Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/February 12
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Saint Eulàlia (Aulaire, Aulazia, Ollala, Eulària) (ca. 290-12 February 303), co-patron saint of Barcelona, was a thirteen-year-old Roman Christian virgin who suffered martyrdom in Barcelona during the persecution of Christians in the reign of emperor Diocletian. There is some dispute as to whether she is the same person as Saint Eulalia of Mérida, whose story is similar.
All knowledge about this saint comes from a Latin hymn of the middle of the seventh century.
For refusing to recant her Christianity, the Romans subjected her to thirteen tortures; including:
- Putting her into a barrel with knives (or glass) stuck into it and rolling it down a street (according to tradition, the one now called Baixada de Santa Eulalia "Saint Eulalia's descent").
- Cutting off her breasts
- Crucifixion on an X-shaped cross. She is depicted with this cross, the instrument of her martyrdom.
- Finally, decapitation.
A dove flew from her neck after decapitation. This is one point of similarity with the story of Eulalia of Mérida, in which a dove flew from the girl's mouth at the moment of her death. In addition, Eulalia of Mérida's tortures are sometimes enumerated among the Barcelona martyr's, and the two were similar in age and year of death.
Eulalia is commemorated with statues and street names throughout Barcelona. Her body was originally interred in the church of Santa Maria de les Arenes (St. Mary of the Sands; now Santa Maria del Mar, St. Mary of the Sea). It was hidden in 713 during the Moorish invasion, and only recovered in 878. In 1339, it was relocated to an alabaster sarcophagus in the crypt of the newly-built Cathedral of Santa Eulalia.
Legend says, that Waningus (c. 683), governor of the area of Normandy called Pays de Caux, was converted to a religious life after a vision of St Eulalia of Barcelona telling him 'it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved'
Attributes:' X-shaped cross, stake, and dove
Patronage: Barcelona, Spain; sailors; against drought
Prayer:
