Eulalia from Mérida
Eulalia von Mérida , also Santa Olalla or various name variants in French (* 292 in Mérida , Spain ; † December 10, 304 ibid) is a young martyr and saint of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches . Her death and remembrance day is celebrated on December 10th in the Catholic Church and on August 22nd in the Orthodox Church. Since her hagiography has similarities to another juvenile saint, Eulalia of Barcelona (290–303), it could be, according to theBollandists are about the same person.
Vita
According to the legends compiled or invented by Prudentius ( Peristephanon , 3rd Hymn) around the year 400, Eulalia was the daughter of a wealthy Christian family. At the age of twelve she secretly snuck away from her parents' property to protest against the persecution of Christians in front of Datianus , the Roman governor of Mérida . After tearing an idol from the wall, she was captured and tortured with fire (splashed with hot oil, burned her knees, thrown into a fiery furnace), but miraculously she remained intact. According to a later legend, when she died by the sword, her freed soul rose to heaven as a white dove. Snow fell, enveloping the corpse.
Adoration
To this day, Eulalia is the most revered martyr in Spain . The Eulalia oven is shown every year in the city of Mérida , where a church is dedicated to the saint . She is the patroness of Mérida, Oviedo , Totana and Palacios de la Sierra . Her reliquary was brought to Oviedo in 780 to prevent access by the Islamic conquerors of Spain. It has remained there to this day.
Saint Eulalia is the patroness of women who have recently given birth and of travelers. She is also a protector against accidents and the dysentery .
presentation
Although churches were consecrated to it as early as the 4th and 5th centuries, little is known about medieval representations of the saints. Later portraits often show them with a pigeon or a stove, their iconographic attributes . Other depictions show how she is robbed of her breasts by sharp iron hooks, sometimes hanging on the cross. She is also shown standing on a burning pyre, with a martyr's crown and a fiery furnace, which indicates her torture in the fire; however, this furnace is mistakenly interpreted as their cause of death.
See also
Web links
- St. Eulalia in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
- St. Eulalia and her hagiographer Prudentius
- Church of Saint Eulalia in Mérida
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eulalia from Mérida |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Saint and martyr |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 292 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Merida, Spain |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 10, 304 |
| Place of death | Merida, Spain |