E00921: Prudentius, in his Latin Crowns of the Martyrs (Peristephanon), written c. 400 in Calahorra (northern Spain) in a poem on the martyrdom of *Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona (north-eastern Spain), and his companions, the deacons Augurius and Eulogius (S00496), describes the gathering of the ashes of the martyrs and cult practices around them.

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posted on 2015-12-02, 00:00 authored by mtycner

Liber Peristephanon, Poem VI.130-141

Tum de corporibus sacris fauillae
et perfusa mero leguntur ossa,
quae raptim sibi quisque uindicabat.

Fratrum tantus amor domum referre
sanctorum cinerum dicata dona
aut gestare sinu fidele pignus.

Sed ne reliquias resuscitandas
et mox cum domino simul futuras
discretis loca diuidant sepulcris,

cernuntur niueis stolis amicti;
mandant restitui cauoque claudi
mixtim marmore puluerem sacrandum.

'Then the glowing ashes and the bones of the sacred bodies were sprinkled with wine and gathered up, each man eagerly taking for himself; such was the desire of the brethren to take home consecrated gifts of the holy ashes, or to carry them in their bosoms as a trusty pledge. But lest remains which must one day be raised up again and then be together with the Lord should be sundered in separate burial places at different spots, the three appeared, clad in snow-white robes, and enjoined that the hallowed dust be given back and enclosed together in a marble chamber.'

Text: Cunningham 1966: 319. Translation: Thomson 1953, 210-213.

History

Evidence ID

E00921

Saint Name

Fructuosus, Auguris and Eulogius, bishop and his two deacons, martyrs of Tarragona (Spain), ob. 259 : S00496

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Fructuosus_Auguris_and_Eulogius_bishop_and_his_two_deacons_martyrs_of_Tarragona_Spain/13730464

Type of Evidence

Literary - Poems Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

395

Evidence not after

405

Activity not before

402

Activity not after

410

Place of Evidence - Region

Iberian Peninsula

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Calahorra

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Calahorra Osset Osset Osen (castrum) Osser castrum

Major author/Major anonymous work

Prudentius

Cult activities - Places

Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics

Cult activities - Rejection, Condemnation, Scepticism

Condemnation/rejection of a specific cultic activity

Cult Activities - Miracles

Apparition, vision, dream, revelation

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Other lay individuals/ people

Cult Activities - Relics

Bodily relic - corporeal ashes/dust Bodily relic - bones and teeth Division of relics Privately owned relics Touching and kissing relics

Source

Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (348–after 405) was a Christian aristocrat from Calahorra in the Spanish province of Tarraconensis. He was a high official in the imperial bureaucracy in Rome, but withdrew from public life, returned to Calahorra, and dedicated himself to the service and celebration of God. Most of what we know about his biography comes from the preface to the ensemble of his works, which can be reliably dated to 404 (Cunningham 1966, 1-2), and other autobiographical remarks scattered throughout his works (for a detailed discussion, see Palmer 1989, 6-31). He composed several poetical works, amongst them the Peristephanon (literally, On the Crowns [of the Martyrs]), a collection of fourteen poems of different length describing martyrdoms of saints. We do not know exactly at which point in his literary career Prudentius wrote the preface (possibly at the very end, just before publication); for attempts at a precise dating of the Peristephanon, see Fux 2013, 9, n. 1. The poems in the Peristephanon, written in elegant classical metres, deal mainly with martyrs from Spain, but some of them are dedicated to saints of Rome, Africa and the East. The poems were widely read in the late antique and medieval West, and had a considerable influence on the diffusion of cult of the saints included. In later periods they were sometimes used as hymns in liturgical celebrations and had an impact on the development of the Spanish hymnody. Some indications in the poems suggest that they were written to commemorate the saints on their feast days, but Prudentius probably did not compose them for the liturgy of his time. Rather, they probably provided 'devotional reading matter for a cultured audience outside a church context' (Palmer 1989, 3; see also Chapter 3 in her book).

Bibliography

Editions of the Peristephanon: Cunningham, M.P., Prudentii Carmina (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 126; Turnhout: Brepols, 1966), 251-389. Bergman, J., Prudentius, Carmina (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 61; Vienna, 1926), 291-431. Translations of the Peristephanon: Eagan, C., Prudentius, Poems (Fathers of the Church 43; Washington D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1962), 95-280. English translation. Thomson, H.J., Prudentius, vol. 2 (Loeb Classical Library; London Cambridge, Mass: W. Heinemann; Harvard University Press, 1953), 98-345. Edition and English translation. Further reading: Fux, P.-Y., Prudence et les martyrs: hymnes et tragédie. Peristephanon 1. 3-4. 6-8. 10. Commentaire, (Fribourg: Academic Press, 2013). Malamud, M.A., A Poetics of Transformation: Prudentius and Classical Mythology (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989). Palmer, A.-M., Prudentius on the Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). Roberts, M., Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs: The "Liber Peristephanon" of Prudentius (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993).