According to 4th‑century hymns by Prudentius (Peristephanon, Hymn 3) and later tradition:
Her body was later moved to Barcelona Cathedral, where her tomb remains a pilgrimage site.
Despite its obscurity, the 2005 piece has influenced a wave of "trauma cinema" focused on female saints. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) had already pushed boundaries, but Eulalia 2005 went further by removing redemption. Later films—such as The Girl Who Wore Silence (2012) and the controversial Santa Eulàlia: Unbound (2018)—directly cite the 2005 work in their production notes.
In visual art, photographer Teresa Margolles has acknowledged the piece’s influence on her series "Muerte sin fin" (Endless Death), which features anonymous bodies of murdered women staged like deposed saints. The 2005 Eulalia became a touchstone for artists asking: Can the spectator look at torture without becoming a voyeur or a worshipper?
Upon its single screening in February 2005, the piece was walked out of by half the audience. The Catholic watchdog group Observatori Blanquerna condemned it as "pornography of suffering." One Barcelona priest called for the film to be burned. But the oddest chapter occurred after the screening: Deakin-Ashley withdrew the work completely. He refused to sell DVDs, declined festivals, and gave only one interview to Exit Book magazine, stating: "I showed what we don't want to see. The church wants a martyr. I gave them a corpse. There is a difference." martyr or the death of saint eulalia 2005
Since 2006, no copy of Martyr or the Death of Saint Eulalia 2005 has been publicly available. Rumors persist of a VHS copy in a Barcelona flea market, or a digital file on a forgotten hard drive in London’s Slade School of Fine Art. Some believe Deakin-Ashley destroyed the only master. Others claim it was stolen.
The year 2005 does not mark the historical death of Saint Eulalia (c. 290–304 AD). Instead, 2005 most likely refers to:
If you encountered this phrase in a specific context (e.g., a concert program, a gallery catalog, or a poem), it is almost certainly a contemporary homage. Without a precise work identified, the remainder of this guide focuses on the historical saint and her traditional martyrdom narrative.
The year 2005 is crucial to understanding this work’s reception. The world was four years past 9/11, deep into the Abu Ghraib torture scandal (exposed 2004), and witnessing the rise of beheading videos circulated online via early social media. The "martyr" had become an ambivalent figure—no longer purely saintly, but sometimes a terrorist, sometimes a victim. Her body was later moved to Barcelona Cathedral
The 2005 adaptation refuses to aestheticize Eulalia. Unlike Waterhouse’s painting, where the virgin looks composed and eroticized, Deakin-Ashley’s Eulalia screams silently (the audio is a low industrial hum). This was interpreted by critics as a critique of the War on Terror’s "enhanced interrogation techniques." The Roman torturers could easily be CIA contractors. The child could be a detainee at Guantánamo.
Thus, Martyr or the Death of Saint Eulalia 2005 functions as a palimpsest: the ancient martyrdom rewritten as a modern atrocity film. The subtitle "or the death of" (a direct quote from Prudentius’ Latin "passio vel mors sanctae Eulaliae") becomes a postmodern hinge—collapsing sainthood into mere mortality.
Released in the fall of 2005, Martyr or the Death of Saint Eulalia (original Spanish title: Mártir o la muerte de Santa Eulalia) strips away the safe, stained-glass window version of the story. The film opens not with a saint, but with a child—Lucía Jiménez delivers a haunting performance as Eulalia—playing among olive groves before the storm of persecution arrives.
The narrative is divided into three distinct acts: Despite its obscurity, the 2005 piece has influenced
Act I: The Daughter of the Villa We see Eulalia as a precocious, stubborn girl educated by her elderly servant, a secret Christian. Her father, a Roman magistrate, represents the old world of order and pagan duty. The tension is domestic: a father who wants to protect his daughter by keeping her silent versus a girl who believes silence is a betrayal of the ultimate truth.
Act II: The Confrontation When Dacian (played with chilling bureaucracy by veteran actor Javier Cámara) demands all citizens of Emerita Augusta make a sacrifice to Jupiter, Eulalia marches to the forum. The film’s centerpiece is a ten-minute monologue where the twelve-year-old argues theology with the Roman judge. Critically, the script does not make Eulalia superhuman. She stutters. Her voice breaks. But her conviction remains absolute.
Act III: The Martyrdom The final thirty minutes of Martyr or the Death of Saint Eulalia 2005 are what generated the most controversy. Director Rivas refused to shy away from the passio (the physical suffering). Using practical effects that recall the brutal realism of The Passion of the Christ (2004), the film depicts the tearing of flesh with iron hooks, the burning of her sides with torches, and finally, the cross-shaped stake.