They announce the premiere of a film about the first Spanish martyr, San Fructuoso

Next Sunday, January 19, a film about Bishop San Fructuoso and his deacons Eulogio and Augurio will premiere in Tarragona (Spain), whose martyrdom in the 3rd century is the first documented in Spanish territory.

The martyrdom acts, known by the Latin expression Fruity Passion They detail the way in which these martyrs were victims of the persecution unleashed by the Roman emperors Valerius and Gallienus.

They were taken to prison, where the bishop baptized the catechumen Rogaciano. After several days of arrest, they were taken before the governor of Hispania Citerior, who sentenced them to be burned alive in the amphitheater of Tarragona. At the end, the Christian community collected the remains of the three martyrs that night to bury them.

Although the Fruitful passion It is by an anonymous author, it is suspected that it could have been a soldier who attended the amphitheater on January 21, 259, given that it uses numerous martial terms, details the body that carried out the arrest of the bishop and his deacons and even the names of some of the the soldiers.

It also specifies the way in which the trial took place before the authorities and how the martyrs rejected the possibility of apostatizing from the faith. His fame spread since then, so much so that Saint Augustine he wrote a sermon for his feast day.

In it, the saint of Hippo highlights the fidelity of those who face martyrdom with integrity to bear witness to faith and Christ’s victory over death. Furthermore, it emphasizes the idea of ​​martyrdom as a direct route to eternal glory and a factor of unity and strength of the Christian community.

The film, titled The Passion of Saint Fructuosusis based on the play of the same name that has been performed since 1990 and whose author is Andreu Muñoz, director of the Tarraconense Biblical Museum.

All the action has been filmed in heritage spaces of the city of Tarragona, such as the Roman circus, the Colony forum, the cathedral or the amphitheater, the place of martyrdom, which is still largely preserved, more than 1,700 years later.