Columba of Córdoba

Saint Columba of Córdoba (Columba of Spain) was a virgin and nun born at Córdoba, in Spain, and put to death around 853 by the Muslim rulers, during a persecution of Christians. She is one of the Martyrs of Córdoba. The sources at our disposal give her as a saint of the Catholic Church and show no Orthodox act concerning her; hers is therefore a Western cult, from the time of the caliphate of Córdoba, and our calendar gives her the day 17 September. According to historians, her cult is probably a blending of two virgin martyrs, Columba of Spain and Columba of Sens, a French martyr of the third century.

Life

Columba was born at Córdoba, the youngest of three children. According to the hagiographer Alban Butler, her life was written by Saint Eulogius of Córdoba in "The Memorial of the Saints", his account of the persecution of Christians begun in Spain in 850; according to him, "even allowing for exaggeration, Columba had a high reputation for holiness". Her sisters Elizabeth and Martina, with Elizabeth's husband, founded a double monastery at Tábanos, in a mountainous region north of Córdoba. Her brother Martin was abbot of the men's section. Columba, inspired by their example, was determined to become a nun, but her plans were, for a short time, hindered by her mother, a widow, who wanted to marry her off. Soon after the mother realized that opposition was fruitless, she died, and Columba entered Tábanos.

According to the historian Kenneth B. Wolf, Eulogius' account of Columba's life at Tábanos is full of "hyperbole" but "revealing": Columba "suffered from overwhelming anxiety about her own shortcomings" and "a profound uncertainty about her own ability to resist temptation". Following her sisters to Tábanos was, Wolf says, a way of easing her anxieties, but he did not think it succeeded, since she increased her self-⁠punishments after taking her vows; "chastity, the keystone of the penitential regimen, was not enough for Columba", and martyrdom was a way to "contribute in a positive way toward her own salvation".

Martyrdom

In 852, after the persecution in Spain had gone on for two years, the community was forced out of Tábanos and took refuge in a house in Córdoba, near the church of Saint Cyprian. Columba ignored the bishops' ruling not to provoke persecution, left the house, presented herself before the city's Muslim magistrate and denounced Muhammad and his law. The magistrate condemned her to beheading, on 17 September 853. She was the sixth martyr executed under Muhammad I and one of the Martyrs of Córdoba, a group of forty-⁠eight martyrs killed in this period. Her body was thrown into the marshes of the Guadalquivir, but was recovered by other Christians and buried at the basilica of Saint Eulalia at Fragellas; the Greek source says it was recovered intact. Her relics are reported to have been taken later to and venerated in two churches, the abbey of Santa María de Nájera and its dependent priory, dedicated to Saint Columba.

What historians say of the cult

The historian Allyson M. Poska says that Columba's cult is "probably a combination of two virgin martyrs": Saint Columba of Sens (Comba), a French martyr of the third century, and Columba of Spain. Poska speculates that a Visigothic church dedicated to Saint Columba at Bande, near the Portuguese border, may indicate the spread of her devotion before the Muslim invasion. The legend probably became mixed with that of Columba of Sens when settlers repopulated Galicia after the Muslims were expelled from the region.