ON ST. PETER OF BARCO, CONFESSOR, AT ÁVILA IN SPAIN,
IN THE 11TH CENTURY?
PrefacePeter of Cymba or of Barco, confessor in Spain. (S.)
BY C. D. S.
The celebrated cult of St. Peter at Ávila in Spain has been testified from the middle of the 16th century by Marineo Sículo [Cited in Luis Ariz (on whom soon, and in Tamayo de Salazar, Mart. Hisp., vol. VI, p. 25.] , [The cult of St. Peter celebrated at Ávila at least from the 13th century; the day and year of his death indicated only from apocryphal documents.] Juan Marieta [Historia ecclesiastica de todos los Santos de España, part IV, bk. XXI, V. Avila.] , Luis Ariz Historia de las grandezas de la ciudad de Avila, part I, § II, p. 38. , who wrote before there came into light those supposititious chronicles from which Tamayo drew so many suspect things; and Ariz also cites in this matter a diploma given by King Ferdinand III in the year 1243, in which he is adorned with the name of saint. But Tamayo first asserted, from that fabricated Julián Pérez, archpriest of Toledo, that Peter died on the kalends of November and, because in the apocryphal poems of Pseudo-Julián he is called a contemporary of the latter, that he was living between the years 1085 and 1135, and finally, from another no less suspect epigram, that he departed this life in the era 1130 or the year of Christ 1092 Martyrol. Hispan., vol. VI, pp. 25, 28. . And so at the 1st day of November he wrote his name into the Spanish Martyrology, and Chastelain followed him in his Universal Martyrology.
[2] Whence he was called of Cymba. His Acts written in the 16th century. So feeble an authority would certainly not suffice for us to add Peter to the saints celebrated on this day; but since the antiquity of his cult is certain and his name is not read anywhere in another place in any calendars or martyrologies, it seemed good to treat of him here in a few words. The surname de Barcho or in Latin Cymbensis he received from the district of Barco near the city of Ávila, where he is said to have stayed for some time and to have died. All the other things narrated of him have been collected from uncertain traditions, which, reduced to a compendium, Luis Álvarez published in the Historia Barchensis, and thence, under the title Acts of St. Peter of Cymba, Tamayo Ibid., p. 26. . We have copied out the same here from Tamayo.
[3] On the honours given to St. Peter at Ávila and in the town of Barco. The body of St. Peter at the beginning of the 17th century was seen in a certain chief chapel of the basilica of St. Vincent in the city of Ávila, enclosed in a stone urn which was fixed in the wall and surrounded by iron gratings: and in the pavement beside this sepulchre, likewise surrounded by iron enclosures, the stone where left the print of its foot the blind beast of burden which, not without a prodigy, brought the sacred remains there Lud. Ariz, loc. cit. Cf. Acts, no. 6. . At that sepulchre on each Saturday after vespers the clerics of the same basilica were accustomed to gather, and there an antiphon
and prayer of St. Peter to sing [Ariz, ibid.; Gil González, Teatro ecclesiastico de las iglesias de España, vol. II, p. 252.] . The same was restored with greater amplitude and ornament in the year 1611, by the work of Pablo Verdugo de la Cueva, parish priest of the basilica of St. Vincent, and on that occasion the urn was opened and the relics inspected in the presence of Bishop Lorenzo Otadui and other noblemen González, vol. cit., p. 251. . In the district of Barco too a church was built in honour of St. Peter on the place where his little house had been situated while he lived Acts, no. 3. , but it has now long since been assigned to profane uses [Pasc. Madoz, Diccionario geographico-estadistico-historico de España, vol. IV, p. 19.] .
ACTS OF ST. PETER OF BARCO
From the Historia Barchensis of Luis Álvarez.
Peter of Cymba or of Barco, confessor in Spain. (S.)
FROM A PRINTED BOOK.
The birth and holy youth of St. Peter. Peter, a Spaniard by origin, originating from the town of Tormellas, of the diocese of Ávila, begotten of a father of Barco and a mother of Peraleda, sprung of humble families, though pure, famous for the virtues and examples of their life. To whom God granted this offspring, who by his parents' teachings, assiduous admonitions, and the natural pursuits and religious character of the little child, was to be a rare specimen of sanctity. For from infancy blessed Peter altogether shuddered at all that restlessness and those perverse morals with which youth everywhere swarms; indeed, embracing modesty and all the virtues, he appeared to his neighbours a notable lesson of humility and piety. After this, when he reached manly age, living to himself alone and applying himself to the precepts of God, he shunned the other gatherings of his fellows, by whom he was constantly called simple and stupid. In some of whom the rashness of malice so increased that very often they joked at length about the virtue of the holy man, which now, extended through all the districts and hamlets of that region and approved by more prudent men, shone more deeply.
[2] He withdraws into solitude, and cuts down a wood. Hence, his parents being dead, he determined to withdraw into solitude, treading underfoot the rumours and allurements of the world, and, building a humble hut on the bank of the river flowing past the town of Barco, then planted with useless woods and foul with impenetrable shrubs, he hid there for some little time, that he might be more readily free for prayer and give himself wholly to God and contemplation. For some space of time, then, while the holy man enjoyed this kind of life, he conceived in his mind to root out that wood, in order to shake off idleness, striving at once to render that site tractable for the help and use of the neighbours, and in a short time, the shrubs being cut, by labour and sickle he left the place pleasant and filled with an abundance of gardens and trees.
[3] The flax of a neighbour wonderfully preserved from fire in his house. But although the blessed man had a hut in that retreat for contemplation, he also retained his own in the town in which he had been born: which is still seen, as the tradition of the ancients reports and the frequency of miracles persuades. Among which is that celebrated one, that when a neighbour living in that house had a chamber full of flax, and a certain maidservant had determined to burn it out of hatred for her master, she cast a burning coal on the flax heaped up in the chamber: which at once began to burn, but the crackling flame nowhere grew among the stalks; rather, flashing, not burning, consumed within its own activity, it stained not the least ear.
[4] [He knew by revelation that his death would be imminent when the water of a spring should be turned into wine:] So the holy man, now remaining in the little house of the wood, now in his own hut of the little town, always and everywhere devoted himself to fasts and virtuous exercises and also to the continual prayer of contemplation, he macerated his body with sackcloth and disciplines, so that he had God present before the eyes of his heart, wherever he went. Nor for this did he desist from the continual cutting of that wood, indeed with assiduous labour daily tearing out by the root the shady shrubs, he laid open the hidden places of the grove. Applying himself, then, to these and other exercises, the servant of God, at one time sending forth a fervent prayer to God, in which he begged to be loosed from the chains of the flesh, it happened that he learned from the Lord by revelation that he would depart this life when the most limpid spring, gushing beside the hut in the wood and watering the new shrubs with oblique windings, should offer wine.
[5] which happened a few days later; he dies piously on the 1st day of November. When finally Peter, instructed by this revelation, perhaps after some days sent the servant, whom he had continually with him, to that spring with a jar to draw water for the midday meal, it happened that the servant brought the jar full: drinking whose liquid the holy man tasted wine in place of the most limpid and pure water. And although he then knew that the dissolution of his body was approaching, yet he arranged to test a second time the admonition of God, so long desired by him. Hence, pouring out the water from the jar, he sent the servant again to the spring: and the holy man, following him and seeing him draw water from the spring, at once drinking and tasting wine, understood the will of God. Then at once going back to the town of Barco, fortified with the sacraments for the viaticum, after three days he breathed out his soul, on the kalends of November.
[6] His body is carried to Ávila by a blind beast of burden left to itself. All the bells of the little town at once raised a clamour, and the neighbours, running up, found the holy body bathed in heavenly splendour, at whose touch very many sick, suffering from various infirmities, at once received health. Finally the fame of these miracles flew to the city of Ávila, which, deciding that the sacred pledges pertained to itself, took care to transfer them to its church. The townspeople on the contrary said that the remains should be carried nowhere. The matter was settled by concord. It was agreed, then, among all, that the body of the holy man should be placed on the back of a mare deprived of her eyes, and that the place to which she went should possess the sacred clods. So it was done: and the mare, entering on the road to the city of Ávila, arrived there, and going within the basilica of St. Vincent the martyr, treading on a stone with her forefoot, left the impressed iron shoe, and at once burst and poured out her bowels.
[7] The honours Then all the citizens, ecclesiastical and secular, given to him there. running up in crowds, venerated the body and honourably buried it in the same church, in which it was laid in the same place for some centuries, until Don Lorenzo de Otadui, bishop of Ávila, translated it into a more honourable altar skilfully wrought by him and composed with a notable image, where also today it is venerated and honoured by the surrounding townspeople and the citizens of Ávila, and the clerics of the basilica of St. Vincent, going to his altar every Saturday after vespers, sing a commemoration of him. In his honour afterwards Ferdinand III, surnamed the Saint, in the year MCCLII, granted in perpetuity the revenues of some towns; the text of which privilege Alfonso IX, his son, inserted in a confirmation of the same, and Alfonso X, his son, in the year MCCLXXX also strengthened it. And also Ferdinand IV, in the year MCCCII, granted other privileges. By the favour of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever.