Fulgentius of Astigi

ON ST. FULGENTIUS, BISHOP OF ASTIGI AND CARTHAGENA.

After the year of Christ 619.

Fulgentius, Bishop of Astigi and Carthagena in Spain (S.)

From various sources.

Section I. The feast, age, and episcopate of St. Fulgentius.

[1] Fulgentius was the brother of the holy Bishops of Seville, Leander and Isidore. Some say he died on the first, others on the eighth of January. He is venerated on different days in various churches: for the Sevillians formerly celebrated his feast on January 8, The feast of St. Fulgentius, and now on January 14 with a double office of the second class. In the diocese of Placentia on January 19 with a double of the second class with an octave; at Berzocana, where the bodies of him and his sister St. Florentina long rested, he is celebrated on January 15; in the bishopric of Carthagena on the 16th with an office of the first class with an octave. Ferrarius in his general catalogue of Saints has this under January 8: "At Astigi in Spain, of St. Fulgentius the Bishop." And under February 6: "At Seville in Spain, of St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena." Whether his feast was customarily celebrated there on that day, we do not know; at present it is certainly observed on January 14. The same Ferrarius under January 16: "At Carthagena in Spain, of St. Fulgentius, Bishop and Patron."

[2] Fulgentius is mentioned by all who relate the deeds of Leander and Isidore, His life, and separately by some. We shall present the Life that our Antonio Quintanadueñas published in Spanish in his book on the Saints of Seville. However, a question can be raised about the age, episcopate, and writings of Fulgentius, His age assigned ambiguously and erroneously by various authors. for the writers do not sufficiently agree. Francisco Padilla, century 7, chapter 13, of the Ecclesiastical History of Spain, cites and refutes Rodrigo Yepes in his life of St. Florentina, who asserted that St. Leander was younger than Fulgentius; the rest place him between Leander and Isidore in order of birth. In what year he was born or died, the ancient authors do not report. He subscribed to the decree of King Gundemar in the era 648, that is, the year of Christ 610, and to the Second Council of Seville, held on the Ides of November in the ninth year of Sisebut, era 657, that is, the year of Christ 619. Whence it is clear that the following are mistaken: first, Thomas Trujillo, who in volume 1 of the Thesaurus of Sermons under January 8 writes that he died around the year of Christ 600; second, Francisco Tarapha and Lucio Marineo Siculo, who write that Leander his brother was present at his death—Marineo further stating that the funeral was attended to by King Reccared; but Leander and Reccared had died at least eighteen years before that Council of Seville. Quintanadueñas says he died in the year 638; but he writes in the life of St. Leander that he was born when his parents had been exiled to Seville by King Agila—and since it is established that Agila was killed in the year 554, Fulgentius must have lived about eighty-six years. Yet the same author in his Notes cites Maximum as writing that Fulgentius was born in the year 560; but shall we say that exile was imposed on his parents at that time for religious reasons, under the reign of Athanagild, who was favorable if not actually devoted to the Catholic cause? Finally, he writes that he died while his brother Isidore still survived; but Redemptus, Isidore's disciple, attests that Isidore died in the era 674, the year of Christ 636. And certainly Honoratus, Isidore's successor, was present at the Sixth Council of Toledo, era 676, year of Christ 638, on the fifth day before the Ides of January. Juan Marietta holds that St. Fulgentius died in the year 620—which is certain as the earliest date, if he died in the month of January. The same author says he lived sixty-six years, as do Marineo, Vasaeus, and Tarapha; but Paulo Spinosa, along with Ambrosio Morale, says sixty. Padilla conjectures that he did not long survive the Second Council of Seville, since no further mention of him is found.

[3] So much for his age, a matter not easily resolved. Now concerning his episcopate—at Astigi and at Carthagena. The bishopric of Astigi. Astigi, commonly now called Ecija, is an ancient city of Baetica, a Roman colony (as can be seen in the Hispania of Ludovicus Nonius, the distinguished scholar, chapter 18), called Augusta Firma, situated on the river Singilis, now called Chenil, which flows into the Baetis not far from there. It formerly had its own bishops, among whom, besides Fulgentius and his predecessor Pegasius and his successor Abentius (of whom more below), Stephanus subscribed to the seventh Council of Toledo in the era 684 and the eighth in the era 691; Theodulf to the twelfth in the era 719 and the thirteenth in the era 721; in the fifteenth, era 726, Nasidarbus through the priest Desiderius; and Aruidius to the sixteenth, era 728. Astigi now lacks its own bishop, but is an archdeaconry of the Church of Seville, as the same Nonius writes.

[4] New Carthage, also called Spartaria, a Phoenician foundation, formerly counted among the leading cities of Spain, The bishopric of Carthagena. with a notable harbor capable of accommodating any fleet, is said to have been destroyed by the Vandals and Goths; but within the memory of our parents it was restored and splendidly fortified by Philip II, King of Spain. It had its own bishop even in the Gothic period, whether he sat at Carthagena or, as some maintain, at Murcia (which is now of great renown and the capital of its kingdom, situated between Carthagena and Valencia on the river Straberus or Setabis). For besides Hector, who subscribed to the Council of Tarragona in the era 554, that is, the year of Christ 516, as Bishop of the Carthaginian metropolis—or, as other codices cited by Loaisa read, "in the name of Christ, Bishop"—St. Isidore, chapter 29, On Illustrious Men, praises Licinianus, or Lucinianus, Bishop of Carthago Spartaria, who in the time of the Emperor Maurice was killed by poison at Constantinople, as they say, by his rivals.

[5] That Fulgentius was Bishop of Astigi is evident from the councils of Spain and from the eulogy of Isidore composed by Braulio. Whether he was also Bishop at Carthagena is disputed. Whether Fulgentius held both sees. Prudencio de Sandoval and others absolutely deny it, thinking that this was reported by more recent writers because his father Severianus was from the Carthaginian province of Spain, as Isidore writes when treating of Leander. We have seen from the library of the distinguished scholar Laurentius Ramirez a Chronicle and Adversaria in manuscript attributed to Liutprand of Pavia; in these the following is found: "St. Fulgentius was twice Bishop of Carthagena; thence he was transferred to Astigi, and lastly to Carthagena. He lived a few years (namely two) in this episcopate." But what authority these Adversaria possess, we have not sufficiently ascertained. The more recent authors who report that he at least sat at Carthagena are cited shortly below by the writer of his life.

Section II. Learning, writings, and virtues.

[6] More recent authors assert that Fulgentius left behind various monuments of his genius, What he wrote. of which neither his brother Isidore, nor Ildefonsus, nor other ancient writers make mention. Mariana, book 6, chapter 1: "Fulgentius wrote a book on the faith of the Incarnation and certain other questions, which is preserved to our time." Juan Vasaeus, Sandoval, and Quintanadueñas enumerate Fulgentius's commentaries on the Gospels, Isaiah, the twelve Minor Prophets, the Pentateuch, and the Books of Kings. Quintanadueñas and Sandoval add a commentary on the Psalms. Paulo Spinosa, book 2 of the Antiquities of Seville, says he left some writings in Hebrew. It is remarkable that these works are not brought to light; since we have no ancient witness to them, we do not wish them to be established by our stated opinion, nor dismissed as groundless because they are passed over.

[7] Whether the books of Mythologies are his, Others more probably consider the three books of Mythologies, which circulate under the name of Fabius Furius Fulgentius Placiadis, to have been composed by him. The author was certainly a Christian, who everywhere ridicules the pagan fables he expounds; and he says expressly toward the end of the proem of book 1: "Let us therefore speak first concerning the nature of the gods—whence so great a plague of false credulity grew upon foolish minds." And in the fable of Mercury: "If the gods presided over thefts, there was no need of a judge for crimes, since offenses had a celestial author." He even adduces testimonies from the sacred books, as in book 2, in the fable of Hercules and Omphale, and in the first fable of Paris's judgment, book 2, where he adds: "The first life, therefore, is the contemplative, which among us Bishops, Priests, and monks have led, and among them philosophers." Sigebert doubts whether the author of these books is St. Fulgentius of Ruspe: Whether St. Fulgentius of Ruspe. "If indeed," he says, "this is the same Fulgentius who wrote the three books of Mythologies to Catus, Presbyter of Carthage, certainly every reader may be amazed at the sharpness of his genius, who transferred the whole series of fables, expounded according to philosophy, either to the order of things or to the mortality of human life."

[8] We incline rather to ascribe these books to the Bishop of Astigi than to the Bishop of Ruspe. That the author lived among barbarians is indeed common to both. He indicates this in his preface: "Do you not fear," They seem to be the work of the Bishop of Astigi: he says (Calliope), "to receive a musical teaching in your household, when I have heard that the barbarians' custom has so completely abolished literary commerce that they would have dragged off to execution, without inquiry, those who had inscribed even their own name with the first letters of the alphabet?" But the following, from the same preface, seems more proper to him: "To this was added that frequent incursions of war had also commanded us to fix our feet at home, so that one might not see the bolts of our doors filled with spiders' webs." And afterward: "We gaze upon the fields in which the footprints of combatants, still impressed, had sealed (as they say) their thorny steps; and with terror not yet erased from our minds, we trembled at the enemy in their tracks. For the hostile soldier had left behind terror as the heir of his memory. But in the fashion of the Trojan women we showed each other places whose memory was made more notable either by a massacre or by plunder. At length among the thorny thickets of the groves, which the rustic hand had formerly abandoned," etc. Nor is he silent about what the wars were—namely between the Franks and the Goths, or among the Goths themselves in Gallia Narbonensis, which was theirs: "I thought," he says, "to obtain a peaceful rural quiet, so that with the storms of cares being concealed, where the urban tempest had fallen into torpor, I might, more tranquil in my rural seclusion, have passed my time like the halcyons' peaceful serenity of the nest; and with the harsh trumpets of quarrels, by which the Galagetic onslaughts had battered me, being lulled in the ashes of silence, I believed I was leading a life purified by quiet—were it not that a more persistent throat-ache of sorrows followed me even there, and Fortune, stepmother of happiness, who always intermingles something bitter into human affairs, pursued me as if a handmaid." And at last, speaking perhaps of King Leovigild or Reccared: "But since evil is never immortal for mortals, at last the felicity of the Lord King, like the dawn of the approaching sun, wiped away the fears from a world opening up from darkness." Furthermore, besides the fact that the style of Fulgentius of Ruspe's works and these books of Mythologies differ greatly, we have learned from the testimony of serious men that by the tradition of the Church of Carthagena, Murcia, and other churches of Spain, these are attributed to Fulgentius the brother of Leander.

[9] However, the Opus mirificum, or the twenty-four books of Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius, the distinguished scholar, each successive book lacking one letter of the alphabet, is not by the same author. But not the books each lacking a letter of the alphabet. Sigebert absolutely pronounces it to be by Fulgentius of Ruspe: "He wrote books," he says, "which he entitled 'Without Letters': a book on Adam without A, on Abel without B, on Cain without C, and the rest according to the sequence of letters." Of this work, a learned and industrious monk from our own monastery of Liessies in Hainaut, Christianus le Roy—a man of preeminent learning and piety, and a diligent helper in our work on the lives of the Saints, who died to our great sorrow on September 8, 1637, when, due to military disturbances and the French having already occupied Landrecies and Maubeuge, the community of Liessies was compelled to take refuge in the city of Mons—copied for us the first fourteen books from an old codex of his monastery. In that codex of Liessies, however, the last nine books are missing. Autbert Miraeus, the distinguished scholar, believes this work was composed by Fulgentius of Ruspe before his episcopate. The author certainly confesses in more than one place that he is from Libya, and that he undertook this work in imitation of the Greek poet Xenophon. One might conjecture that Claudius was Gordianus's son and Fulgentius's father, who, having returned to Africa from Italy—where Genseric's fury had driven his parent—was despoiled of his ancestral possessions and home, and might rightly have complained in book 1 against public plundering: "In these circumstances the mourning of those who grieve is not intensified, nor is sympathy felt for the groaning of the wretched; but only the reckoning of collecting money by whatever means is pursued through the night."

[10] Other virtues of St. Fulgentius, We shall subjoin some additional details about the virtues of St. Fulgentius. He carefully compelled his people to obey the decrees of councils and sacred canons; he was also very strict with himself, mortifying his body with fasting, vigils, and other bodily afflictions. So Marietta and Spinosa. Lucio Marineo writes the following among other things about him: "Moreover, when the Arian heresy was attempting to lead Christians away from the worship of God, His zeal, Fulgentius, having convened a council of many bishops and Spanish princes at Toledo, through his sermons and wondrous works vigorously suppressed all the Arians, and with the greatest prudence and examples brought back to the worship of God those Christians who had somewhat fallen away from the faith of Christ." More briefly Vasaeus: "He was present at the Council of Toledo, at which the Arian heresy was condemned, together with all the perfidy of the pagans." Both authors seem to mean the Third Council of Toledo, held in the era 627, the year of Christ 589, the fourth year of King Reccared, in which the industry and learning of St. Leander were chiefly conspicuous and the Arian heresy was condemned. Whether Fulgentius was present we do not know for certain; he was certainly not yet Bishop of Astigi at that time, nor is he found among the subscribers. Tarapha, without mentioning the Council of Toledo, says: "Since he was a most learned man, he vigorously suppressed all the Arians through his wondrous works." He could, however, have been present at that council either as a Presbyter or still a layman, and could have wielded great authority, since he was of illustrious birth, an uncle of King Reccared, and had endured exile for the faith under his brother-in-law Leovigild, and moreover flourished in reputation for learning.

[11] His house, The house which Fulgentius is believed to have inhabited is still shown at Astigi, converted into a convent of cloistered nuns. But Mariana writes that it is the house of his sister Florentina that is shown at Astigi.

LIFE

Written in Spanish by Antonio Quintanadueñas of the Society of Jesus.

Fulgentius, Bishop of Astigi and Carthagena in Spain (S.)

By Antonio Quintanadueñas.

CHAPTER I. Life before his episcopate.

[1] Fulgentius was born to Severianus, Duke or military commander of Carthagena in Spain, and to Theodora, The parents of St. Fulgentius. daughter of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, of whom we made mention in the history of his brothers Leander and Isidore. When his pious parents had been exiled to Seville for the sake of the Catholic religion, they received from a propitious deity this noble offspring—Fulgentius, I say—and formed him by domestic discipline to every integrity of character and the distinction of heroic virtues. His education, To this was added the instruction of Etherius—a Bishop, as I think, of Basti, who was present at the Council of Toledo in the first year of King Flavius Gundemar; or of Eutherius the Bishop, to whom an extant letter of Pope Vigilius is addressed.

[2] Hence Fulgentius, excellently cultivated in letters, and especially with no ordinary knowledge of various languages— His learning, Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Gothic, Latin, Italian, and Arabic—but above all in the understanding of the divine books. His published volumes are proof of this, though time has obliterated the memory of many. His books, His most learned commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Books of Kings, the oracles of Isaiah and the twelve Minor Prophets, the Psalms, and the Gospels are recorded. A manuscript volume of his was preserved at the royal monastery of Oña, of the Benedictine order. Another codex, written in Gothic letters at least two hundred years ago, exists in the library of the holy Church of Córdoba, entitled the "Book on the Faith." Fulgentius composed this while in exile at Carthagena and dedicated it to Scarila, Abbot of the monastery of St. Leocadia. The book "On the Incarnation of the Word," however, which is cited in the Second Council of Seville, is the work of St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, by origin of Toledo, whom some confuse with our Fulgentius, deceived by the similarity of names—both their own and those of the churches they governed—since the one was Bishop of Carthage in Africa, the other of Carthage in Spain. That our Fulgentius is not the author of that book is evident from the fact that in the council at which our Fulgentius was present, it is cited with the title "Saint"—an appellation that would never be given to one standing before them. His surname, The books of Mythologies are commonly attributed to him. From these and other distinguished works, and from his sermons delivered to the people on the Catholic faith, he acquired the surname of the "Illustrious Doctor" and the "Doctor celebrated throughout the whole world," by which title St. Julian cites him in the Fifteenth Council of Toledo.

[3] Equal to his learning was his zeal of soul, by which he was driven to defend the dogmas of the Catholic religion. His zeal, The chief gain of his studies was his frequent disputations with the Arians, by which he refuted their errors. He fell upon the same period as the war that St. Hermenegild waged against his father Leovigild. Fulgentius's fortune was the same His exile. as that of many other Bishops and distinguished men. He was driven from Seville to Carthagena, to his ancestral homeland, where he endured most grievous labors and hardships. Living in a narrow dwelling, he constantly refuted the heretics and encouraged the Catholics. He wrote many letters to St. Hermenegild, the son of his sister, who was a captive, exhorting him to an intrepid profession of the faith and to the contest of martyrdom.

a She is called Turtura by some, Theodosia by others.

b Here the same author, in the life of St. Leander as well as others, makes not Theodora but Severianus himself the son of King Theodoric through Sanctia. Lucas of Tuy agrees, era 549 and 610. But if this is true, why did the Goths, upon the death of Theodoric, choose his daughter Amalasuentha and not his son Severianus as their sovereign? Sandoval makes Severianus the son of Theodoric II, King of the Goths in Gaul; but this Theodoric was not, as he thinks, the guardian or uncle of Amalaric, by whose grandfather Euric he was killed.

c By King Agila, as this author writes in the life of St. Leander, and thus before the year of Christ 554, in which Agila was killed.

d Basti, commonly Baza, was formerly an episcopal city in Hither Spain, now subject to the Bishop of Guadix.

e Era 648, that is, the year of Christ 610. He was not yet Bishop, however, when he taught Fulgentius, since his predecessor Theudorus subscribed to the Third Council of Toledo, era 627, year of Christ 589.

f Dated in the consulship of John, the distinguished man, to whom a colleague Volusianus is added there, but who is missing from the Fasti of Cuspinian and others. That was the year of Christ 538.

g At that time there were four principal peoples in Italy who used their own language (besides the Franks, who sometimes burst in for the sake of war): the Romans, Greeks, Goths, and Lombards. From the mingling of their languages the Italian language was born; but it is not entirely plausible that by the time Fulgentius was growing up it was already so established in use or so refined that those who knew the former languages would consider it worthwhile to learn it.

h We are even more doubtful about this language: for what commerce shall we say a young Fulgentius had with the Arabs? It would be more probable to suspect Punic, Coptic, Moorish, or Gallic. Yet Marineo Siculo, Juan Vasaeus, and Sandoval also testify to Arabic. But Thomas Trujillo, when treating of this Fulgentius, praises only the one of Ruspe, whom he says was skilled in the Chaldean, Arabic, and Hebrew languages—but does not prove it.

i The foundation of this illustrious monastery is narrated by Antonio Yepez, century 6 of the Benedictine Annals, year 1011, chapters 1 and 2; Mariana, book 8, chapter 11.

k Padilla, century 7, chapter 13, writes that this volume appears to be more than 500 years old. Martin Roa reports the same. Mariana also mentions this same book, book 6, chapter 1.

l This is abundantly clear if one reads the actual words of the council, chapter 13, which are taken from chapter 2 of St. Fulgentius of Ruspe's work On the Incarnation and Grace.

m So many other Spanish authors. The contemporary writer of his life, January 1, reports that he was born in the city of Telepte in the province of Byzacena; but that his grandfather was a Senator of Carthage. Whether he was originally from Spain, we have not yet read in any ancient author. St. Isidore in his book On Writers simply calls him African, as does Padilla, century 7, chapter 13.

n He indeed underwent great struggles for the Catholic religion at great Carthage, but he was not Bishop of that See, as is clear from his life.

o That council was held in the era 726, year of Christ 688, with Julian, Metropolitan of Toledo, presiding. But we believe the reference there is to St. Fulgentius of Ruspe.

p We shall give the life of St. Hermenegild on April 13. He was besieged by his father at Seville in the year 582; the following year, when that city and many other cities and castles were captured, Hermenegild was taken at Córdoba; and a year later he was killed. So Juan Biclar.

CHAPTER II.

Deeds during his episcopate. Death.

[4] That entire tempest was calmed with Leovigild's death, and a change in both the commonwealth and religion followed throughout the whole kingdom. Would that all changes brought about by the deaths of kings were always followed by such a conversion of souls! Reccared took up the reins of government and restored the exiled bishops and others. Fulgentius therefore returned to Seville, ever resplendent in the brilliant light of sanctity and learning. From there he went again to Carthagena to assist Bishop Dominicus in governing the diocese, He becomes Bishop of Carthagena. and shortly after the latter's death he succeeded him in the See. He presided for about eight years with equal praise for holiness and wisdom, since he both tightened clerical morals with stricter discipline, promoted the spiritual welfare of the people, and uprooted heresies. At that time Pegasius administered the Church of Astigi; Then at Astigi: in which some disturbance had arisen, and to settle it the King judged that Fulgentius should be placed over that Church, reckoning that his prudence and sanctity could both resolve so great a matter and securely establish peace. And so it turned out. For Fulgentius's solicitude achieved both a happy outcome and a glorious gain, with the growth of that Church, the ruin of Arian perfidy, and the expansion of the Catholic religion. He frequently preached to the people and watched over both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his Church—for which the presence and solicitude of an active bishop are wonderfully effective. In the year of Christ 610 he was present at the Council of Toledo, which King Flavius Gundemar had convened; and in the year 619 at the Council of Seville, over which Isidore presided; and there certain controversies between the Churches of Astigi, Córdoba, and Malaga were settled.

[5] Fulgentius, now heavy with age and illness, for that reason alone, as is believed, laid down the episcopal office of Astigi and withdrew to Carthagena, He returns to Carthagena: thinking the climate would be healthier for him there. Or indeed, as the Archpriest of St. Justa reported, he was chosen a second time as Bishop of that Church, no longer to fix his See at Carthagena but at Murcia, to which the See had been transferred since Carthagena had been destroyed by prolonged wars—a change confirmed by a decree of King Gundemar. Fulgentius spent either at Murcia or at Carthagena about six years, He prepares himself for death. preparing himself for his departure with singular zeal and spiritual exercise—the one goal that had been constantly set before him throughout his entire life. And it ought to be set before those who, placed perhaps in an illustrious degree of dignity and flattering themselves with their present happiness, think themselves less subject to the violent debt of death. His meditation on death was accompanied by inflamed desires for eternal blessedness.

[6] When he had a presentiment that he would soon depart, he asked St. Braulio and Laurus, Bishop of Cádiz, whom he loved dearly as a brother, to be present with him as he breathed his last. He dies. That death was precious in the sight of God: for strengthened by the holy viaticum and the protection of the other sacraments, while the bishops piously recited psalms and shed copious tears, he breathed out his soul, soon to be borne by the ministry of Angels to the throne of glory. This glorious departure occurred, as Marcus Maximus wrote, in the year 638, when Heraclius held the Roman Empire, Honorius the Apostolic See, St. Isidore the See of Seville, and Cyntila the kingdom of Spain. All agree well enough that he died in the month of January; about the day the authors vary, some giving the first, others the sixteenth. The ancient breviaries have the eighth; he is now celebrated on the fourteenth.

a Rodrigo of Toledo writes (and Mariana agrees, book 5, chapter 13) that Leovigild, while he was being severely tormented by illness, commanded his son Reccared to recall the bishops from exile and to listen as fathers to Leander of Seville and his brother Fulgentius of Astigi, who was distinguished in ecclesiastical learning, and to obey their counsels. But it is clear from what follows about his predecessor Pegasius that Fulgentius was not yet Bishop of Astigi.

b In the year of Christ 589, era 627, the fourth year of Reccared, the deacon Servandus subscribed to the Third Council of Toledo on behalf of Pegasius.

c In sessions 1 and 2.

d This happened before the era 671, that is, the year of Christ 633, in which Abentius, Bishop of the Church of Astigi, subscribed to the Fourth Council of Toledo. But the author commits a very serious error when he writes that this change was confirmed by the authority of King Gundemar, since Gundemar had died seven years before the Council of Seville.

e St. Braulio is venerated on March 26.

f He is called Laureanus by others, Laura by Marietta.

CHAPTER III.

Translation and other honors.

[7] His body was buried by the bishops in the cathedral basilica of Carthagena; His body is translated to Seville: but thirty-four years after his death it was translated to Seville and placed together with the relics of his siblings Leander, Isidore, and Florentina in the church of SS. Rufina and Justa, which St. Leander had built for that purpose, in the quarter of the city where his hermitage is now seen near the Córdoba gate. Above the sepulchre a silver cross was erected, on which their epitaph was engraved. Seville possessed this noble treasure until the invasion of the Moors. It is hidden: For then the bodies of SS. Fulgentius and Florentina were transported to the mountains near the town of Guadalupe, together with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. There they remained hidden and unknown until the time of Alfonso XI, when the bodies of Fulgentius and Florentina It is rediscovered. were found at the village of Berzocana. Part was later brought to Carthagena and Murcia, part to the cathedral church of Ávila and to the monastery of Guadalupe.

[8] Fulgentius has been honored with singular veneration by Christians from the first century after his death, The feast of St. Fulgentius. and has been illustrated by many heavenly miracles. The memory of his feast is found in the most ancient breviaries of the Church of Seville. This devotion was maintained for a long time, then interrupted for some years, and finally restored in the year 1624, and it was decreed that he be celebrated with the office of a Doctor, double of the second class. A first-class solemnity with an octave is observed in his honor as Patron at Carthagena and Placentia: here because his relics are at Berzocana in the diocese of Placentia; there because he once governed that Church. A college of the Society dedicated to him. The Order of St. Benedict also venerates him as an alumnus of their institute, as serious authors have reported. Astigi, ennobled by his teaching, examples, and episcopal See, adopted him as its principal patron among the Saints, and decreed that the college of the Society of Jesus—begun with notable munificence and piety, and brought to completion with a sustained greatness of spirit in bearing the expenses—should be dedicated to St. Fulgentius; and that the distinguished schools erected there, a work worthy of so illustrious a city, where youth is instructed in every virtue and science—Grammar, Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Theology—should enjoy the patronage and protection of that eminent Doctor. The day sacred to him is celebrated with a public procession of the clergy, religious orders, and the city council; and the same attend the solemnity that is observed in the same college.

[9] The following commemorate St. Fulgentius: the ancient breviaries of the Church of Seville, St. Ildefonsus, Primus, Bishop of Chalon, Rodrigo, Archbishop of Toledo, Marineo Siculo, Francisco Tarapha, Maurolycus, Julian Pérez, Marcus Maximus, Liutprand, Juan Vasaeus, Juan Mariana, Ambrosio Morales, Lorenzo and Francisco de Padilla, Prudencio de Sandoval, Rodrigo Caro, Rodrigo Yepez, Emiliano, Christoph Brouwer, and others who have written the lives of the Saints and the histories of Seville, Carthagena, Placentia, Guadalupe, and the Gothic kings—and especially Martín de Roa of the Society of Jesus, a serious and eloquent author.

a Marineo, Tarapha, and Primus of Chalon also mention this translation. Padilla discusses it at greater length.

b The walls of this town are washed by the river Guadalupe (to the Moors, Guada signifies water or river), which then flows into the Anas. The history of the image of the Virgin Mother of God sent by St. Gregory to St. Leander, which was here concealed together with other relics by certain priests of Seville in a marble sepulchre with accompanying inscriptions for the record, earth being heaped upon it, and then found in the time of Alfonso XI around the year of Christ 1330, is briefly recounted by Ludovicus Nonius in his Hispania, chapter 61, and more fully by Gabriel Talavera, Prior of the monastery of Guadalupe (which belongs to the Hieronymite order), in his History of Guadalupe. Francisco Padilla, century 7, chapter 14, reports that Berzocana is two or three leagues from Guadalupe. Others call it Berzocanum. From here the relics of St. Fulgentius and his sister St. Florentina were translated to Murcia by Sancho de Ávila, Bishop of Carthagena, in the year 1594, as Marietta writes.

c Published, as the author indicates in the margin, in 1510, 1531, 1555, 1558.

d We have not found the name of Fulgentius anywhere in the published works of Ildefonsus; St. Braulio makes mention of him in his eulogy of Isidore.

e In the Topography of Holy Martyrs, published with Maurolycus's Martyrology, under the entry Carthago Nova.

f On Spanish affairs, book 2, chapter 14.

g On Spanish affairs, book 5.

h A canon of Barcelona, in his book On the Kings of Spain, under Liuva II.

i In his Martyrology, January 1, where, treating of St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, he adds: "There was also another Fulgentius, Bishop of New Carthage, and brother of the Bishops of Seville, Leander and Isidore."

k In the Adversaria, no. 462.

l In his Chronicle of Spanish affairs, at the year 591.

m Book 5, chapter 13 and book 6, chapter 1.

n Ecclesiastical History of Spain, century 6, chapter 50, and century 7, chapter 13.

o In the life of St. Leander, where he reports that he was a Benedictine monk, but confirms this with the testimony of no ancient writer, as likewise Constantinus Caietanus, who in the life of St. Isidore calls Fulgentius "the most brilliant luminary of the Benedictine order."

p Book 2, Antiquities of Seville, chapter 11.

q In his Notes on the life and rule of St. Leander.

r Book 2 on the Saints of Astigi, chapter 5. This book, which we had long sought, we obtained unexpectedly when part of this Life had already been printed.

CHAPTER IV.

Proof of the things related.

Maximus, nearly a contemporary of Fulgentius, confirms the former opinion, year 598: "Fulgentius, from Bishop of Carthagena in Spain, becomes Bishop of Astigi in Baetica, so that a sedition arising from the Bishop might be quelled." I believe it was reported by others that he first presided over the Church of Astigi because he died at Carthagena, having previously been Bishop of Astigi; or perhaps because he was indeed made Bishop of Carthagena a second time, as Julian reports in the Adversaria, no. 563: "St. Licinianus," he says, "preceded Dominicus and Fulgentius, who was twice Bishop of Carthagena, in the See." And he repeats the same at nos. 570 and 571.

That Fulgentius was born at Seville is testified by Maximus, era 598: "Fulgentius is born at Seville, his father being an exile in that city after the destruction of Carthagena." Liutprand, no. 226: "Fulgentius and Isidore were born at Seville."

That he was first Bishop of Carthagena is asserted by the Bishop of Chalon, Marineo Siculo, Tarapha, Vasaeus, Lorenzo Padilla, Emiliano, the Breviary of Seville published in 1510 and 1531, and this is held as an established tradition. But Roa and others contend that he first sat at Astigi.

Concerning his death at Carthagena and the translation of his body to Seville, the breviaries and cited authors speak. The verses inscribed on the cross are these:

This nourishing cross bears the bodies of the twin brothers, Leander and Isidore, the foremost among prophets. Third is Florentina, eternally devoted to God. O how harmoniously this worthy company rests together! Isidore in the middle separates the limbs of the two. What manner of men these were, inquire of their books, reader: You will find that they spoke well of all things. With these here rests Fulgentius. Consider these three With certain hope, and renowned above all for their fullness of faith: You may discern that the faithful have grown through their teachings, And that those whom impious care had held were restored to the Lord. And that you may believe these sublime men live forever, Gazing upon their painted images, strive to look upward.

An epigram of St. Ildefonsus on St. Fulgentius, as reported by Julian Pérez:

Fulgentius, whom new Carthage returned to the breezes, And was thereafter too greatly blessed by your fatherhood: Thence the wave of Astigi, rejoicing, receives you as father, Where the Baetis delights in you, and delights in you yet more. You correct unbridled morals and instruct the life of your people By example, O Doctor, and by your eloquence. Seville herself fits your ashes together with your siblings: One and the same urn contains the three brothers together.

a Indeed, Tarapha, Marineo, and Vasaeus, already cited by him.