Although the Czech and Spanish countries are distant from each other, we have evidence of their mutual contact from the early Middle Ages. The earliest written records of Prague were written in 965-6 AD by the Jew Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, a traveling envoy of the Moorish Caliphate from Cordoba in Spain. However, the legend of St. Orosia raises the possibility that eighty years earlier there was already a connection between Czech and Spanish lands.
There are two versions of the legend of Saint Orosia/Dobroslava [1]. According to one of them, Orosia comes from Bayonne, France. The other variant attributes Orosia to Czech origin [2].
According to the second variant, Dobroslava was born in 864 in the Bohemian town of Laspicio (Iaspicio) as the daughter of Mojslav, one of the five Bohemian princes. After the death of her father, she was adopted by St. Ludmila and Prince Bořivoj I and moved to Levý Hradec near Prague. At Levý Hradec, in the chapel of St. Clement, Dobroslava and Ludmila were baptized by a disciple of St. Methodius. Dobroslava was promised to Bořislav's companion, who then took part in a pagan uprising against Bořivoj. The uprising was briefly successful and the princely family, including Dobroslava, had to take refuge in exile in Great Moravia. Thanks to the work of St. Methodius, however, they were soon able to return to Bohemia.
When St. Methodius visited Rome for the third time in 880, Pope John VIII asked him to find a suitable bride for the son of King Fortún I of Navarre [3]. Prince Fortún was to become heir to the thrones of Navarre and Aragon and an important link in the struggle against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. St. Methodius recommended Dobroslava and subsequently returned to Bohemia with an Aragonese envoy to ask Prince Bořivoj and Princess Dobroslava for consent to the marriage.
In 880, the sixteen-year-old Dobroslava was sent to Spain, where, after crossing the Pyrenees, she was to meet Prince Fortún in the town of Jaca. However, near the Spanish town of Yebra de Basa, her retinue was attacked by a Moorish captain, the renegade Aben Lupo [perhaps ibn Lubb of Banu Qasi, 4], who killed the Aragonese envoy and sought to capture Dobroslava for himself. The princess's companions, however, defended her bravely, and as a result she managed to escape into the mountains and hide in a cave. But the Moors pursued her. Eventually, it is said, they found her by the smoke emanating from her campfire and dragged her out of the cave by her hair. Aben Lupo offered her that she could save her life if she converted to Islam and married him. Dobroslava refused. According to legend, she begged God for help, whereupon a bolt of lightning struck the ground just beside her and she was unharmed. The Moors were horrified, but their leader ordered Dobroslava to be tortured, cut off her limbs and finally her head. Then a great hailstorm descended on the captors, forcing them to flee.
Dobroslava's remains were recovered in 882. Her body is kept in the cathedral in the city of Jaca, the skull in the city of Yebra. She was declared a saint, and became the patron saint of winemakers and protector against bad weather. The canonization was recognized in 1902 by Pope Leo XIII. A chapel in La Seo Cathedral in Zaragoza is dedicated to Saint Orosia/Dobroslava. In addition to southern Spain, she is known in Bearn and northern Italy. She is venerated as a saint by both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. She is celebrated on 25 June.
The path around the waterfall of Saint Orosia in the Pyrenees [5] is lined with chapels [6] and every June a procession sets out from the town of Jaca [7] to the church above the waterfall [8].
The confectioners of Jaca also make a dessert called the crowns of Saint Orosia - Coronitas de Santa Orosia [9].
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