MÉRIDA. - It is the ancient colony of Emerita Augusta, a Spanish city located in the province of Badajoz on the right bank of the Guadiana. In Roman times it was of great importance, being the capital of Lusitania and the seat of a diocese, now vanished.
Its first known bishop, a certain Martial, apostatized under Decius in 250. It was then that St. Cyprian held an African Synod to punish Martial and disavow him in his Ep. 67. After Martial the list of the bishops of M. extends down to Maximus in 759, in whose time the Arabs occupied the city. Previously it had seen the incursions of the Alans (409) and of the Suebi (439). At M. St. Hermenegild was proclaimed against his father Leovigild. At that time M. held the dignity of a metropolis with 12 suffragan sees; it lost this in 1120 in favor of Santiago. The last Synod held at M. took place on 6 Nov. 666. It is also known that Oroncius, bishop of M., subscribed to the Councils of Toledo of 646 and 653.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Prudentius describes the basilica of St. Eulalia (v.) of M. as having a gilded roof, walls covered with precious marbles, and a mosaic floor (Peristephanon, 3). Bishop Fidelis further improved the building (560-71). The present church of St. Eulalia is a reconstruction carried out after the reconquest (1229). It has three naves with a transept. During the Visigothic period M. counted more than six Christian basilicas (Z. García Villada, Historia eclesiástica de España, II, II, Madrid 1933, p. 225). One of the basilicas of that period has been identified in the place where the present prison stands. Near the Roman theater is a house transformed into a Christian basilica between the 4th and 5th centuries (J. R. Mélida, Excavaciones de M., in Archeologia Española, 4 [1929], pp. 189-90).
Besides Bishop Martial and the deacon Helius, mentioned by St. Cyprian (Ep. 67), some names of the clergy of M. have been handed down by inscriptions. Thus there are known a bishop named Zeno (G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christ. urbis Romae, II, I, Rome 1887, p. 256); a priest Orbanus of the year 518 (J. R. Mélida, Catalogo monumental de España, Provincia de Badajoz, II, Madrid 1912, p. 29, n. 2043); a deacon Hippolytus of the year 508
(ibid., p. 22, n. 2030); the oldest dated inscription is from 381, the most recent from 678.
Bibliography3 works
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina - Enrico Josi