MĚRIDA. – This is the ancient colony of Emerita Augusta, a Spanish city situated in the province of Badajoz, on the right bank of the Guadiana. In the Roman period it was of great importance, being the capital of Lusitania and the seat of a diocese, now extinct.
Its first known bishop, a certain Marziale, apostatized under Decius in 250. It was then that s. Cipriano held an African Synod to punish Marziale and repudiate him in his Ep. 67. After Marziale, the list of the bishops of M. extends to Massimo in 759, during whose time the Arabs occupied the city. Before this, it had witnessed the incursions of the Alani (409) and the Suebi (439). At M., s. Ermenegildo was proclaimed against his father Leovigildo. At that time M. enjoyed the dignity of a metropolitan see with 12 suffragan sees; it lost this status in 1120 in favor of Santiago. The last Synod held at M. took place on 6 November 666. It is also known that Oronzio, bishop of M., signed the Acts of the Councils of Toledo of 646 and 653.
ARCHAEOLOGY. - Prudentius describes the basilica of S. EULOGIA (v.) of M. as having a gilded roof, walls clad in precious marbles, and a mosaic floor (Peristephanon, 3). Bishop Fidelis further improved the building (560–71). The present church of S. Eulalia is a reconstruction carried out after the reconquest (1229). It has three naves and a transept. During the Visigothic period M. had more than six Christian basilicas (Z. García Villada, Historia eclesiastica de España, II, II, Madrid 1933, p. 225). One basilica from this period has been identified at the site of the present prison. Near the Roman theatre there is a house converted 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 Marcellus and the deacon Helius, mentioned by St. Cyprian (Ep. 67), several names of the clergy of M. have been transmitted through inscriptions. Thus, a bishop named Zeno is known (G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones Christ. urbis Romae, II, I, Roma 1887, p. 256); a presbyter named Orbanus from the year 518 (J. R. Mélida, Catalogo monumental de España, Provincia de Badajoz, II, Madrid 1912, p. 29, n. 2043); a deacon named Hippolytus from the year 508
(ibid., p. 22, n. 2030); the oldest dated inscription is from 381, the most recent from 678.
Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina - Enrico Josi