ON SAINT BRAULIO OR BRAULION, BISHOP OF ZARAGOZA IN SPAIN.
IN THE YEAR 646.
Historical Synopsis.
Braulio, Bishop of Zaragoza in Spain (Saint)
Section I. Literary studies: friendship with Saint Isidore: the dignity of Archdeacon.
[1] That this holy Bishop was descended from the royal stock of the Goths, on what authority Marietta and Maurolycus have said, we cannot determine: unless perhaps they followed Marineo Siculo in the booklet which he composed on the illustrious writers of Spain, fabricating that Braulio was the brother of Saint Hermenegild the Martyr and of King Reccared, Rashly inserted into the royal stock, and indeed, which no wise person has said about them, from the same parents as Saints Leander, Isidore, and Florentina:
although he adds that there are others who make them and Braulio, along with those already named, sons of Leovigild (as Hermenegild and Reccared truly were), and others who say that the aforesaid three on each side were brothers: to all of which the silence of the whole of antiquity is more rightly opposed, than the consideration that it would follow from this that John, undoubtedly a full brother of Braulio, would also have to be admitted to that brotherhood, which Tamaius alone, content to have refuted with such an argument, ascribes royal lineage to Braulio without any new foundation.
[2] We, however, judge that this cannot be prudently said, and that it is safer in praising Braulio to take account only of his holiness, He is more rightly praised for his learning and virtue, since this is abundantly established from the veneration and cult which he earned in the Church of Zaragoza: and from the same undoubted fame of holiness we think the greatest probability is lent to those things which, passed over in silence by the ancients, are recited in the lessons of the Proper Office of a double rite, approved by the authority of the Apostolic See, and are of this kind: Restoring to a better state the most chaste morals and discipline received from excellent parents, he himself also by his own nature and talent did not cease, like a certain noble and fruitful plant, to produce daily new fruits of integrity and piety. Then, as his age required, he was given to the study of letters for the cultivation of his mind: where, both by the greatness of his talent and by his assiduity in learning, he was very quickly imbued with much knowledge of the liberal disciplines, and he shrank from every breath of human praise: and he entirely avoided the companionship of his peers, their banquets and luxury; he who perceived in them, as there is nothing of true pleasure, so there is very much of intemperance and danger.
[3] By such or similar ornaments of an excellent life he was certainly worthy to be the most dear and most beloved son of Saint Isidore, Bishop of Seville, and to be so addressed in two letters which we have written by him On account of which he was most dear to Saint Isidore, as to a most desired friend, whose present sight and conversation he wonderfully longs to enjoy. The beginning of one of them is this: When you receive the letters of a friend, most dear son, do not delay in embracing them on behalf of the friend. For this is the second consolation among those who are absent, that if the one who is loved is not present, his letters may be embraced in his stead. We have sent you a ring as a token of our spirit, and a cloak for the covering of our friendship, from which antiquity derived this word. Was he also his Archdeacon? Pray therefore for me: may the Lord inspire you, that I may deserve to see you still in life: and him whom you saddened by departing, may you sometime again gladden by presenting yourself. To that point therefore Braulio had lived at Seville with Isidore, and observing the holy Bishop as a disciple does his master, he had merited to be held in the place of a son: but whether he was also promoted there to the Archdeaconate (which title was inscribed on both this and the letter about which we shall shortly treat), we think there is rightly room for doubt.
[4] Thomas de Truxillo, however, taking this as certain, in volume 2 of the Thesaurus of Preachers, speaks thus: Given over to the sacred letters to be educated in the city of Seville, he was long a disciple of Blessed Isidore: who, knowing him well, appointed him his Archdeacon. And he administered this office so excellently and justly that it is said that Blessed Isidore never revoked any decision of Braulio: since all things that he performed and administered were most just and equitable. Thus he says, but to carry credence these words need to be confirmed by more ancient testimony: which being lacking, we prefer to think that John, appointed Bishop of Zaragoza from the position of Father of the Monks in the time of King Sisebut, Or rather of his brother and Bishop John? summoned to himself his brother Braulio, distinguished by the twofold praise which we have said was certain; and entrusted to him a truly great portion of the episcopal burden, by appointing him Archdeacon of the Church of Zaragoza itself. And we think this is the reason why Saint Isidore, beginning in the aforesaid letter with the appellation of son, concludes the same by mixing with the signification of paternal love the reverence due to one who, emancipated from his obedience, held his own dignity in another Church: saying, My most beloved Lord and most dear son.
[5] How great, moreover, was the authority of the Archdeacon in the Church, his duties demonstrate, described by Saint Isidore himself to Leudefredus, Bishop of Cordoba, in these words: How great was the authority of this office? The Archdeacon commands the Subdeacons and Levites, to whom these ministries pertain: the arrangement for vesting the altar by the Levites: the care of the incense and the sacrifice to be carried to the altar: the care of the Subdeacons concerning what is to be brought to the altar as necessary for the sacrifice: the oversight of which of the Levites shall read the Apostle and the Gospel, who shall say the prayers or the responsory on Sundays or solemnities. The oversight of the parishes and their ordering, and disputes also pertain to his care. He himself suggests to the Priest concerning the repair of diocesan basilicas; he himself inspects the parishes with the commission of the Bishop, and the ornaments or property of the parish basilicas. The records of ecclesiastical liberties he himself brings to the Bishop. He himself receives the collected money from the communion and brings it to the Bishop, and he himself distributes their proper shares to the Clergy. By the Archdeacon the excesses of the Deacons are reported to the Bishop: he himself announces to the Priest in the sacristy the days of fasts and solemnities: and by him this is publicly proclaimed in the church. The same things and much more clearly are enumerated in the Decretals, Book 1, chapter 2, as having been declared in some Council of Toledo, although nothing of the sort is now found in any of them: and, not to repeat the aforesaid sacred functions, this especially assigns to the Archdeacon a rank closest to the Bishop: that he himself must deliberate, order, and decide every complaint or cause or justice of Presbyters or Deacons or Subdeacons: and therefore he is admonished to be vigorous, prudent, and cautious, acting in the place of his Bishop, and to have care of the entire Episcopate.
[6] Saint Isidore sends him the book of Synonyms To Braulio, occupied in these matters, Isidore sent his book of Synonyms, in which he assumes the character of a man almost despairing amid the miseries of the present age; whom reason, wonderfully coming to meet him, reforms to hope by gentle consolation, and then, having advanced him to the citadel of contemplation, places him on the summit of perfection. He writes that he sends this, not because it is of any use (for thus did the holy man humbly think of his own works), but because, he says, you had gone through it. For as he says (a little above): while we were together, I also asked you to transmit to me the sixth decade of Saint Augustine. What works of the holy Doctor were contained in that decade, And he requests from him the sixth decade of Saint Augustine. now that the memory of such a division has been obliterated, it is neither easy nor worthwhile to guess: but what shall we say of what he adds: I beg you to make me known to him in whatever manner? Was not Augustine dead for nearly two centuries? He was indeed. We must therefore say one of two things: namely, either that a mention of another great man, whose friendship Isidore desired through the mediation of Braulio, has dropped out through the carelessness of copyists; or that, through the fault of the same, a few letters having been changed, the sense has been confused, and should be restored thus: I beg you to make it known to me in whatever manner, namely the sixth decade of the Augustinian works.
Section II. Saint Braulio is ordained Bishop: he publishes certain books of Saint Isidore: he attends the Fifth Council of Toledo together with him.
[7] While Braulio was performing the duties of judging the affairs of the Clergy and ordering the ecclesiastical office, in the place of his brother the Bishop; John within the twelve years of his Episcopate did those things Upon the death of John, Braulio succeeds him which Saint Ildefonsus noted in his booklet on ecclesiastical writers, and on account of which he holds the title of Saint among modern writers; being a man learned in sacred letters; intending to teach more by words than by writings: as generous and cheerful in giving as he was cheerful in countenance. When he died around the end of King Suintila's reign or the beginning of Sisenand's, namely the year 626, Braulio obtained the place of the departed at Zaragoza, a man joined both by brotherhood and not least remembered for his talent, as the same Saint Ildefonsus says: Designated, as it is said, by divine indication: The lessons of the Proper Office say that this was done by divine election, which (perhaps from popular tradition, for among the ancients there is deep silence about this and other prodigies) Marineo Siculo explains in these words: When from many they were at a loss in the council of many wise men as to whom to elect, suddenly a flame was seen above the head of Braulio, which, harmlessly seeking the vault of heaven, signified that Braulio was to be adorned with the dignity of the Episcopate and preferred to all.
[8] Thomas de Truxillo, so that it might be believed this was done in an assembly of the whole Spanish nation, and so the elected Braulio might appear more glorious, Was this done in some Council? names the fourth Council of Toledo, celebrated in the time of the Goth Cinthila around the year 636, erring with few words in neither one nor a slight error. For by that year Braulio had already spent a decade or more in the episcopal rank: and what was celebrated at Toledo in the first year of King Cintilanus, the Era 626 coinciding with the said year of the Lord, was the fifth Council: and the fourth itself was later than the ordination of Braulio, having been convoked in the third year of Sisenand, Era 671. Much more enormously did Marietta err, who says Braulio was elected in the fourth year of King Reccared, the first Catholic king from among the Arians, in the third Council of Toledo: for then the Spaniards counted the Era 627, and Braulio had perhaps scarcely passed the limits of boyhood. Nothing therefore can have any probability in this assertion about a national Council of Toledo: and that it was done there in some provincial assembly of Bishops, of which no memory survives, no reason persuades: since that Episcopate belongs to the Metropolitan Province of Tarragona, not to the Province of Carthagena, whose capital was Toledo. Wherefore, if anything miraculous occurred in the election of Braulio, we must conceive that it happened at Tarragona or at Zaragoza.
[9] But leaving aside the election, let us rather consider the virtues of Braulio expressed in these words in the Proper Office: His virtues in the Episcopate: Having been made Bishop, he thought that the severity of morals and life was to be increased equally with his dignity. And so he declared war on his body, not to kill or crush it, but to subdue it and strip it of all wantonness and reduce it to servitude. Thereafter he used garments that were not sordid, yet conspicuous for no luxury. Truxillo adds: Then he completely eradicated the Arian heresy which was raging through that region. He preached with great fervor, and often those who heard him saw a dove speaking at his ear, and as it were telling him what he was about to preach. Thus he says, Other things about him not sufficiently certain. with which the Church of Zaragoza so agrees that it commands this prayer to be recited about its Saint Braulio: O God, who through the mouth of Blessed Braulio, your Confessor and Pontiff, opened the secrets of your word, and confounded the filth of the heretics by his preaching: grant us, we beseech you, your servants, both to profit by his instruction and to be defended by his prayer. The rest that is asserted by Truxillo we would wish to have confirmed by more ancient authorities: and equally what Quintanadueñas adds, that a voice was heard
from heaven by all, pressing home those words of Isaiah 42: Behold my servant, my chosen one: I have placed my Spirit upon him.
[10] He builds or adorns the church of the Holy Masses: What deeds Braulio performed in his Episcopate is difficult to investigate, since few traces of them survive. That he devoted himself to the building of churches is proved by the stone tower which still remains at Zaragoza from the ancient church of the Holy Masses, so called from the relics of many Holy Martyrs unearthed there, and later more splendidly rebuilt under the sole name of Saint Engracia: which ancient church Marietta and Quintanadueñas claim was built from the foundations by Saint Braulio above the one which the forebears had long held in honor underground: to whom we shall more readily assent in this than to Martin Carillo in the Life of Saint Valerius, chapter 5, and to Tamaius who follows Martin on March 13, that this was done by Bishop Braulio in the year 609: Not however in the year 609. but perhaps the change of a single cipher crept in on Carillo so that 609 was printed for 629.
[11] It is more certain that Braulio had his first five years of the Episcopate beset with great difficulties: for thus, writing to Saint Isidore a little before the time of the Fourth Council of Toledo, roughly in the year 632, he begins: He complains that he has fallen upon times of plague and war O pious Lord and most excellent of men, late is the inquiry and tardily was the opportunity of writing given to me, because with my sins pressing upon me I was horribly impeded by the assault not only of the evil of barrenness and want, but also of plague and hostility, preventing me from making inquiry. But now, though worn by a thousand necessities and a thousand cares, after a long time of misery, aroused as it were from the heaviness of an oppressive slumber, so to speak, I presume to offer the tribute of greeting through the utterances of this my petition; prostrate in humility both of heart and body, beseeching the most excellent power of your Blessedness, that you would command your particular servant, whom you have always received with that pious regard of holy condescension, He longs to see Saint Isidore: to be held commended unto the end. For I too (Christ knows) am driven by heavy grief, that after so long a time has elapsed, I do not even now deserve to see your countenance: but I hope in him who does not forget to have mercy nor reject at the last, that he will hear the prayer of the poor and present wretched me to your sight.
[12] By this letter Saint Braulio seems to respond to one which had been given to him by Saint Isidore in this tenor: With all desire I have desired now to see your face, and would that God might sometime fulfill my vow before I die: but for the present I beg that you commend me to God, Most eager for him in return: that both in this life he may fulfill my hope, and in the life to come grant me the companionship of your Blessedness (and in his own hand): Pray for us, Most Blessed Lord and Brother: where, maintaining the ancient custom of the Church, he no longer writes "son" (as formerly when he was still Archdeacon) but "Brother," as to a fellow Bishop: which it is amazing that various persons have taken so crudely as to have presumed on that account to call Saints Isidore and Braulio brothers according to the flesh. Braulio moreover in the aforesaid letter first says: With every supplication I request that you would command the book of Etymologies, He asks him for the books of Origins, which we have heard has now been completed with the Lord's favor, to be directed to your servant, mindful of your promise: because, as I am conscious to myself, you labored at the request of your servant in great part therein.
[13] Then he adds: The Acts also of the Synod (in which Sintharius, by the fire of your examination, And the Acts of the Council of Seville if not purified, is found at least refined), I beg that by your prompting they may be directed to us quickly by your son the Lord King: for our petition has likewise urged his glory to this effect; because there is great need in the Council for the investigation of truth. That which he indicates is the provincial Synod of eight Bishops, the second of Seville, convoked in the ninth year of the reign of Prince Sisebut, Era 657, the year of Christ 619: in the twelfth session of which, there entered a certain man from the heresy of the Acephali, a Syrian by birth (as he himself asserted), a Bishop, denying the property of two natures in Christ and asserting the passibility of the Divinity. Whose error, In which the Acephali were refuted: say the Fathers, when the confusion of so great an error had become plain to our minds, bringing forth testimonies to him concerning the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and reciting the opinions of the holy Fathers, we invited him with every exhortation to the rectitude of the true faith with priestly moderation: who, resisting the salutary warnings through many and prolonged labors of communion, at last by divine grace in the presence of all bystanders abjured his own heresy... whom we wish to be preserved, remaining in the faith of Christ, purely and most devoutly. Whether this excellent wish had its effect we are compelled to doubt from the aforesaid words of Braulio, in which he says that he was not purified but only refined: but we can in no way doubt that the Acts of this Synod were especially sought by Saint Braulio on account of the thirteenth session, in which a saving antidote was prepared for purging the poison of the aforesaid heresy, and was collected at length and carefully from the Sacred Scriptures. That Braulio should thus have sought them seems to have been prompted by the impending Provincial Synod, which was to be assembled for the fourth time at Toledo.
[14] Isidore wrote back that he had not been worthy to read his praises: He presses the first petition again more urgently: because immediately, he says, when I received your letter, the royal attendant came to me: I gave my chamberlain that letter, and immediately went to the Prince, to read and reply later. But returning from the Palace of the King, I not only did not find your writings, but also whatever else was on paper had perished. That excuse did not satisfy the mind of Braulio, who desired to see the writings of his friend: wherefore he sent another and most lengthy letter, full of complaints, and among other things he speaks thus: Seven years, if I am not mistaken, the times have revolved since I remember having requested from you the books of Origins which you composed, and in various and diverse ways you put me off when present, and when absent you wrote nothing to me about them: but with subtle delay, now saying they were not yet finished, now not yet copied, now that my letters had been lost, and opposing many other things, we have arrived at this day and remain without the fulfillment of our request.
[15] From which it is gathered that Braulio, before Bishop John departed from the living, had run to Seville to visit his friend and former teacher, and had thus satisfied the request, Which in the meantime Saint Isidore had already satisfied. as we saw above, directed to him when he was still Archdeacon. That there was no need for so prolonged a remonstrance is sufficiently indicated by the response given from Toledo by Isidore, in which he says he is setting out because of the Council: that he had transmitted the Codex of Etymologies along with other codices on the journey. Indeed, that even the earlier letter was not necessary (which had perhaps in the meantime been recovered, and had given the reason for transmitting the requested codices so hastily) he implies: since he says, uncorrected because of my infirmity, nevertheless I had determined to offer it to you now for correction, if I had reached the appointed place of the Council. But as soon as I came to Toledo, into the presence of the Prince, I found your Deacon present: receiving your words through him, I embraced them and read them; and for your health I gave thanks to God, desiring with all desire, although weak and weary, yet having confidence through Christ of seeing you in this life: because hope does not disappoint. Certainly it was not then disappointed: for Braulio too came to the appointed place of the Council; where both are found to have subscribed to its Acts.
Section III. The great authority of Saint Braulio in Councils, his writings, death, and translation.
[16] After Braulio returned from the Council to his See, he immediately undertook to arrange the outstanding work of his friend according to his wish: for thus he writes in his preface to all the books of his blessed teacher (which without his care we would perhaps never have had collected): I edited the codex of Etymologies, He arranges the writings of Saint Isidore: distinguished by him with titles not books, because of its excessive size: which because he composed it at my request, although he himself left it unfinished, having died on the fourth day before the Nones of April, Era 684, in the first year of King Cinthila, I divided it into twenty books. Moreover, in the same year in which Saint Isidore departed hence, the Fifth Council of Toledo was held, in which John Mariana, Book 6, chapter 6, at the year 647 (more correctly to be noted as 646), and Tamaius transcribing John, say: And the canons of the Fifth Council of Toledo with the rest deferring to him, Braulio, Bishop of Zaragoza, on account of the fame of his talent and erudition, and his zeal for letters and learning, is said to have directed the proceedings of the Council; to have enacted decrees and laws: and to have given letters to Honorius, at that time Roman Pontiff, since the Fathers wished to have their proceedings approved by him. That these letters aroused great admiration at Rome for the elegance of their diction, the gravity of their opinions, and the beauty of their composition, Bishop Rodrigo attests: for he writes in Book 2, chapter 19: In this Synod Bishop Braulio of Zaragoza shone forth illustriously above the rest, and fittingly instilled pious doctrine into Christian minds: whose works also the Church to this day fittingly venerates. Rome, the mother and mistress of cities, admired his eloquence through his epistolary discourse.
[17] These things receive confirmation from Saint Ildefonsus where he says: He was also regarded as famous for his Canons and certain short works. He wrote the Life of a certain monk Aemilianus, And he writes certain other works: which equally commends and illustrates by its character both the memory of Braulio and the virtue of that holy man. He is venerated on November 12, and the Life which Braulio wrote was published by Christopher Sandoval in the history of the Monastery named after him, to be elucidated by us on that day. And would that the other works also survived which Rodrigo praises as still extant in his own time: perhaps they would supply a fuller knowledge of the deeds done by Braulio. In the meantime, however, we can hardly believe But not the chronicle falsely attributed. that the Lives of his brother John and predecessor, of Saint Isidore, and of Saint Leocadia were also composed by him; no trace of them appearing anywhere among other ancient and more recent writers: but much more we dare confidently to assert that those additions of ten years appended to the fictitious Chronicle which appeared under the name of Maximus of Zaragoza, came from the same workshop whence the Pseudo-Dexter and other monstrosities of similar fabrication emerged.
[18] He also attends the Sixth Council of Toledo, Furthermore, if the work of Braulio was so highly esteemed at the Fifth Council of Toledo, we must believe it was no less, but rather greater, what he rendered to the Fathers gathered at the Sixth Council in the same place, in the second year of King Cinthilanus, Era 675; or in the third year of the same King, if the Council was held in the following Era (as the number expressed in the Acts has it): for the reckoning of time compels us to recognize an error in one or the other place, easily established from the preceding and subsequent Councils. He died before the Seventh held in the same place Then, that when
in the fifth year of Chindaswind, Era 684, on the fifteenth day before the Calends of November, the Seventh Council was convened at Toledo, it lacked his presence, and did not even have a Presbyter or Deacon (such as the six other absent bishops, prevented from coming, sent in their place) subscribing: wherefore we entirely judge that he was not merely prevented by illness, as Quintanadueñas would have it, but was in fact dead: and we would judge the same even if the Pseudo-Liutprand, fabricated with the same rashness as the others, did not say so. For, as Saint Ildefonsus testifies, he held the priesthood for approximately twenty years: and when these were completed, he closed the day of the present life. He endured in governance during the times of the Kings Sisenand, Cinthila, Tulga, and Chindaswind, of whom the last ceased in Era 687 and the first began to reign in Era 669.
[19] A Bishop for twenty years: The Sixth Lesson of the Proper Office describes the death of Saint Braulio thus: He therefore, endowed with so great ornaments, so conducted himself among mortals that he always seemed most worthy of heaven and immortality by the consensus of all. At length, full of holy days, he fell into a brief and light illness: and when he understood that he must depart hence, wholly poured out in hymns and thanksgivings, he flew away to heaven. At that time we know from the subscriptions of the Seventh Council of Toledo that the Metropolitan Bishop of Tarragona was Protasius, before whom that See had been vacant for some years, Whether his Metropolitan was present at his death: whence no one is found to have subscribed to the Fifth and Sixth Councils: but Audax had subscribed to the Fourth Council: that same Audax perhaps for whose elevation to that See Braulio had labored shortly before: whence in the aforesaid letter of Isidore, written about the time of the Council, it reads thus: But concerning the appointment of a Bishop of Tarragona, I did not perceive the opinion of the King to be that which you sought: but nevertheless even for him it remains uncertain where he will more firmly turn his mind. This meanwhile is evident from what has been said: that this Audax could not have performed the last offices for the dying Braulio, as Marietta says: but concerning Protasius, whom the more prudent Tamaius introduces, one would need a witness of greater trustworthiness than he himself is.
[20] As for the Angelic singing at the death of Braulio, and this heavenly voice heard by all, Arise and come, my friend: to which Braulio responded, I am ready, the same Tamaius and Quintanadueñas transcribed from Marietta, but we do not know where Marietta drew this from; Whether songs and voices of Angels were heard? since not even Truxillo, scraping together whatever he could from every quarter, not without some rhetorical embellishment, wrote anything similar; a thing he would not have omitted if he had understood it to be even rumored. The same Marietta says the day of his death was March 18, on which day indeed the Church of Zaragoza keeps his feast. Tamaius has March 26, on the authority of the Pseudo-Liutprand, who, Whether he died on March 26? lest he seem to contradict the Roman Martyrology, was ordered to write thus; after Truxillo first, perhaps by a printer's error, had written such a day, and by his error had prejudged Baronius to imitation, who was not sufficiently informed on what day his own church venerated him: whom we have preferred to follow.
[21] Quintanadueñas adds that in the Cathedral church (which others call Saint Mary the Greater, The body, found through a revelation of Saint Valerius. Tamaius calls it by popular usage Our Lady of the Pillar) the body, buried, had lain hidden for nearly six hundred years and more, beyond the veneration and knowledge of men; until in the year 1270 the place of its burial (which they say was under the portico of the main door) was revealed by Saint Valerius, whose Life we gave on January 28, a Bishop of the same See, to him who then governed the church, who was Arnaldo de Peralta, from the year 1233 to the year immediately following the said revelation. He says that the venerable body was found incorrupt and intact, as if recently deceased, and the very priestly vestments with it entirely free of all mold and decay, not without the fragrance of a sweet odor spreading far and wide. And so a magnificent mausoleum was built for him in the same Church before the principal altar, and a translation was made to it. In the year 1270 he is translated. Which the very day on which it happened, namely July 19, began from then on to be most solemnly celebrated every year, and God honored it with the working of very many miracles, and at the same time moved the whole kingdom of Aragon to number him among its patron saints. Cardinal Baronius briefly indicates the same things in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, from ancient monuments of the Church of Zaragoza, which he writes were transmitted to him at Rome, and which we too, had we obtained them, would have gladly reported in this place.