Iberian Fathers, Volume 2

Introduction

INTRODUCTION DHE MOST IMPORTANT SOURCE for our knowledge of the life of St. Fructuosus of Braga is the Vita sancti Fruc- , . tHasi) written probably not long after his death by an unknown author. The present account is almost wholly dependent upon the edition and English translation of the Vita by Sister Clare Frances Nock.1 The work gives us no means, direct or indirect, of finding a single date for the life of Fructuosus, for no attention is paid to exact chronology. Internal evidence is of no help at all, since the several persons named in the text are otherwise unknown and the references to the king and the temporal powers, while numerous, are vague. Fortunately, the few outside sources are specific. A letter written to Braulio and the latter's reply have been translated above;2 these can be placed early in the year 651, just before Braulio's death. Fructuosus was called by Braulio "collega dignitate," which, if taken literally, as Sister Clare Frances does, should mean that Fructuosus was a bishop, but it is to be noted that the words occur in a longer passage borrowed or paraphrased from Jerome; hence not too much emphasis should be placed on them. At some time between 653 and 656, Fructuosus became Bishop of Dumium, the suburb of Braga which had been founded by St. Martin. On December 1, 656, the Tenth Council of Toledo met, and one of its formal acts was to promote Fructuosus from Dumium to the metropolitan see of Braga: "Furthermore, by a unanimous vote of all present, we have elected the venerable FrucI The Vita sancti Fmctuosi (Cath. Univ. of America, Studies in Mediaeval History, N.S. 7). 2 Pp.96-112. 145 146 FRUCTUOSUS OF BRAGA tuosus, bishop of the church at Dumium, to hold the reins of the church at Braga, so that he may undertake the direction of the whole metropolis of the province of Galicia, all the bishops and peoples and assemblies therein, and the care of governing all the souls oft he church of Braga."3 A letter from Fructuosus to King Receswinth falls into this same period, so that all known dates of his activity are between 651 and 656. His birth may be placed very roughly close to the year 600. The breviaries, which are generally reliable and based on contemporary records, give the date of his death as April 16, 665, but Professor Bishko believes that these breviaries have no historical warrant. Nothing is known for certain of Fructuosus' work as archbishop. If the Vita is vague in chronology, it is quite specific in geographical references. It is agreed that the author knew St. Fructuosus well, was possibly a disciple of his, and wrote the biography not too long after the saint's death. The only likely author whose name has been suggested is St. Valerius of Bierzo and this is accepted in many Spanish and Portuguese circles today, though far from universally. Sister Clare Frances , in a fully-documented chapter on the authorship of the Vita, concluded that stylistic evidence alone is sufficient to disprove this attribution.4 The author of the Vita s. Fructuosi must remain anonymous, but his account is of the greatest value and interest. The father of Fructuosus was an officer in the Spanish army and possessed flocks in the valleys of the mountainous regions where his son later started to found his monasteries. After the death of his parents, the son became a cleric and was trained by a certain Conantius, quite possibly the one known to have been Bishop of Palencia from before 610 to after 636. His first independent act was to return to the country where his father's flocks had been pastured and to found a 3 J. D. Mansi, San"orum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio II (Florence 1765) 41. 4 op. cit. 23·38. INTRODUCTION 147 monastery at Compludo, a little west of Astorga. He apparently named the monastery after Sts. Justus and Pastor, who were martyred in that place, for their feast day5 was to be a special day in his community. Fructuosus used his extensive family inheritance for the founding and enrichment of this place and left, for the guidance of its monks, a very strict Rule, to be discussed later. He then began a series of restless pilgrimages to other sites in the same general region, where he founded one...