St Perfectus of Cordoba

From the Memoriale Sanctorum, St Eulogius of Cordoba 

The Life of Saint Perfectus of Cordoba, whose feast is 18 April, was recorded by Saint Eulogius of Cordoba in the Memoriale Sanctorum (Memory of the Saints).

In the name of the Lord; Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning for ever, in the year 850 of his incarnation, it was 888 and the twentieth year of the consulship (reign) of Abderraman, and at that time the Arab people, great in wealth and dignity in Hispania, had taken possession of almost the whole of Iberia with an unhappy dominion, and as for Cordoba, which was once called Patricia, and is now called the royal city because the monarch resides there, he had raised it to the highest place, exalted it with honours, expanded it in glory, filled it with riches and increased it enormously with an abundance of all the delicacies of the world, he had exalted it to the highest, exalted it with honours, enlarged it in glory, filled it with riches, and increased it exceedingly with abundance of all the delicacies of the world, beyond all that can be believed or said, so that it exceeded, surpassed, and surpassed in all worldly fasts the former kings of his lineage, while under his very heavy yoke the Catholic Church groaned and was scourged to its destruction. Meanwhile, Perfectus, a presbyter of venerable memory, born in Cordoba, brilliantly brought up and educated by the masters of the church of Saint Acisclus, instructed in the most accomplished manner in the ecclesiastical disciplines, imbued with a lively training in letters and even somewhat versed in the Arabic language, had spent almost all his youth in the aforesaid congregation. One day when he had set out on a family errand and was going about the city to attend to the benefit of his private affairs, he was interrogated by the questions of some Gentiles about the Catholic faith and was compelled to make a statement in their presence about Christ and the Prophet Mohammed. He immediately confessed at length the power of Christ’s divinity and proclaimed that he was God blessed above all things for ever and ever: “As to your prophet,” he said, “I dare not state how he is held among the Catholics, for I doubt not that you will be grievously hurt thereby; but if you will make a friendly covenant and peaceably pledge your word, I will tell you by what testimony of the Gospel he is accused, and what veneration the Christians have for him. At once they gave him their word fraudulently, and they forced him to tell without fear all that the clerics thought of him. Answering them in Arabic, the prudent priest declared according to the Gospel that he was a false prophet and a most fallacious dogmatist for having deceived many, and said to them: “Many false prophets will come in my name and will deceive many, and will work many signs and wonders to mislead, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24). Of these the greatest of all is this prophet of yours, invaded by the deceptions of the ancient enemy, seduced by the inventions of demons, and given to sacrileges and malice, who has corrupted the hearts of many unbelievers with deadly poison and delivered them into the snares of eternal perdition. Thus, lacking all spiritual wisdom, he accommodates their faith to his sovereign Satan, with whom he himself will suffer the most severe torments of hell, having condemned you also, his followers, to the fires of the unquenchable furnace to burn with him. For how is he to be reckoned among the prophets, or why is he not to be punished with a curse from heaven, who, like a barbarian, took from his servant Zaid his wife Zeinab, obsessed as he was by her beauty and loveliness, and, like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps. 31:9), joined himself to her in adultery and declared that he had done it at the command of an angel?”. Then the blessed Perfectus One added many other things about the filth and voluptuousness prescribed in the Mohammedan religion and finally ended with these words: “Thus, the protector of filth and slave of voluptuous pleasures has given you all over to the impurities of a perennial lust”. And while, as he knew, he continued to expound to them more of his abominable doctrine, and to denounce before all many odious details to hear, though he did not then attack him with his haughty glance, they kept, nevertheless, kindled in their hearts a vindictive fury against him. The servant of God then carried out the business that required him, and after completing his journey, he returned to the tranquillity of his cell and remained for some time in safety. But after a not very long period of time, having to go somewhere on family business, he had to pass by chance among the very people with whom he had recently clashed. When his enemies saw him coming in the distance, they brought out in open flame the wound they had always harboured against him in their breast, and thus harangued the group of those present in vengeance on their prophet: “Look at the one who just now, driven by reckless madness, uttered before us such great curses as none of your ears could bear against the Prophet, God bless him and save him”. And they always use this kind of blessing in honour of him: “Zalla Allah Halla Anabi Ua Zallen”, which in Latin means: “God bless the Prophet and save him”. And so, like irritated bees, the whole group of the lost ones rose up furiously against him and after grabbing him, at full speed and almost without his feet touching the ground, they brought him before the judge and testified about him: “This one whom we have dragged before your most reverend tribunal, O judge, we have found out that he has cursed our prophet and reviled his faithful. The sentence that will repress such audacity and restrain his wanderings, your wisdom knows best”. Then the iniquitous judge put the future martyr of God in a dungeon, bound and bound him with an unbearable load of chains, and postponed his immolation until the day when the festival of the Passover is celebrated among them with profane rites. The soldier of Christ marched in a jubilant mood towards the depths of the prison and entered joyfully, like a guest at a banquet, into that dungeon of the damned. There, with a great and holy fear of God, he devoted himself to vigils, prayers and fasting, and it is said that the words he had just denied before the judge for fear of death, he now confirmed with a more courageous spirit by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And before he was led out into the square to be executed, it is said that, in the spirit of prophecy, he said about a certain eunuch named Nazar, the minister of the treasury who at that time administered the whole state in Hispania: “He whom the splendour of his privation today raises above all the heroes of Iberia, and whom his glorious power has lifted up to heaven in this western land, will not, in the course of the coming year, reach the day on which he has decreed to kill me”. And this was soon fulfilled by divine grace, as he had revealed it to his confessor, already well purified through the filth of prison. Thus, after not many months in prison, when the thirty days of their [Muslim] fasts had been completed, those in which, as has been referred to in the first book, they are more prone than usual to excesses of gluttony and to the unrestraint of their lust, the most glorious day of all dawned for the martyr, that is, the day which according to the rite of his vain religion they have consecrated to solemn worship and supreme jubilation. On it, believing to render their god a great service, they dragged him out of the dungeon and slew him with a vengeful sword, while he proclaimed that Christ possessed the glory of divinity and freely censured the enemy of the Catholic Church, saying: “I have cursed and cursed your prophet; that he is a demoniac, a sorcerer, an adulterer, and a liar, as I have declared him to be; the sacrileges of your sect I denounce as the inventions of the devil, and I affirm that you too will suffer with your own leader the eternal torments of hell”. For their part, the crowd of infidels, who on the occasion of such a feast had come out to pray on the plain on the other side of the river bridge, in the vast esplanade on the south side of the city, quickly and jubilantly turned away to behold the death of the martyr; And seeing him already dead at the gates of the fortress, and mixed in his own blood, they also dipped their feet in the blood of the dead priest and, now master of their desires, returned with great joy to carry out their sacrileges, confident that they would not fail to obtain benefits with great ease, as they marched with their feet stained with the blood of an enemy of such size.