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EULALIA OF MERIDA TORTURED WITH TORCHES AND IRON HOOKS
Eulalia was a very young Christian woman in Merída (Spain). One day she went to see the trial of a Christian during the persecution of Emperor Diocletianus around 290–305 and there voluntarily proclaimed herself a Christian. Although she so young, she was tortured in public and killed in a extremely atrocious way: she was crucified naked on an X cross, and thus diplayed in public. Then the executioners played torches over her body and then lacerated her sides and breasts with hooks. Finally they lit a fire under her that burned her from below; she died from burning and inhaling the smoke. When she had expired, her corpse was taken down from the cross and left on the street as a final gesture of contempt. But a sudden snowfall covered her nudity.
Ah, the saint who stirred me so when I first read about her, a young girl the same age as I was then, tortured so exquisitely!
The story of Eulalia of Merida was told in epic verse by the fourth century poet Prudentius -
my poem is based on his version of the story, in which she's sent by her parents to a safe house in the mountains,
but runs away, back down to the city, and presents herself to the Governor, haranguing him for slaughtering Christians
and demanding they do the same to her. The Governor, frankly bewildered, tries to reason with her, but she just provokes him.
She responds to whipping and tearing with hooks with cheeky remarks, and is finally tied between two pillars
with braziers either side, and roasted till she's nearly dead (she shakes her long hair over the flames,
so it catches fire and speeds the process), then she's thrown out on the cold paving-stones of the Forum -
where her soul leaves her in the form of a white dove, and snow-shower hides her naked body.
http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/saint-eulalia-day.1066/post-20255
Her cult was adopted in Barcelona (where Prudentius lived), and the account of her tortures was elaborated,
it's in the Barcelona version that the pillars are replaced with an X-cross.