Masona

He is famous for exercising de facto rule of the city of Mérida during his tenure as bishop and for founding the first confirmed hospital in Spain.

[3] He entered the church young and served from an early period in the Basilica of Saint Eulalia at Mérida, which had been rebuilt in her honour by Bishop Fidelis around 560.

Masona is said to have had such a close relationship with Eulalia that by his prayers, and her intercession, a plague ravishing all Lusitania was lifted.

[4] Though no writings of his are known to have survived, Masona was probably educated in a manner similar to men of classical learning, such as the contemporary Leander of Seville, with whom he shared an exile for a time.

[5] The xenodochium was open to Jews, and Masona is also recorded as showing kindness even to pagans, facts which his biographer clearly thought commendable.

Masona also initiated a programme for the distribution of free wine, corn, oil, and honey for the citizens and rustici (rustics, that is, peasants of the countryside, not the city).

[7] Masona established a public credit system by depositing 2,000 solidi with the deacon Redemptus at the basilica for the citizens to take out loans.

[14] Leovigild then increased his demands, ordering Masona to hand over the tunic of Eulalia, the most sacred relic of the city, to the Arian faction in Toledo.

[13][15] The context of the revolt of Hermenegild was a sudden change in the relations between the Arian and Catholic churches, with each denomination vying for supremacy and political power in the cities.

Masona, for instance, had preached a series of anti-Arian sermons on the eve of his city's capture, but this was probably unrelated.