#saint eulalia

[cagedsanity]

Martyrdom of Saint Eulalia (1895) by Gabriel Palencia Ubanell

[tomoleary]

John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) Study for 'Saint Eulalia' (c.1885) Source

Saint Eulalia

[arrayed-in-purple]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚

𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚 𝐔𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐥

𝟏𝟖𝟗𝟓 - 𝐎𝐢𝐥 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬

[orthodoxadventure]

SAINT EULALIA OF BARCELONA

The holy martyr Eulalia lived near the city of Barcino (modern-day Barcelona) in Spain, raised by devout Christian parents in faith and piety. Even at the young age of fourteen, she lived a life of quiet devotion in her family home, spending her days in prayer, Scripture reading, and handiwork alongside like-minded companions.

When Emperor Diocletian’s persecutions reached Barcino, the governor Dacian arrived to eradicate Christianity. Hearing this, Eulalia secretly left her home by night and entered the city by dawn. Pushing through the crowds, she boldly denounced Dacian: "You force people to renounce the True God and worship demons!"

Enraged, Dacian ordered her beaten. Yet Eulalia endured calmly, saying God had taken her pain. The tortures worsened: iron hooks tore her flesh, and flames seared her wounds. When Dacian sneered, "Where is your God now?" she replied, "He stands beside me—but your sins blind you." Through it all, she sang psalms.

As she prayed for deliverance, God heard her. The virgin breathed her last—and a white dove flew from her mouth.

Virgin-martyr Eulalia of Barcelona is commemorated on September 4.

[countryimages]

John William Waterhouse - Saint Eulalia

[useless-catalanfacts]

Today (September 24th), the city of Barcelona celebrates its festa major (Catalan holiday for the local patron saint), dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy (Mare de Déu de la Mercè, in Catalan).

Usually, on this holiday of La Mercè, or at least on the days around it, it rains. The legend says that it's not rain, but the tears of Saint Eulàlia —old patron saint of Barcelona—, who cries because the city forgot her.

In this post I'll explain who was Eulàlia (according to the legend) and what happened that made her lose the position as the city's main patron saint.

1. Saint Eulàlia of Barcelona, martyr

Saint Eulàlia is believed to have lived in the 4th century AD, when the Roman emperor Diocletian was persecuting Christians. Eulàlia lived in Sarrià (village near Barcelona, nowadays a neighbourhood of Barcelona). She was only 13 years old, but she knew she was a good speaker so she went to see Dacian —the Roman governor in Barcino (modern-day Barcelona)— to try to convince him to stop the persecution of Christians in his territory.

The Roman governor accused her of going against the emperor's orders and sentenced her to suffer as many tortures as her age: they beat her on the streets, teared her skin off with hooks, marked her body with burning irons, forced her to stand on her feet on top of a burning grill, cut off her breasts, scratched the inside of her tights with rocks, threw boiling oil in her injuries, poured melted lead on her, locked her naked in a prison cell full of fleas, and tried to burn her; but during her whole tortures she had been praying, and by the time they tried to burn her, the flames moved away from her and attacked her torturers instead.

The most famous one out of the tortures was when she was put inside a barrel full of broken glass, knives and nails, and she was thrown down a hill 13 times to roll on them.

In the end, she was crucified naked on a cross shaped like an X to make her die in an dishonourable way. Then, a miracle happened. Some say that her hair grew quickly to cover her breasts and sex; others say that a snow storm suddenly appeared and covered her in snow. The thirteenth torture killed her, but the passerbies saw how her soul turned into a white dove that came out of her mouth and ascended into heaven.

Two scenes from a Medieval altarpiece that explained Saint Eulàlia's story, by Bernat Martorell. Nowadays it's in Museu Episcopal de Vic (Vic, Catalonia).

She became a local hero, was canonized as a saint and declared patron saint of Barcelona.

Centuries later, during the Islamic invasion in the Middle Ages, her body was unburied and hidden to make sure the Muslim armies wouldn't profane it. From then on, the location of her body was lost until the year 877, when Bishop Frodoí found her hidden tomb under the church Santa Maria de les Arenes (nowadays Santa Maria del Mar). Her remains were moved to the Cathedral of Barcelona, where they remained until the Cathedral was sacked during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

Saint Eulàlia's tomb in the crypt of Barcelona's Cathedral.

2. Our Lady of Mercy

Our Lady of Mercy is one of the aspects of under which the Virgin Mary is worshipped. She became popular in Catalonia in the 13th century, after a night of August 1218, when she appeared in the dreams of the king James I and two religious men who would later be canonized as saints (Pere Nolasc and Ramon de Penyafort), ordering them to start a new Order destined to rescuing Christian prisoners who had been kidnapped by Saracens.

In the year 1687, a terrible locust plague attacked the city of Barcelona, as well as much of Catalonia. The desperate population of Barcelona asked Saint Eulàlia and the Virgin of Mercy for help. The City Council promised that they would nominate the Virgin of Mercy as the city's patron saint if She freed it from the locusts. Soon, the locust plague ended, and the City Council kept their promise, though the change didn't receive official permission from the Pope until 200 years later, in 1868.

3. Protest and change

This change also had a political side, because Saint Eulàlia symbolized the city's historical self-government, while Our Lady of Mercy was favoured by the sectors in favour of a more authoritarian monarchy. Barcelona's population didn't forget that for so many centuries there was great devotion for Saint Eulàlia nor its symbolical role. A group of citizens showed up to the Church of Mercy and threw stones at the city's authorities, asking for Saint Eulàlia to be the patron again. After this event, the City Council decided that Eulàlia should be co-patron.

4. The holiday

Since then, and particularly since the 1900s, the day of the Virgin of Mercy became the most popular festa major (Catalan holiday celebrated with big parties and folk culture on the day of the local patron saint) for the whole city together. Though each neighbourhood (nowadays they're neighbourhoods of Barcelona, but most of them used to be towns that became attached to the city with the industrial expansion) keep their own festa major and Saint Eulàlia is also still celebrated in February, La Mercè is the biggest festa major in Barcelona.

Source: Carla Galisteo for Sàpiens.

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia en BARCELONA

[pmamtraveller]

SAINT EULALIA | 1885 | by JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE

This painting depicts the martyrdom of St. Eulalia, a 12-year-old Christian girl executed in the year 304 AD for refusing to renounce her faith. Waterhouse chose Eulalia's body at that moment immediately following her death, rather than showing the gruesome details of her tortures and execution.

The scene is set among classical architecture within the Roman Forum. This was one way that Victorian painters, used in combining Roman and Christian themes into a single painting. Architectural details show the involvement of Waterhouse with Alma-Tadema's approach to depicting the settings of ancient Rome.

Although religious in subject matter, Waterhouse's treatment of Eulalia's semi-naked figure has been said to be "seductive" rather than pathetic, reflecting his interest in depicting idealized beauty in women. This contrasts to the dreadful details of her actual martyrdom, which have been avoided.

Among others, symbolic elements include the white dove that is said to have flown out of Eulalia's mouth at the moment of her death and the wooden cross beside her body. These reinforce the Christian themes and solidify the status of Eulalia as one of the martyrs.

It has been often reproduced and remains one of the more popular subjects among art fans and collectors. The painting is typical of Waterhouse's genius and grace in combining classical subjects with those that are Christian in origin into a piece that speaks to viewers both visually and emotionally.