CONCERNING ST. BEATUS, PRIEST, AT VALLECAVA IN SPAIN.
A.D. 798.
Preliminary Commentary.
Beatus, Priest, at Vallecava in Spain (St.)
By G. H.
[1] In Asturias, the Spaniards recognize both the Christian religion and the ancestral nobility of Gothic blood as having been long preserved, since their forefathers fled there and among those mountains first broke the initial assaults of the Moors; and, gradually throwing off the yoke, they at last drove them from Spain. The mountains that formerly divided Asturias into Transmontane and Augustan were called Ladicus and Vindius; by later generations they are called the Liuanian Mountains, or at least some part of them. At the foot of these lies the place called Vallecava — in Spanish, Valcabado — not far from the better-known town of Saldana, in the diocese of Leon. Distinguished investigators of Spanish antiquities — Ambrose of Morales in book 13 of the General Chronicle of Spain, chapter 27; Athanasius Lobera in his History of Leon, chapter 33; and John Tamayo de Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology under February 19 — record that the body of St. Beatus the Priest is preserved with great veneration in the church of Vallecava, where the inhabitants call him by the corrupted name St. Bieco. The following is Tamayo's eulogy there: "In the territory of Leon, the deposition of St. Beatus the Priest, who, together with the Blessed Aetherius, afterward Bishop of the Church of Osma, when he learned that the vile heresy was being disseminated throughout the world by Elipandus of Toledo and Felix of Urgel, Bishops of Spain — by which they preached in writings and sermons that the Only-begotten of God was an adoptive son — wrote against those deceived by impious persuasion a treatise composed with Catholic argumentation. Afterward, celebrated for learning and erudition, marvelous in the publication of books, he attained eternal rest as a Confessor; his body, enclosed in an honorable shrine at Vallecava, is recalled with due veneration."
[2] Arnold Wion and Hugh Menard, in the Appendix to the Benedictine Martyrology, treat in alphabetical order of Benedictine Saints whose feast day they did not know; among these they list St. Beatus, with this eulogy: "St. Beatus, a monk of Valcabado, a Spaniard, and a most fierce enemy of heretics, was distinguished for learning and sanctity in the year 770" — which year Menard omitted. But he flourished somewhat later, after the year 780, when the Felician heresy emerged. Anthony Yepes also treats of St. Beatus and his companion Aetherius in volume 3 of his Chronicle of the Benedictine Order at the years 783 and 784, and calls these two illustrious monks, distinguished in learning and sanctity. They appeal to the authority of Ambrose of Morales, who suspects that St. Beatus and Aetherius were monks, because those who at that time shone in learning and sanctity were mostly monks, and especially because St. Beatus, in the preface of his Commentaries on the Apocalypse of St. John, addresses Aetherius with these words: "These things, holy Father Aetherius, I have, at your request, dedicated to you for the edification of the study of the Brethren, so that him whom I enjoy as a companion of the Order, I may make also a co-heir of my labor." Morales asserts that he saw these commentaries in the church of Vallecava, where they are held in veneration along with his sacred body, copied in the Era 1008, or the year of Christ 970. But they cannot for this reason be immediately assigned to the Benedictine Order, since there were at that time in Spain many monasteries that had not adopted the Benedictine Rule. Menard himself, who cites Ambrose of Morales here, in his preface to the Concordance of Rules composed by St. Benedict of Aniane and Inde, whose Life we gave on February 12, records the Rule of St. Isidore, Bishop of Seville, another of St. Fructuosus, Bishop of Braga, and another of a second Fructuosus. But Gabriel Pennotus also, in part 2 of his History of Canons Regular, chapter 31, reports from the account of James Ayerve, Prior of St. Mary of the Pillar at Saragossa, that the Churches which remained amid the ruins of the Saracens, or which did not fall into their hands, were all Regular, and that the most ancient documents testify that the church of Geslabium, or St. Peter de Taberna, was such.
[3] Anthony Yepes adds other conjectures in favor of his Order — namely, that Aetherius was Abbot of the ancient monastery of St. Toribius de Liuania, which he reports now depends on the monastery of Onna, and that many charters are found there which pertain to St. Toribius. "One of these charters," he says, "at the Era 1366 mentions the Priest Popedius and the Lady Nonita, a woman devoted to God, as having built a church in honor of St. Peter at Biniona, and having endowed it with many possessions and given it to this monastery, which then bore the name of St. Martin." He adds these words from that book: "Which is in the place called Torenza, and to the religious Priest, the Lord Aetherius, and to the monks dwelling in Agone, during the reign of Ildephonsus in Asturias." From this Yepes concludes that notable distinction is added to the monastery by Aetherius, who, as is believed, was its Abbot. For he was the companion of St. Beatus, with whose celebrated fame all the Annals of Spain are filled, because he boldly and steadfastly opposed Archbishop Elipandus of Toledo, who was devising a new heresy. These are the words of Yepes in volume 1 at the year 537, chapter 3, where he treats of the origin of the monastery of St. Toribius; this is also illustrated by Prudentius Sandoval in part 3 of his work on the Foundations of Benedictine Monasteries in Spain. St. Toribius is venerated, as is the above-mentioned Fructuosus, on April 16.
[4] Moreover, Tamayo de Salazar marvels at what title Menard and Yepes — to which add Wion — make St. Beatus the Priest a monk, when the unanimous opinion of the writers is that he held only the rank of Priest. He therefore dismisses these claims as groundless and proceeds to the Acts, which he published from the manuscript Legendarium of Astorga, in which this title is prefixed to them: "On the eleventh day before the Kalends of March, the feast of St. Beatus the Priest, whose Life is as follows." Ambrose of Morales appears to have had the same, as his account agrees entirely with this Life. And Mariana, in book 7 of his History of Spain, chapter 8, uses the very same words that are contained in this Life. But at what time the author lived is not clear; he uses the years of Christ, not the Spanish Era, which Rodrigo of Toledo still used in his History of Spain, who flourished around the year of Christ 1220. We have observed that some things in the same manuscript Legendarium do not cohere, on February 14 in the Life of St. Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, no. 6, toward the end.
LIFE
published by John Tamayo de Salazar from the manuscript Legendarium of Astorga.
Beatus, Priest, at Vallecava in Spain (St.)
BHL Number: 1063
From manuscripts in Tamayo de Salazar.
[1] In the time of a Mauregatus, King of Asturias, there was in Toledo a certain Archbishop named Elipandus, who amid the dire storms of the Hagarenes had b succeeded his predecessor Cixilianus, on account of the fame of his learning and sanctity that was spread throughout all Spain. He was descended from the Mozarabic Goths and was distinguished by the nobility of his blood. He had been taught from his earliest introduction to letters by a certain Felix, a Gaul by lineage, Bishop of c Urgel, who was afterward a d Nestorian heretic, and who taught — contrary to right, contrary to all auspices, and contrary to all human and divine letters and religions — that Christ, insofar as He is man, was an adoptive son of the Father. Elipandus had imbibed this loathsome doctrine from his master through sacrilegious epistolary instructions, and, following in his teacher's footsteps with reckless adherence, using first writings and then anathema against all the Bishops and Priests of Spain who rejected his opinion, he defiled Spain with his damnable proposition.
[2] When these things were taking place, in the Liuanian mountains which rise between both Asturias, God drew sweetness from the strong and a David from the forests to confound the mighty; and like a second Isaiah who knew not how to speak, touching his lips with a burning coal, He raised up in Spain a Prophet who would vigorously inveigh with an iron pen against the erring leaders of the Church. Nebuchadnezzar had constructed a statue, firm in appearance, tall in stature, rich in metals, famous in renown, and magnificent in splendor — who shattered its excellency? A small stone rolling down from the mountain. The vessels of the Temple were profaned by the ignorance of Belshazzar — who revealed his ambition and his death? Two fingers and a brief stylus. Therefore God, who had seen in Elipandus a Goliath, in his error a people, in his vain glory a Nebuchadnezzar, and in his ambition a Belshazzar, raised from the lowliness of the common people and the caves of the mountains a David, and from the unknown people a stammering Isaiah, from the mountain a Beatus, from the forests his finger, who would crush the errors of this Archbishop.
[3] This man, who was Blessed both in name and in deed, was a Spaniard who, born of those most rugged mountain regions, drew his origin from the most ancient Asturians. He was a Priest by order, learned in sacred letters, and conspicuous for his zeal for the Catholic faith. When he heard the erroneous profession of Elipandus, he immediately began throughout that entire region both to sow the Catholic doctrine and to uproot the heretical tares. Elipandus, opposing these advances, gradually came to realize that his inventions were being exposed. There was also present in this Catholic work the Blessed e Aetherius, who was afterward Bishop of f Osma, and who relied on the friendship of Beatus. Both, running through the peoples with writings and sermons against Felix and Elipandus, taught the Catholic truth with manly and holy charity. Through the effectiveness of these men, very many who had drunk the poison of Elipandus, vomiting up the heretical man, returned to the bosom of Mother Church with the repentance of contrition.
[4] Elipandus had heard of the works of the holy Aetherius and Beatus, and, vehemently angered against the latter, directed a letter to Fidelis, Abbot of Astorga, in which he complains about the holy Priests, because he, the Bishop of Toledo, being present, was treated by them as if they despised his dignity and rank, and they did not think to learn from him any knowledge of the doctrine of adoption. "Who then," he continues, "has ever heard that an Asturian man, a mountain wanderer, should presume to correct and teach the men of Toledo? Could he not have taken an example from the g Bishop Archarius, who, having heard the contradiction of your Beatus, hastened to our See and humbly asked what was to be held? But just as it happened by the grace of God that through us and the assembly of the Bishops of Spain, victory was obtained over the Magecian Spalitans, who, straying around the day of the Paschal feast, were spreading a confused rule of order, so we trust in the Lord to extirpate the Beatian heresy from the Asturian mountains. I am not unaware that Aetherius, being young, was deceived by Beatus, a rustic and vain-talking man. If our views please you, summon him to yourself immediately, and show him how much he has erred before God and His Church and before us; and if he persists in the deceits of his obstinate proposition, crush him with our correction and that of the entire Church."
[5] When Beatus arrived a short time later on a visit to Adosinda, Abbot Fidelis showed him the letter of Elipandus. As befitted a Catholic man and a defender of the faith, he summoned Aetherius and wrote h a complete work composed in two books, which refuted the errors of Elipandus with solid passages of sacred Scripture and powerful arguments. When the book came into the hands of Elipandus and his other followers, they pursued him, most hostile, with the sores of insults, in word and on page; among which they besmirched him with the name "Antiphrasist." But God, to whom all the secrets of the heart lie open, looking from the throne of His Majesty upon the spirit of the innocent Beatus, and knowing from on high the pure zeal of the Priest's faith, delivered him from all the dangers of his enemies.
[6] For i Elipandus, departing from Toledo, traversed the Asturias and Galicia, and in those places infected many with his depraved opinion by the pestilent breath of his mouth. Felix, striving to infect k the Vaccaei in Spain, l the Septimani in Gaul, and others in Germany, was repulsed by all with steadfast defense. Thus at m Regensburg, a city of Bavaria, he was first condemned in an assembly of Bishops; then before n Pope Adrian he feigned repentance; and finally at Frankfurt, where a Council o had been convened in the presence of Charles, King of the Franks — at which Theophylactus and Stephen from Rome, and Beatus and Aetherius from Spain, sent on behalf of the Catholics, were present as legates — the error together with its authors was condemned by the assembly of the Council. This the Pontiff Adrian also confirmed.
[7] When this was learned, Elipandus of Toledo, resolving to retreat from his position, convened a gathering of Bishops at Toledo, at which, repenting, he presented a document of confession, wherein he professed with humble contrition of heart that the Only-begotten Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, was not an adoptive but a natural son. Received by the Fathers with tears at his profession, he obtained the benefit of reconciliation. Here he kindly received Beatus and Aetherius, having set aside the malevolence of the former dispute, and addressed them, not without tears and sobs, as defenders of the faith and patrons of Catholic truth.
[8] When the Council was finally dissolved, and the affairs of the faith in Spain had been well settled, and the contention over the Felician depravity had been quieted, the holy man Beatus served as a constant tutor for the welfare of her soul to Adosinda, the wife of King Silo, who on account of the tyranny of Mauregatus had put on the sacred religious habit. He continued in this role until he withdrew to Vallecava, where, devoting himself to prayers, fasts, and the study of sacred Scripture, he composed a book on the mysteries of the Apocalypse in wondrous order. At length, celebrated for miracles, he commended his spirit in a peaceful sleep to the Lord whom he had served, on the nineteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the year of the Lord 798. His body lay buried there for three years, until, translated to a more honorable place — with one arm reserved for the benefit of the sick who came to his sarcophagus — it was enclosed in a marble shrine and kept with the due tribute of honor; as God, who lives and reigns forever and ever, promised to guard it and the bones of His saints. Amen.
Annotationsp. The Pontiff's letter survives, published together with the Council of Frankfurt.
q. Luitprand in his Chronicle says that this occurred in the year 795, on April 13; but Julian in his Chronicle, no. 411, refers it to the Era 834, the year of Christ 796, at the beginning of which he says the Synod was convened. But in neither year does that day, April 13, on which St. Hermenegild the King and Martyr is venerated, fall on a Sunday, as Luitprand asserts; but in the year 795, with the Solar Cycle 20 and the Sunday Letter D, it falls on the Monday nearest after Easter Sunday, with the Lunar Cycle 17. In the leap year 796, with the Solar Cycle 21 and the Sunday Letters C and B, it falls on the Wednesday after the Sunday in Albis, with the Lunar Cycle 18. From which we learn that full credence should not be given to those Chronicles, which were, if not fabricated, much corrupted by later writers.
r. Tamayo de Salazar published under this day a letter from Bishop Archarius of Braga, in which he praises him for this reconciliation.
s. Adosinda, daughter of King Alphonsus the Catholic, was married to Silo and reigned with him from the year 774 to 783, at which point Mauregatus, born of the same father Alphonsus but by a servant woman, invaded the kingdom, as we have said.
t. Perhaps in the monastery of St. John of Pravia in Asturias? There both she and her husband King Silo, who built that church, are buried.