Eulalia, Eulogio and Leocricia: distant martyrs, relic trips and temples in the service of the Asturian throne

Abstract

The Oviedo Cathedral has been known since the 12th century for its reliquary embodied in the Holy Ark. Late narratives link its origin with the last Asturian kings and their devotional acts. Worship and accumulation of relics were some of their most important instruments of power. The background of Hispanic martyrs provided the kingdom with the symbolic role of a martyr kingdom, that resists against Islam, and with neo-Visigothic ideological models. All this helps to explaine the transfer to Oviedo of the sacred remains of Eulalia of Mérida and Eulogio and Leocricia of Córdoba at two different times, both under royal promotion. An arrival that could have its material translation in the construction of a temple-reliquary that will become the heart and thesaurus of the Monarchy of Oviedo and which would later house precisely the Holy Ark.