Engratia

Saint Engratia
The flagellation of Saint Engratia. Bartolomé Bermejo, 1474-1478.
Virgin and martyr
Born	Braga, Portugal
Died	~303 AD Zaragoza, Spain
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	Pre-congregation
Major shrine	Zaragoza
Feast	April 16

Engratia (Portuguese: Santa Engrácia, Spanish: Santa Engracia) is venerated as a virgin martyr and saint. Tradition states that she was martyred with eighteen companions in 303 AD.

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History

Although her martyrdom is traditionally placed around 303 during the Diocletianic Persecution, more recently it is considered probable that she died during the persecution of Valerian (254-260).^[1]

Legend

Engratia was a native of Braga who had been promised in marriage to a nobleman of Roussillon. He sent as her escort to Gaul her uncle Lupercius (sometimes identified with the Luperculus who was a bishop of Eauze^[2]) and a suite of sixteen noblemen and a servant named Julie or Julia.^[3]

Upon reaching Zaragoza, they learned of the persecution of Christians there by the governor Dacian, who reigned in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. She attempted to dissuade him from his persecution, but was whipped and imprisoned when it was discovered that she was a Christian. She died of her wounds. Her companions were decapitated.

Martyrs of Zaragoza

Many others, called the Martyrs of Zaragoza, were martyred at the same time.^[3] They are also called the Countless Martyrs of Zaragoza.^[3]

It is said that Dacian, to detect and so make an end of all the faithful of Saragossa, ordered that liberty to practise their religion should be promised them on condition that they all went out of the city at a certain fixed time and by certain designated gates. As soon as they had thus gone forth, he ordered them to be put to the sword and their corpses burned. Their ashes were mixed with those of criminals, so that no veneration might be paid them. But a shower of rain fell and washed the ashes apart, forming those of the martyrs into certain white masses. These, known as the "holy masses" (las santas masas) were deposited in the crypt of the church dedicated to St. Engratia, where they are still preserved.^[4]

Their number includes, besides Engratia, Lupercius and Julia:

Caius and Crescentius, confessors rather than martyrs: they were imprisoned and tortured, but did not succumb to their treatment.^[5]
Successus, Martial, Urban, Quintilian, Publius, Fronto, Felix, Cecilian, Evodius, Primitivus, Apodemius, and
four men all sharing the name Saturninus.^[6] who, according to St. Eugenius II of Toledo would be Jenaro, Casiano, Matutino and Fausto.
Januarius^[7]

Veneration

Prudentius, a native of Zaragoza, wrote a hymn in honour of these martyrs, and lists their names, and describes the terrible tortures suffered by Encratis (Engratia).^[6] An important cult arose around these saints. Engratia was certainly the most venerated of the group, and her cult was diffused throughout Spain and the Pyrenees. Engracia was declared patroness of the city of Saragossa in 1480.

During a synod held at Zaragoza in 592, the church dedicated to her there was reconsecrated, an act celebrated on 3 November, which sometimes served as an alternate feast day.^[6]

The Church of Santa Engrácia in Lisbon is dedicated to her. The Church of Santa Engracia de Zaragoza was built on the spot where Engratia and her companions were said to have been martyred. It was destroyed in the Spanish War of Independence, with only the crypt and the doorway being left.^[4] It was rebuilt in the late 19th or early 20th century, and served as a parish church.^[1]

Gallery

Arrest of Santa Engràcia, Bartolomé Bermejo, from the Altarpiece of Santa Engràcia (1472 - 1477)
Saint Engracia, workshop of Francisco de Zurbarán, 1650
Saint Engracia, workshop of Francisco de Zurbarán, 1650, for the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas
Saint Engratia on the right panel of the altarpiece of the Virgin in the Museum of Zaragoza, Jerónimo Cosida, 1560
Sanint Engracia, Bartolomé de San Antonio
Saint Engratia, Famous women of Spain and Portugal, 1868

References

^ ^a ^b Amadó, Ramón Ruiz (1912). "Saragossa". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
^ Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints (J. Hodges, 1874), 410.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Lives of the Saints, April 16, Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, Saint Engratia and the Eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa". Archived from the original on 2008-05-04. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
^ ^a ^b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Amadó, Ramón Ruiz (1912). "Saragossa". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
^ "Santa Engracia", Parish of Saint Engracia, Zaragoza
^ ^a ^b ^c Santa Engrazia
^ "Januarius (33)", A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines, p. 341.