Heavens on Earth

by Carmen Boullosa

  “This petition would have greatly flattered every other European king. The English monarch was infamous for being a fierce man with an insatiable ambition, and marrying a daughter to his son would gain his alliance and protection from his endless appetites for his kingdom, binding him to a treaty of respect with the strength of blood. But, on the other hand, the Christian King Maurus was quite worried as he was sure that Ursula would refuse to marry a pagan prince, and if he did not accept the petition from the ferocious king of England, he would provoke the ire of this terrible man. And this he feared not because he was a coward, but rather because he was a sensible person, for he knew very well that he did not have any way to challenge the king of England in war and there was no way to get out of the tangle unscathed, or without losing his kingdom, his daughter, and his hide.

  “Ursula, divinely inspired, said:

  “‘Father, tell him that we accept, but that I ask for four conditions to be met: first, I want him to provide me with ten very special virgins as companions; the second condition is that I and my ten companions will each have a thousand virgins for our personal service, with attention to the status we deserve; third, that he provide us with a fleet in which it would be possible for our eleven thousand virgins to travel for three years, for I have to preserve my virginity throughout this time; and fourth, that he use the time of my long voyage to instruct himself in the Christian doctrine and prepare himself to be baptized.’

  “The delegation received the reply and conditions with sheer panic and tried to dissuade the king of Britannia from imposing these conditions, but Ursula was unyielding and explained at great length the advisability of each one. To everyone’s surprise, Prince Ethereus, the only heir to the kingdom of England, accepted the conditions and pleaded with his father to accept them and moreover, excited by the idea of the cortege that would traverse land and sea accompanying his fiancée, he had himself baptized immediately. Why did the arrogant prince of England voluntarily submit to the foreigners? Because the divine will was weaving the story of the eleven thousand virgins for their praise and greater glory.

  “When the news spread that they were looking for such a large number of virtuous virgins and an abundant battalion of male personnel to accompany and protect them, parades of applicants flocked into both royal courts either to offer themselves voluntarily or to witness the spectacle of the beginning of the voyage. Can you all imagine that?

  “Saint Pantulus, the Bishop of Basel, was selected to participate in the voyage. Saint Gerasina, Queen of Sicily and the sister of Bishop Macirisus and of Daria, Ursula’s mother, also heard the call of the divine will that she should join them and, delegating to her eldest son the rule of her kingdom, embarked toward Britannia with her daughters Babilla, Juliana, Victoria, and Aurea, and her young son, Hadrian. It was she who selected many of the virgins who came from many kingdoms to offer themselves and, as she was a queen and was used to governing with wisdom and good judgment, it was also she who made sure that the ships were well provisioned, and it was her idea that the virgins should be trained in the arts of war in order to be prepared for the voyage.

  “Now ready to set sail, following the counsel of Saint Gerasina, Queen of Sicily, the thousands of virgins practiced mock battles. On hearing the agreed-upon signal, they lined up in military formation; upon hearing the sound of the bugle, they quickly scattered, some running as if they were fleeing, others as if they were pursuing. For days they devoted themselves to various exercises. That was when more men came to witness the spectacle of the training, sure, as I am, that it was God’s direct mediation that gave them the power to do the training, for they were no more than women and, as such, if it were not for divine intervention, they would devote themselves to womanly occupations and since the young men could see the virgins ordered like men in war exercises, practicing war for the battles they were preparing for, without obligation and unafraid, of course they were thinking they would not fight a single battle, but rather travel in peace to spread the love of God across Europe by divine design.

  “These women, working diligently in the training devised for them by Queen Gerasina, demonstrated such aggressiveness that those who came to see them, in addition to observing and admiring them, came to fear their fierce manner.

  “When they embarked for Rome, all the women of the army had converted to Christianity, as demanded by Ursula, and enthusiastically embraced the vow of virginity.

  “The details of their route and the time it took to get to Rome traveling over sea and land is not important. But what is important to note here is that as soon as he saw them arrive, the Pope—who was the nineteenth successor to Saint Peter and who had been governing the Holy Church for the past year and eleven weeks—was inspired by God to join them. Despite the fact that in order to do so it would be necessary for him abdicate his office, he decided it was unquestionably sweeter to follow the procession of women across inhospitable lands. Without saying anything to anyone, he immediately baptized those who had not yet received the sacrament, and thus, thousands received it at the same time in a lavish ceremony in Rome, which is a very wealthy city, none can compare with the grandeur of its buildings.

  “After the magnificent baptism, during an exclusive meal to which he had invited Ursula, Gerasina, Bishop Pantulus, and the first ten companions in the cortege, the Pope made public his intention to abdicate. The Cardinals opposed his resignation and the mere idea seemed so foolish to them that they thought he had lost his mind, but Cyriacus remained firm in his decision to resign, and in the ten days that followed he named Ametos as his successor; that done, the Cardinals kept their objections to themselves and expressed their desire see Ametos named the new head of the Church.

  “With this, Rome devoted itself to grand Christian festivities, because to the celebration of the presence of Ursula, fiancée of Ethereus the only heir to the king of England, and the large cortege, they added the naming of the new pontiff. In the middle of the prolonged festivities, the generals of the imperial Roman army began to suspect that there could be a danger lurking in the female army because their presence provoked religious fervor and mass conversions that the nonbelievers in the Roman military did not look favorably upon.

  “The men of Maximus and Africanus, generals of the imperial Roman army, infiltrated the troops that accompanied the women in order to discover their plans, and as soon as they knew them and received the order to do so, they quickly ran to advise Julian, the commander-in-chief of the troops of the Huns and a relative of both Maximus and Africanus, of the dates that the legion of Christian women would arrive at Cologne, and of the necessity to kill them.

  “But then, an angel appeared to Ethereus, Ursula’s prince fiancé, urging him to reunite immediately with the army of women en route to Cologne in order to receive martyrdom with them. Pope Cyriacus had received the same message from a different angel because, although there are no races or families among the angels, each angel is completely different from every other and so Ethereus’ angel was as different from Cyriacus’ angel as the wave the stone makes in falling into a pool is from the destructive violence of the stormy sea.

  “It was precisely because of the angels that Cyriacus felt compelled to accompany the eleven thousand virgins. In the same moment that he received the angel’s visit, many others received similar visits and set out to join the cortege of the eleven thousand, including the cardinal priest Vincent; Santiago, the archbishop of Antioch for the past seven years; Mauricio, bishop of Lavicana and uncle of Juliana and of Babilla; Follarius, bishop of Lucca; and Suplicius, bishop of Ravenna. They were not the only ones who had seen the prophesying angels: Marculus, the bishop of Greece, and his niece Constantia, the daughter of the king of Constantinople, also traveled from Greece to Rome desirous to join to the eleven thousand virgins. More people could have received angelic visits, because those celestial beings are innumerable, but only these few were selected. The stars that shine in the dark of night are only like a handful of pre
cious gems compared to the number of angels. The prophet Daniel tells us: Thousand of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him. And Dionysius wrote: There are many armies blessed with divine intelligence that surpass the weak and limited assemblage of our material numbers.

  “The expedition left Rome. Upon arriving in Cologne, they discovered that the city was besieged by the Huns. The women and their companions had very little time to worry: ‘What will become of us? What will we eat? Where will find lodging?’ Because the occupiers quickly divided them and fell upon them uttering great riotous and ferocious shrieks and then mercilessly assassinated each and every one of the soldiers in the army of the eleven thousand virgins. All the excitement, status, and beauty were worthless, all were meat to feed the arrows and knives, all was blood to quench the ferocious thirst. The butcher-general in charge of the army was surprised at Ursula’s beauty and proposed marriage to her, but when she immediately rejected him he mercilessly assassinated her with a single arrow.

  “Even though it all happened so fast, there was more than enough time for them to use their weapons and strength. And the troops that accompanied them—why did they not fight either? If here in Mexico City, Cortés had conquered a fierce and valiant imperial army with fewer than two hundred men, why could the women over there, being so numerous and so well-trained in the martial arts, do nothing against the enemy? Those are the designs of God, whatever happens is governed and felt by his unknowable will. It is useless and foolish to fight against divine decisions. We must admire their glory.

  “A certain abbot pleaded with the abbess of Cologne to donate one of the bodies of the virgins, promising that he would place it in a large silver casket and display it for public veneration on the main alter of his church, to which the abbess consented. But, overwhelmed by various duties, the abbot let more than a year pass without making the large silver casket or a place on the main altar for the body of the virgin, who continued patiently sleeping the sleep of the righteous in a wooden coffin on a table in one of the side altars of the temple. One night, during the singing of matins, the body of the martyred virgin left the coffin as if by enchantment, descended from the altar to the floor, approached the main altar, bowed reverently before it, entered the choir enclosure, and to the great surprise of the religious who were watching, silent and stupefied, unable even to breathe, passed in front of them and left the church, losing herself in the darkness of the moonless night.

  “As soon as they finished their prayers, the abbot ran to open the lid of the coffin, but found it empty and so he quickly ran to tell the abbess the news. They went together to inspect the place where the virgin had been interred and found her stretched out there, her body whole and her flesh uncorrupted. The abbot renewed his pledge to make a large silver casket to display her in the temple, but the abbess, seeing what had occurred, roundly rejected him.

  “Years later, when the abbot, who had continued to venerate the eleven thousand virgins, was near death and while he was repenting for his indolence, he received a visit from an incredibly beautiful virgin.

  “—Do you know me?—she asked.

  “—Well, no. —he replied.

  “—I am one of those eleven thousand virgins to whom you are so devoted and I have come to tell you that if you recite the Lord’s Prayer eleven thousand times in our honor, we will come to your side at the moment of your death.

  “The abbot then began his prayers and when he was close to finishing the eleven thousand recitations of the Lord’s Prayer, he asked to be anointed. In the moment they were anointing him, he said in a loud voice:

  “—All of you depart now and make way, the eleven thousand virgins are coming.

  “Then in a weak voice, he explained to them about the visitation he had received, after which they all left the cell of the dying man. Outside they heard female footsteps and voices, as well as songs and sounds of swords crossing, but when they reentered the room there was no trace of the visitation and they realized that the abbot had passed away and that his soul had risen to the house of the Lord.

  “Here we also have—the Sacristan of San Francisco told us, pointing to the little chest that we had already forgotten about—a bone of Saint Martin of Tours, a piece of Saint Lucia’s veil, a bone of Saint Pancratius, the child martyr who said to the emperor, when the latter tried to dissuade him from his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and before being taken to be martyred on the Via Aureliana, where he was beheaded in the year 287 of our era:

  “—It is true that, by my age, I am still a child, but I want you to know that I rely on the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, so the threats you so craftily just made scare me about as much as the paint of that painting on the wall. How can you possibly think that I am going to agree to worship your gods, knowing as I do that they were frauds, that they had incestuous relations with their sisters, that they assassinated their own parents, and that they lived abominable lives? If your slaves did today what your gods did, I am sure, and doubt it not for a single moment, that you would immediately condemn them to death. I am not surprised that you are unashamed to adore gods such as those.

  “We also have two bones of the Theban Saints; parts of some bones of the Saints, wrapped in a paper without any other identifications than this; two other bones from the skulls of the heads of the eleven thousand virgins; a bone of Saint Christopher; a bone of Saint Alexander, filius Sanctae Felicitatis, de pulvribus et ossibus multorun sanctorum, wrapped in a paper with the same label; a bone of one of the eleven thousand martyrs, whose life I am not going to recount because we have already talked about one of the eleven thousand today. All of these relics have authenticated statements kept here with them as well.

  “Without authenticated statements, though we hold them as true, we also have: half a shinbone of Saint Louis of Toulouse, one of our friars, and a piece of the tunic of the same saint; wrapped all together in one paper we have many bones of the companions of our father Saint Francis; as well as part of the jawbone of Saint Barnabas the Apostle (of whom chapter eleven of the book of the Acts says: ‘…they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch. Who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, rejoiced: and he exhorted them all with purpose of heart to continue in the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and faith,’ Saint Barnabas, the very same who, tied up with a rope around his neck, was dragged out of the city and burned alive behind the wall simply for temporarily blinding a sorcerer who well deserved it for treating with devils; that same Barnabas, now dead, whose bones the heathen Jews picked up and hid in a lead vessel only to throw them into the sea the next day, but his Christian friends managed to get hold of the venerable remains of the apostle and secretly interred them in a cellar until the year 500 of our era when the emperor Zeno, who later converted to Christianity and died a saint, of whom we also have a bone here, knew where the holy remains were because that very Barnabas appeared in his dreams to inform him.

  “We also have here a tooth of Saint Lawrence of Rome, a Spaniard, deacon, and a martyr, who was martyred on the order of Decius.

  “In the little chest that holds the relics, we also have that with which we honor our church of San Francisco—a piece of stone from the crèche, a bit of dirt that is almost like stone, from where Christ’s cross was raised when they crucified him, and another bit of dirt from the place where Christ was when Saint Peter denounced him. These relics are fundamental to the Church of San Francisco, ‘He that shall overcome,’—these are the words of Saint John the Theologian—‘I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go out no more, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.’

  “And now, children, I will return the little chest to its place, to the custody of the Holy Sacrament, the time to pray the vespers has arrived and even here there
may come a time when we remember their blessed stories offered to praise the grace of the faith and the generosity of the Lord Jesus Christ so that he will guide us with the light of his holy examples. Amen.”

  —

  As soon as he finished his long story about the relics and the saints, the sacristan began the prayers without modifying the stirring tone of his soft voice and we, filled with the same fervor, repeated the prayers with him. It was here, with the words of the custodian of the relics, that I awoke in some way from my crying, to become, in my own way, part of the student body of Santa Cruz Tlatelolco. The stories of the saints received me. They gave birth to me. Wrapped up in the lives of the saints, as told by the warm voice of the sacristan, was one of my true births. I was born once right there—my birth as a student of the Colegio de Santa Cruz occurred in front of the relics and the sacristan. Received by the custodian of the relics, I entered into the Colegio de la Santa Cruz. I let go of the raft of my tears and sadness, on which I had climbed after leaving home, and I arrived at what I would be from there forward, and for many years. I arrived holding hands with the eleven thousand virgins, with Saint Lawrence and Saint Martin, with Saint Pancratius and Saint Sebastian. In their hands I entered into the Colegio de Santa Cruz when I was ten years old pretending to be twelve and desperately missing a mother, who was not mine in the eyes of others. My sadness changed course among the stigmata and the martyrdom of those men, I was born when I was received by them.

  The bone of the eleven thousand entered my flesh to show me the pillar to which I could cling in order to understand my new story. Ursula and her whims, the son of the king of England vanquished before them, Pope Cyriacus renouncing his privileges, the queen of Sicily organizing the army of young women, the angels announcing the coming miracle and saying that it was no more than death, calling eleven thousand virgins to war, the city of Rome celebrating the visit of the legion of beauties, the Huns voraciously awaiting them in Cologne, like dogs hungry for female flesh, to deliver them quickly unto the belly of death, the already dead holy Virgin walking toward her tomb after waiting a year for them to give her body its promised place and later mercifully helping the neglectful abbot through the difficult passage toward death. Saint Martin wiping the shoes of his slave; Saint Sebastian persuading the brothers of the goodness of martyrdom, giving voice to the mute, reducing the pain of the old fathers and of their wives and of their children; in the long speech in which she praised death, Saint Lucia immobile, resisting the strength of oxen and men, even though she was fragile and had the constitution of a woman; and Pancratius, the child martyr—they all received me, they opened their arms to admit me to the Colegio de Santa Cruz, my new home. I exchanged the arms of Mama, and her cuddling and attentions, for the beheaded boy, for the Virgin whose eyes they gouged out, for the bodies oblivious to pain and the pain oblivious to the death of loved ones. In addition to replacing her embrace with this company, a change I scarcely understand as an old man because only a few days before I had brandished my dagger in all my fantasies in order to grow stronger against a fictitious enemy. I, who, in my dreams wore armor daubed with color and adorned with feathers and with my father’s shield, upon hearing the stories of the saints, dropped the dagger, stripped my fragile body of the shield and armor, and joined the defenseless masses, the multitude of saints who found heroism in letting themselves be conquered, in receiving wounds, in the palm of martyrdom. In my dreams I had the makings of a hero if according to the code in the stories of the saints, a hero was one who chose torture and martyrdom rather than renouncing his Christian faith, so in my fantasies I was like a saint. From the moment we set off on the road back to the Colegio, returning from the church of San Francisco, I envisioned myself accompanying the eleven thousand virgins along strange roads, I saw large towns receiving us with celebrations, how we trained with our white weapons in beautiful meadows among flowers and stars that shone during the day while the hummingbirds were unafraid of the sound of our daggers and swords that clashed without piercing them in their graceful flight, and then I saw the savage Huns running grotesquely and clumsily toward us, I saw their vileness, I saw that they did not deserve to have us pull out our daggers and swords against them, I saw how they butchered us, how some of the saints did not touch the ground while they approached to stab them, levitating their incorporeal bodies full of so much holiness, I heard the celestial beings accompanying us in our death, wrapped in the music of horns and harps, of flutes and drums, while the Huns became more enraged upon understanding that nothing could hurt us, that killing us gave us pleasure and transported us to the land of well-being and joy…