CHRISTIAN MARTYRS IN MUSLIM SPAIN (Free online book)

This is a free online book. A must for all Catholics/Christians to read.

I am adding this to my book list:

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: List of must read books exposing Islam @ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/968155/posts

Suggestion for your ping list.

pre-Schisim Church ping* <> THE LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE

Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain

Kenneth Baxter Wolf

Introduction

[1] The city of Córdoba was the setting for an unusual historical drama that unfolded between the years 850 and 859, when forty-eight Christians were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. More striking than the number of executions were the peculiar circumstances surrounding them. For one thing, as the sources unambiguously demonstrate, the majority of the victims deliberately invoked capital punishment by publicly blaspheming Muhammad and disparaging Islam. Moreover, though some Cordoban Christians applauded the executed Christians as martyrs, others regarded them as self-immolators whose unwarranted outbursts served only to expose the community as a whole to the emirs suspicions.

Our information about this historical anomaly comes almost entirely from the works of two men who lived in Córdoba during the time of the martyrdoms. Eulogius, a priest, and Paulus Alvarus, an educated layman, reacted to the scorn that the martyrs elicited by composing apologetic treatises on their behalf, extolling their fortitude and defending their memories from the attacks of unsympathetic Christians. Eulogius even went a step further, composing a martyrology through which he transformed the executed Christians into holy martyrs worthy of cultic veneration. His treatises and martyrology, combined with a few letters, make Eulogius the key source of information for what has come to be known as the "Cordoban martyrs movement."

Previous treatments of the martyrdoms have attempted to lay bare the motives of the participants themselves. Since the martyrs never expressed themselves in writing, such reconstructions have relied almost entirely on Eulogius' depiction of the events, under the assumption that his involvement in the movement was [2] intimate. But to conflate the motives of any hagiographer with those of his protagonists can be very misleading. Writing a book about a saint is not the same as being a saint. In Eulogius' case, though he, too, ultimately suffered the same kind of death, he never in his life actively sought execution in the manner of the martyrs he praised. As useful as Eulogius works are for recreating the events of the 850s, then, they can really only provide direct information about the thoughts and perceptions of one person: Eulogius.

Our intention is to approach Eulogius' writings more critically and thus more narrowly, using them to answer questions about Eulogius himself. In the first place, we will seek to determine what prompted a priest like Eulogius to lend his literary support to something as unusual and controversial as a series of unprovoked martyrdoms. Rather than assume that he and the martyrs were inspired by the same visions and moved by the same forces, we will be treating Eulogius in isolation, reconstructing his biography and gleaning from it the most likely reasons for his support of the martyrs.

Once we have determined why Eulogius defended the martyrs, we will turn to the question how. For it was clear to everyone, even Eulogius, that the martyrs of Córdoba were not martyrs of the ancient Roman cast. The inconsistencies between the classical paradigm and the circumstances surrounding the executions in ninth-century Córdoba provided the unsympathetic Christians with a way of justifying their opinion of the confessors. In addressing these specific discrepancies, Eulogius not only probed, in an unusually self-conscious manner, the definition of sanctity, but inadvertently provided a window through which we can observe how some Cordoban Christians justified their conciliatory attitudes toward the Muslim authorities.

Using Eulogius writings to assess his motives and methods not only represents the most reliable use of the sources but it also constitutes the first step toward any accurate understanding of the martyrs. Only when we know who Eulogius was and what he was attempting to do can we begin to extract his influence from his martyrology and proceed, with proper caution, to assess the motives of the Cordoban martyrs themselves.

Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain
Kenneth Baxter Wolf

Introduction

[1] The city of Córdoba was the setting for an unusual historical drama that unfolded between the years 850 and 859, when forty-eight Christians were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. More striking than the number of executions were the peculiar circumstances surrounding them. For one thing, as the sources unambiguously demonstrate, the majority of the victims deliberately invoked capital punishment by publicly blaspheming Muhammad and disparaging Islam. Moreover, though some Cordoban Christians applauded the executed Christians as martyrs, others regarded them as self-immolators whose unwarranted outbursts served only to expose the community as a whole to the emirs suspicions.

Our information about this historical anomaly comes almost entirely from the works of two men who lived in Córdoba during the time of the martyrdoms. Eulogius, a priest, and Paulus Alvarus, an educated layman, reacted to the scorn that the martyrs elicited by composing apologetic treatises on their behalf, extolling their fortitude and defending their memories from the attacks of unsympathetic Christians. Eulogius even went a step further, composing a martyrology through which he transformed the executed Christians into holy martyrs worthy of cultic veneration. His treatises and martyrology, combined with a few letters, make Eulogius the key source of information for what has come to be known as the "Cordoban martyrs movement."

Previous treatments of the martyrdoms have attempted to lay bare the motives of the participants themselves. Since the martyrs never expressed themselves in writing, such reconstructions have relied almost entirely on Eulogius' depiction of the events, under the assumption that his involvement in the movement was [2] intimate. But to conflate the motives of any hagiographer with those of his protagonists can be very misleading. Writing a book about a saint is not the same as being a saint. In Eulogius' case, though he, too, ultimately suffered the same kind of death, he never in his life actively sought execution in the manner of the martyrs he praised. As useful as Eulogius works are for recreating the events of the 850s, then, they can really only provide direct information about the thoughts and perceptions of one person: Eulogius.

Our intention is to approach Eulogius' writings more critically and thus more narrowly, using them to answer questions about Eulogius himself. In the first place, we will seek to determine what prompted a priest like Eulogius to lend his literary support to something as unusual and controversial as a series of unprovoked martyrdoms. Rather than assume that he and the martyrs were inspired by the same visions and moved by the same forces, we will be treating Eulogius in isolation, reconstructing his biography and gleaning from it the most likely reasons for his support of the martyrs.

Once we have determined why Eulogius defended the martyrs, we will turn to the question how. For it was clear to everyone, even Eulogius, that the martyrs of Córdoba were not martyrs of the ancient Roman cast. The inconsistencies between the classical paradigm and the circumstances surrounding the executions in ninth-century Córdoba provided the unsympathetic Christians with a way of justifying their opinion of the confessors. In addressing these specific discrepancies, Eulogius not only probed, in an unusually self-conscious manner, the definition of sanctity, but inadvertently provided a window through which we can observe how some Cordoban Christians justified their conciliatory attitudes toward the Muslim authorities.

Using Eulogius writings to assess his motives and methods not only represents the most reliable use of the sources but it also constitutes the first step toward any accurate understanding of the martyrs. Only when we know who Eulogius was and what he was attempting to do can we begin to extract his influence from his martyrology and proceed, with proper caution, to assess the motives of the Cordoban martyrs themselves.

FULL TEXT

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain
Kenneth Baxter Wolf

Introduction

[1] The city of Córdoba was the setting for an unusual historical drama that unfolded between the years 850 and 859, when forty-eight Christians were decapitated for religious offenses against Islam. More striking than the number of executions were the peculiar circumstances surrounding them. For one thing, as the sources unambiguously demonstrate, the majority of the victims deliberately invoked capital punishment by publicly blaspheming Muhammad and disparaging Islam. Moreover, though some Cordoban Christians applauded the executed Christians as martyrs, others regarded them as self-immolators whose unwarranted outbursts served only to expose the community as a whole to the emirs suspicions.

Our information about this historical anomaly comes almost entirely from the works of two men who lived in Córdoba during the time of the martyrdoms. Eulogius, a priest, and Paulus Alvarus, an educated layman, reacted to the scorn that the martyrs elicited by composing apologetic treatises on their behalf, extolling their fortitude and defending their memories from the attacks of unsympathetic Christians. Eulogius even went a step further, composing a martyrology through which he transformed the executed Christians into holy martyrs worthy of cultic veneration. His treatises and martyrology, combined with a few letters, make Eulogius the key source of information for what has come to be known as the "Cordoban martyrs movement."

Previous treatments of the martyrdoms have attempted to lay bare the motives of the participants themselves. Since the martyrs never expressed themselves in writing, such reconstructions have relied almost entirely on Eulogius' depiction of the events, under the assumption that his involvement in the movement was [2] intimate. But to conflate the motives of any hagiographer with those of his protagonists can be very misleading. Writing a book about a saint is not the same as being a saint. In Eulogius' case, though he, too, ultimately suffered the same kind of death, he never in his life actively sought execution in the manner of the martyrs he praised. As useful as Eulogius works are for recreating the events of the 850s, then, they can really only provide direct information about the thoughts and perceptions of one person: Eulogius.

Our intention is to approach Eulogius' writings more critically and thus more narrowly, using them to answer questions about Eulogius himself. In the first place, we will seek to determine what prompted a priest like Eulogius to lend his literary support to something as unusual and controversial as a series of unprovoked martyrdoms. Rather than assume that he and the martyrs were inspired by the same visions and moved by the same forces, we will be treating Eulogius in isolation, reconstructing his biography and gleaning from it the most likely reasons for his support of the martyrs.

Once we have determined why Eulogius defended the martyrs, we will turn to the question how. For it was clear to everyone, even Eulogius, that the martyrs of Córdoba were not martyrs of the ancient Roman cast. The inconsistencies between the classical paradigm and the circumstances surrounding the executions in ninth-century Córdoba provided the unsympathetic Christians with a way of justifying their opinion of the confessors. In addressing these specific discrepancies, Eulogius not only probed, in an unusually self-conscious manner, the definition of sanctity, but inadvertently provided a window through which we can observe how some Cordoban Christians justified their conciliatory attitudes toward the Muslim authorities.

Using Eulogius writings to assess his motives and methods not only represents the most reliable use of the sources but it also constitutes the first step toward any accurate understanding of the martyrs. Only when we know who Eulogius was and what he was attempting to do can we begin to extract his influence from his martyrology and proceed, with proper caution, to assess the motives of the Cordoban martyrs themselves.

FULL TEXT

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

I have not read the whole thing, but I have severe doubts about the author.

I did look a little further into the man who wrote it, because the intro and part of chapter 1 that I read gave me some mixed feelings about what he was trying to say about these martyrs. As it turns out, he also wrote a hit piece on St. Francis of Assisi [titled: The Poverty of Riches: St. Francis of Assisi Reconsidered], painting his poverty as something less noble. There is a review here: http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives2/2003b/052303/052303t.php

Here is a bit of another review, with some pretty horrible quotes from the author:

This view of Francis as a simple and humble man is not shared by Ken Wolf, a history professor at Pomona College in Claremont. Wolf says for years something about the story of Francis of Assisi bothered him.

"He imitated the poor but never came close to poverty, because renouncing his wealth gave him an incredible amount of power. He became known as the one who gave it all away and that gave him power; people listened to him," says Wolf, author of another new book, "The Poverty of Riches: St. Francis Reconsidered." "No one listened to the regular poor people."

He says that if Francis had really wanted to help the poor "he would have done something with it that would have made a difference in their lives ... like opened a hospital or a hospice."

He also criticizes Francis for begging for his food. "Instead of distributing food to the poor, which he could have done ... he competed against them for food. The wealthy were much more likely to give to him and his cause because they knew him," says Wolf.

I don't think I will spend the time finding out what he has to say about the martyrs in Spain. He seems more like a leftist academic who, unable to ascend to sanctity himself, must tear down those who have. That said, perhaps this book is better than the one on St. Francis, but after seeing his opinions about one of the greatest Saints to walk this Earth, I just can't convince myself to find out.

You don't read anything that might be in variance to your orthodoxy?

PS: This is a work of "scholarship" and in that sense its analytical style and not a testament of faith. But it did reveal an episode of history I did not know about and now I must add the work of St. Eulogius of Cordova to my readings.

Memorial 11 March

Profile Son of a Cordoban senatorial family. Well educated. Priest. Head of an ecclesiastical school. Worked to comfort and support Christian martyrs and their survivors during Islamic persecutions. Arrested several times for his faith, he wrote Exhortation to Martyrdom while during one of his imprisonments. Appointed to succeed the Archbishop of Toledo, but was never consecrated. Imprisoned after he gave shelter to Saint Leocritia of Cordoba, he preached the Gospel in court, then in front of the king's counsel. Martyr.

Died scourged and beheaded 11 March 859 at Cordoba, Spain

Patronage carpenters, coppersmiths

Writings
Memorial of the Saints
Exhortation to Martyrdom
Apologia

There are all manner of things that I don't waste my time reading. There is an army of academics in the world who spend their days "debunking" the myth of Chistian virtue. I will not try to read them, because it profits me nothing.

There are libraries full of books that I would like to read which would profit much. My time is better spent reading St. Teresa of Avila or St. Alphonsus than reading one Ph.D.'s slanted diatribe against the Saints of God.

PPS: It was not as anti-Catholic as one would assume from your post based on my quick reading of it just now. The author is just trying to figure out why these martyrs would test the Muslims this way - that he can not understand outright why should not hold one back from reading what happened.

I would most certainly like to get the work of St. Eulogius that Wolf is "analyzing". That, I think, would be a worthy read.

I would add that I am not saying that only the writings of the Saints are worth reading, but unless I have spare time on my hands I am not going to pick up a book by someone who attacks the faith.

I will leave that to those who study these sorts of things and can sort fact from fiction.

No attack on the faith took place in this book - only an attempt to understand - from a secular view point - why some Catholics in Cordova at this stood up and openly denounced Islam knowing full well they will be killed for it.

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