Primary source · Latin
The Acts of Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius
Official court record (Tarragona, 21 January 259) · AD 259
What this text is
The arrest, trial, and burning of the bishop of Tarragona with his two deacons under Valerian — the earliest document of Spanish Christianity, so sober that Augustine preached on it and Prudentius versified it.
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Before Aemilianus — the confession
EgoIunumoneDeumGodcolo,worship,quiwhofecitmadecaelumheavenetandterram.earth
Public-domain translations
ANF rendering (1886)
Aemilianus the governor said, ‘Dost thou know the commands of the emperors?’ Fructuosus the bishop said, ‘I am bound to hold in reverence the one God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.’ …‘I must keep the fast; it is Wednesday.’
Manuscript witnesses
Passionary tradition of Hispania
9th c. onwardThe sober passio, already read publicly in Augustine's Africa (Serm. 273).
Ruinart, Acta sincera
1689Classic printing.
Provenance
Tarraco, Hispania, AD 259 — bishop and deacons burned in the amphitheatre
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The Acts of the Christian MartyrsHerbert Musurillo, 1972Critical text and translation.
- Prudentius, Peristephanon VI (context)(see) Palmer, Prudentius on the Martyrs, 1989The literary afterlife of the Tarragona martyrs.