EULOGIUS OF CORDOVA: Spanish martyr; b. at Cordova after 800; beheaded there Mar. 11, 859. He was of good family, was educated for the priesthood, became deacon and presbyter of the Church of St. Zoilus at Cordova, and adopted a life of the strictest asceticism. His grandfather had been noted for hatred of the Mohammedans, and Eulogius's inherited tendencies were strengthened by his teacher, the abbot Speraindeo of Cordova, and by his intimate friend Alvar (q.v.). Returning home from a visit to Northern Spain undertaken in 848, he found a party among the Christians characterized by a fanatical desire for martyrdom, which they sought by publicly reviling Mohammed. Influenced by Alvar, after some hesitation Eulogius came forward as the apologist of this party, and wrote in glorification of martyrs and exhorting to emulate them. The emir Abdalrahman II. (822-852), whose policy was tolerant and enlightened, with the support of some of the Christians headed by an archbishop Reccafred (probably of Seville), sought in vain to check the fanatical movement (see CORDOVA). Eulogius was imprisoned for a time, but his literary activity was not interfered with. He was chosen successor to Archbishop Wistremir of Toledo (d. 858), but the emir refused to confirm his election; disappointed and filled with new fanaticism, he sought the death which he had praised in others. Alvar glorified him in hymns and in an account of his life and death (in MPL, cxv. 705-720). His works include a few letters and a Memoriale snctorum martyrum in three books, which is the main source of the martyr history of the time and appears to be a sober and trustworthy narrative of facts; and a Liber apologeticus sanctorum martyrum, in which he tries to place the Spanish martyrs on a level with those of the early Church and the Mohammedans with the Roman persecutors. With his other works, scholia, etc., they are in MPL, cxv. 731-912.