Martyrdom of Saints Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius

The inscription on the console block on the north side identifies the person represented as Saint Fructuosus: FRVCTV/ OSVS EPI/ SCOPUS. The Bishop of Tarragona is wearing liturgical vestments, holds a crosier, and raises his right hand in the gesture of blessing. The deacons by whom he is flanked wear dalmatic, stola and maniple; each is holding a book. Their inscribed names are also legible: to the left AVGVRIUS, to the right EVLOGIVS. The fact that one of the books is open and the other closed symbolizes the reading of the Old and New Testament, as in the capital with the Washing of the Feet (E07MS25). On the east side the Prefect Emilianus ([E]MILIANVS / PRES[ES]) is represented sitting in his curule chair: he orders that the three men be executed; They are to be burnt at the stake. A musician stands behind him: [F]ID[I]CEN (“lyre-player”); to the left two executioners stoke up the fire. The south side shows the three martyrs in the midst of the flames with their arms raised in prayer. The inscription reads: MARTI/ RES IN F/ LA[M]MIS, flanked by the names of the two deacons: AV/GVRIVS D/IACO[NVS] and EV/LOGIVS/DI[ACONVS]. On the west side the souls of the three Spanish Saints are represented as small naked bodies set in a jewel-studded mandorla (the light of the glorified martyrs). The mandorla is held by the hand of God. The abbey of Moissac took great interest in the restoration of the Catalonian ecclesiastical province of Tarragona in 1097. This undoubtedly played a major role in the decision to represent the Spanish bishop and his deacons, who were martyred in the Roman amphitheatre in Tarragona in 259. The parallel with the adjacent Saint Saturnin capital (E17MS35) is not only iconographic (e.g. the hand of God holding the mandorla).

IN FLA[M]MIS MARTIRES PRES[ES] AVGVRIUS EPISCOPUS EVLOGIVS FRVCTVOSVS [F]ID[I]CEN [E]MILIANUS AVGVRIVS DIACO[NVS] EVLOGIVS DI[ACONVS] inscription mandorla hand manus soul martyr book Eulogius Augurius God amphitheatre Tarragona stake Emilianus prefect liturgical-vestments Old-Testament