ON SS. ANASTASIUS THE PRESBYTER, FELIX THE MONK, AND DIGNA THE VIRGIN. MARTYRS AT CORDOVA IN SPAIN.
From the Memorial of S. Eulogius.
IN THE YEAR 853.
CommentaryAnastasius the Presbyter, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Felix the Monk, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)
Digna the Virgin, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)
G. H.
On the preceding day we gave the martyrdom of S. Fandila the Presbyter, and from the Memorial of S. Eulogius of the Saints we drew out more fully the persecution stirred up under King Mahomad: where, after the aforesaid martyrdom related in chap. 7, there is added in the following chapter 8 the slaughter of these three Martyrs, in these words: Anastasius the Presbyter, Following Fandila, on another day Anastasius the Presbyter, who from his early age, at the basilica of S. Acisclus of Cordova, was trained in disciplines and letters, dwelling there in the office of the Diaconate until full youth, after he had—having long despised the ministry—taken delight in the monastic life, Felix the Monk, which he had practiced into old age, at last is applied to the Priesthood. Going at a quick pace to the palace, he stands before the Consuls; and striking the enemy of the faith with the truthful goads of his assertions, immediately cut down by the sword he is hanged. With whom also Felix the Monk, born in the town of Complutum, a Getulian by nation, and by a certain occasion carried off into Asturias, where he also learned both the Catholic faith and the monastic religion, on the same day cut down by this same profession, is affixed.
[2] Digna was a Virgin, And when that day, completing the greatest turning-point of its course, was already declining almost to the ninth hour; a certain virgin, a young girl by merit and by name Digna, from the college of the venerable Elisabeth, by God's revelation and strengthening, went forth to the palm. For a little before her martyrdom she sees, in a dream, a girl standing by her, very fair in dress and appearance, angelic, strengthened by S. Agatha she carrying roses and lilies in her hand. When she inquired of her about the name and cause of her coming, she said: I am Agatha, once worn down for Christ's sake by dreadful tortures, and now I have come to confer upon you a part of this purple gift. Receive willingly the gift, and act manfully in the Lord; for the remnants of the roses and lilies, which I keep in my hands, I shall give after you to those who are about to depart from this place. At last the most sacred Virgin, illumined by such a vision and gift, when she received a rose from the right hand of the one speaking with her, was lifted up, with her ear mingled with the heavenly things, from the eyes of the beholder.
[3] She desires to be called Unworthy: But this girl, since for her supreme humility and obedience she judged herself the lowest among her fellow virgins, and was an attendant of incomparable readiness, nevertheless would never allow herself to be called Digna ("Worthy"); and she would say with tears: Do not call me Digna, but rather Indigna ("Unworthy"); because by whatever merit I am, even by name ought I to be marked. And when, from the day of her revelation, pricked with the love of martyrdom, with silent thought, by what signs she might aspire to it, she had begun often to ruminate; she becomes amply more joyful, instructed by the martyrdom of these men, so that, as it were with these going before, she might with firmer step succeed to the crown. with the others hanged, she challenges the Judge: And therefore, the cloisters of the convent silently opened, when she had now learned that the blessed Martyrs were hanging; at a quick pace seeking the judge, why he had slaughtered her brothers, the heralds of justice, with intrepid assertion she questions him. Is it because (she says) we are worshippers of God, and faithfully worship the holy Trinity, confessing the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be one and true God, and everything that dissents from this belief we not only deny, but also detest, curse, and confound—is it for that reason we are stabbed through?
[4] While the girl was discoursing these and similar things with holy and immaculate mouth, the arbiter, hesitating not at all, hands her over to the lictors to be beheaded: who soon assail the delicate throat of her neck. And without delay, falling with her limbs cast down, she is hanged, turned downward on the rack, and joined to the others across the river. beheaded, she is hanged For in this order these three who had been called, namely Anastasius the Presbyter, Felix the Monk, and the blessed Virgin Digna, fell on the same day in different ways, on the XVIII Kalends of July, in the Era 891. These things S. Eulogius relates, by whom the S. Acisclus here indicated is the famous Martyr, who suffered at Cordova under Diocletian on the XVII of November. Ambrosius Moralez, in his Annotations on this, confesses that he does not know how S. Anastasius dwelt in old age after the monastic life. I have rendered the sense clear with a slight change: unless someone should prefer to read insenitus as if it were a participle from insenesco (to grow old in). With similar liberty I judged one should act toward the end at ad, where it was read "delicatis inferunt jugulum collibus," being readily ready to yield my reading to another better conjecture, should one be suggested.
[5] By the Era 891 noted toward the end, is understood the year of the Christian Era 853, in which they suffered. It is added presently in the following chapter, in S. Eulogius: Whose corpses, after some days burned in a great fire, cast at last into the river, were scattered. Where Moralez raises a scruple, how— since the corpses are here said to have been scattered by fire and water—the bodies burned and cast into the water. it can be believed that the body of S. Felix of Complutum, the Martyr, was translated, together with the body of S. Zoilus, to Carrión in the monastery of S. Zoilus of the Order of S. Benedict; and Moralez adds that he had read this in the ancient monuments of the convent there. We shall give below, on the XXVII day of June, the Acts of S. Zoilus and his XIX Companions, Martyrs of Cordova, who suffered under Diocletian, printed by Tamayo-Salazar from a Ms. Legendary of Segovia and another published one of Seville: in which it is said that the most holy Agapius, Bishop of Cordova, built a basilica fairer and larger, and honorably placed there the sacred remains of S. Zoilus, together with those of S. Felix, and dedicated it to the name of S. Zoilus. The same Tamayo-Salazar published a Catalogue of the Bishops of Cordova, and in it asserts that this Agapius flourished about the year 590. So that it seems that in the said Acts of S. Zoilus there is treated of another S. Felix's body.
[6] The aforesaid Moralez likewise asserts that some Churches of Spain celebrate the feast of this S. Felix. The place of S. Digna in the monastery of Tábanos This indeed is clear, says Tamayus in the Spanish Martyrology, from the Breviaries of Palencia, Cartagena, and Compostela, and concerning them a splendid encomium is built up by Marineus Siculus. Indeed, from the little book of Ambrosius Moralez on the Translation of SS. Justus and Pastor, he says that Complutum acknowledges S. Felix as its own inhabitant, and therefore in the reception of the Relics of SS. Justus and Pastor, brought from Huesca, an image of S. Felix went forth to meet them, at whose base this inscription was read: Born at Complutum, a Monk of S. Benedict, Felix by name, but more felicitous (felicior), because by your example I suffered at Cordova; I congratulate our common fatherland anew, enriched by this so great treasure of your Relics.
[7] These things concerning S. Felix. But concerning S. Digna the Virgin Martyr, since she is said above to have lived in the college of the venerable Elisabeth, Tamayus concludes that the convent of Tábanos is to be understood, The cult of S. Felix in various Churches and at Complutum. of which, together with her husband Jeremias, she is acknowledged to have been the foundress, as is clear from book 2, chap. 2 of the Memorial of S. Eulogius, who says: The renowned Jeremias, abounding in wealth and goods, and his venerable wife Elisabeth and their children, and almost the whole kindred, laying the foundations of that convent at their own expense, to cling forever in the service of the divine laws, long since betook themselves there. Tamayus adds that the said convent was near the village of Tábanos in the parts of the North, among the steep crags of the mountains and the dense woods, seven miles from the city, or two Spanish leagues, as Moralez says, but that today no trace remains.
[8] The encomia of these three Martyrs were published in Spanish by the already praised Ambrosius Moralez, in book 14 of the History of Spain, chap. 20; by Johannes Marietta, On the Saints of Spain, book 3, chaps. 1 and 2, and book 4, chap. 19; by Martinus de Roa, On the Saints of Cordova, fol. 99; by Villegas, Memorial of all. in the Flowers of the Saints; and along with them the Roman Martyrology, in which these things are read: At Cordova, of the holy Martyrs Anastasius the Presbyter, Felix the Monk, and Digna the Virgin. Galesinius and other Martyrologists have more. But how the body of the aforesaid S. Felix, not long before the year 1083, was translated from Cordova to the Carrión monastery of S. John the Baptist, thence called of SS. Zoilus and Felix, in the kingdom of León; and how great miracles these Saints worked there, see at the XXVII of June, where concerning S. Zoilus, likewise translated thither, we treat more fully.