Sequence of Saint Eulalia

The Sequence of Saint Eulalia, also known as the Canticle of Saint Eulalia is the earliest surviving piece of <a href="/facts/France/CxIeIKM3">French</a> <a href="/facts/Hagiography/CtKDrTXm">hagiography</a> and one of the earliest extant texts in the vernacular <a href="/facts/Langues_d%2527o%25C3%25AFl/fsgX2IRM">langues d'oïl</a> (<a href="/facts/Old_French/QcRpPdAc">Old French</a>). It dates from around 880.
<a href="/facts/Eulalia_of_M%25C3%25A9rida/TzgsqxmW">Eulalia of Mérida</a> was an early Christian martyr from <a href="/facts/M%25C3%25A9rida%2c_Spain/ah8I9mJ0">Mérida</a>, <a href="/facts/Spain/bIyrB8EY">Spain</a>, who was killed during the <a href="/facts/Diocletianic_Persecution/ysQ8yY31">Persecution of Diocletian</a> around 304. Her legend is recounted in the 29 verses of the Sequence, in which she resists pagan threats, bribery and torture from the pagan emperor <a href="/facts/Maximian/Bfhf6oCY">Maximian</a>. She miraculously survives being burned at the stake, but is finally decapitated. She then ascends to heaven in the form of a <a href="/facts/Columbidae/HXY1GUHj">dove</a>.
The Sequence was composed in verse around 880, soon after the rediscovery of the relics of a saint of the same name, <a href="/facts/Eulalia_of_Barcelona/GyUxqyzG">Eulalia of Barcelona</a>, in 878.

Sequence of Saint Eulalia open-in-new

Sequence of Saint Eulalia