Abstract

This article unravels the probable source of Calderón’s Los dos amantes del cielo, a «comedia de santos» that dramatizes the legend of the martyrs Crisanto and Daría. The study of its hagiographic tradition reveals the textual dependence of the dramatic work on the books of saints in the Spanish Golden Age based on Laurentius Surius’ De probatis sanctorum historiis: the Flos sanctorum by Alonso de Villegas, the Segunda parte de la hagiografía y vidas de los santos del Nuevo Testamento by Juan Basilio Sanctoro and the Flos sanctorum by Pedro de Ribadeneyra. Some exclusive concordances between the texts by Villegas and by Calderón point to the first one’s Flos sanctorum as the main source of the comedy. Based on these assumptions, the article analyses the most important changes introduced by Don Pedro in the legend: the larger development of some characters, the omission of some secondary episodes and the intensification of three elements of the history: the religious one, the spectacular and, especially, the profane (the amorous secondary plot, the conflict between father-son and the humorous element).