MÉRIDA. – It is the ancient colony Emerita Augusta, a Spanish city situated 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 disappeared.
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 bishops of M. extends to Maximus in 759, at which time the Arabs occupied the city. Before that it had seen the incursions of the Alans (409) and the Suebi (439). At M. St Hermenegild was proclaimed against his father Liuvigild. At that time M. had the dignity of a metropolis with 12 suffragan sees; it lost this in 1120 in favour 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 EULOGIA (v.) at M. as having a gilded roof with walls clad in precious marbles and a mosaic pavement (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 theatre 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 the bishop Martial and the deacon Eligius, mentioned by St Cyprian (Ep. 67), some names of the clergy of M. have been preserved by inscriptions. Thus we know of a bishop named Zeno (G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christ. urbis Romae, II, I, Roma 1887, p. 256); a priest Urbanus of the year 518 (J. R. Mélida, Catalogo monumental de España, Provincia de Badajoz, II, Madrid 1912, p. 29, no. 2043); and a deacon Hippolytus of the year 508.