which deed the Judge not delaying to be intimated to the royal hearing, after the Bishop escapes by flight, is kindled with the fire of immense fury; & with a certain dazed horror, stupid he wonders, what might be that victorious audacity, which did not fear the King of so great glory; & such a sublime head of vanity & pride, & (as he thought) excelling above all things, with such irreverent handles did not turn away. Wherefore at the same moment with a terrible voice, he decrees the Bishop to be seized: but he, prevented by the remedy of flight, is saved: for as they say, already then he had decreed, without intercession of any delay, to punish him. He had even ordered all the Christians by general sentence to be destroyed, & women by public selling to be scattered, except those who, religion spurned, would convert to his worship. And unless this edict were shaken by the counsel of his Satraps (who because no wise man, no urbane man, none of the Christian chiefs had perpetrated such a thing, therefore asserted all should not be destroyed, the slain man is suspended whom no personal leader leads to battle) thereafter I believe now altogether he would extinguish our Christianity partly by the sword, partly by prevarication. But killing the strongest athlete by the sword, he ordered him hung on a gibbet beyond the river .
[7] In the city Accitana feast & Confraternity. So far Eulogius: to which from Martinus de Roa Tamayus Salazar adds these things. To be noted that the city Accitana, today Guadix, decreed a solemn feast to him, by the work of D. Joannes de Fonseca, of his holy Church the Bishop, at the insistence of Doctor Didacus a sancta Cruce et Saavedra, Precentor of that Cathedral . On which festivity the city by vow attends, & among the citizens a rich Confraternity has been erected: which also Father Joannes Covarruvias approved, the same Church's Prelate.
[8] Nor did God wish to leave such love toward the holy Martyr of Christ unpaid: because by the intercession of the holy Martyr he took care to perform many miracles, for the salvation of the sick: among which that celebrated one of a certain little boy of Accitana, suffering with epilepsy, who hearing the bells' clangings, at the Vespers of the same festivity, the Mass offered & said, was healed. Epileptics healed, Of similar disease was suffering Maria de Buiza, holy Virgin of the rule of the Minorites, in the monastery of S. James in the same city; who having offered a vow to the holy Martyr, finally received entire health. For several years a tempest of hail, near the day dedicated to the holy Martyr, a storm of hail calmed. disfigured the districts of the vineyards, so that all things utterly were devoured. Hence a certain farmer, confiding in the intercessions of the holy Martyr , set up a Cross with the name of the blessed Martyr written, on an eminent rock of the district: with which fixed thereafter no tempest arose.