ON BL. BERENGAR, CONFESSOR OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS,
BISHOP-ELECT OF LLEIDA IN CATALONIA.
IN THE YEAR MCCLVI.
SYLLOGE.
The Blessed man's see, deeds, cult.
Berengar, of the Order of Preachers, bishop of Lleida, in Tarraconensian Spain. (B.)
BY J. B.
Ilerda, the most celebrated of the cities which the Ilergetes, a people of Tarraconensian Spain, inhabit, between the river Ebro and the Pyrenees mountains, is situated on the river Sicoris, Ilerda, already of old episcopal, called Segre by the natives, distant by an almost equal interval from Barcelona and Saragossa; it has obtained celebrity of name from many ages back through various wars, sieges and destructions. Frequent mention of it is made by Caesar in the Commentaries on the civil war; Ptolemy, book 2, Strabo, book 3, and other ancient writers likewise mention it. It has a very ancient episcopal see, suffragan to Tarragona. It must have been erected already from the times of Constantine, according to a certain division of Spain into its bishoprics ascribed to Constantine: but Flórez shows in tome 4, Tract. 3, of Sacred Spain that this is apocryphal. If faith is to be had in the Haubertine Catalogue of the Bishops of Spain, the first bishop of the Ilerdenses was Isicius in the year 203; but Nicolás Antonio, in the Old Library of Spain, book 6, chap. 22, betrays various errors of this fictitious Catalogue; and Ado and Usuard write that Isicius rested at Carcesum, and Maurolycus, Constantius Felicius and Galesinius teach that he was bishop there. Pseudo-Flavius Dexter, with Bivar as his interpreter, ties the beginning of that see to the year 268, in which he says that St. Licerius, first bishop of Caritum, transferred his see to Ilerda: but he seems to have been no other than Licerius, bishop of Couserans, who flourished in the sixth century, as was said in tome VI of August, page 45. Castellanus, in the topographical Table
of the universal Martyrology, writes that St. Caecilius was the first bishop of the Ilerdenses: yet in the Catalogue of the Saints, Caecilius of Ilerda being omitted, he mentions only St. Caecilius, first bishop of the Eliberitani: whence I suspect that Caecilius of Elvira has been confused by Castellanus with the one of Ilerda.
[2] a city of Catalonia More certainly, though less distinctly, the antiquity of the see of Ilerda is understood from the subscriptions of the councils celebrated in Spain. John Vasaeus, in the Chronicle of Spain at the year 525, has thus: In this year, that is, the XV of Theoderic the Younger, the council of Ilerda was celebrated on the eighth day before the Ides of August by eight bishops under Sergius, at that time bishop of that city. Cardinal de Aguirre treats of this council in tome 2 of the Councils of Spain, page 286, and although the title prefixed to the council has In the fifteenth year of King Theudured, or, as is read in other Mss., of Theoderic, he nevertheless contends that this council was celebrated in the year of the Spanish era 584, of Christ 546, namely in the XV year not of Theudured nor of Theoderic, but of King Theudis; and so it is said, he says, in the Lugo Ms. of the councils of Spain, plainly the most ancient of all the codices. But neither was Sergius bishop of Ilerda, but metropolitan of Tarragona; both because (says the same Aguirre) the canons of Barcelona have it so, and because this is also gathered from the words of the subscription with our brethren. Which is also clear from the eighth subscription, which has thus: Februarius, in the name of Christ bishop of the church of Ilerda, was present at these constitutions and subscribed. Further, that it is the same council of which Vasaeus and Aguirre treat is urged by the same place of the council, the same number of bishops, the same subscription of Sergius in the first place, the same month of August in which the council was celebrated, and finally the same day assigned by Aguirre in the margin. At the 1st council of Barcelona also, which, according to the most illustrious García Loaysa, was held about the year of the Lord 540, Andrew, bishop of Ilerda, was present: but if any of the prelates of Ilerda was present at more ancient ones, certainly the name of the see is not expressed.
[3] Towards the middle of the twelfth century Ilerda groaned under the yoke of the Moors, when Raymond, count of the Barcelonese and prince of Aragon, having wrested it from the Moors, received it into allegiance almost empty of citizens, and restored not only the city itself the Dominican Fathers are admitted about the year 1229, but also its episcopal see, William Pérez, bishop of Roda, being transferred to Ilerda, as Zurita witnesses at the year 1149, and Pierre de Marca, archbishop of Paris, in book 4 of the Marca Hispanica. Then in the thirteenth century, about the twenty-ninth year, the Dominican Fathers fixed a domicile at Ilerda, in which somewhat later Berengar de Peralta flourished with no common praise of holiness. The writers of the Dominican family lament that the illustrious deeds of Berengar, a few excepted, have escaped the knowledge of posterity, whether through the voracity of time or the negligence of their ancient writers. The more recent Dominicans have tried, so far as was possible, to repair this loss. Among those whose writings are at hand for us, first in order of writing is Francisco Diago, who, as Échard witnesses, spent almost his whole life in digging out old ruins and turning over the archives both of the Order and of the kingdom, sparing no labour, and leaving no journey unattempted for that cause. His work came out in the year 1599. Next follows Antonio Vicente Domenec in the History of the Saints of Catalonia, which, that he might publish it complete in all its parts, he is said to have travelled through Catalonia four times, and to have read and examined public instruments and more hidden archives. He died at Gerona in the year 1606, illustrious in life and death with the splendour of miracles; and his Work came out in the year 1602. So Échard in the Dominican Library. There follow John Michael Pio, Domenico Maria Marchese, bishop of Pozzuoli, and Jacques la Fon. What is read of Berengar in the authors already cited I touch on briefly.
[4] In the first place, what native soil fell to Berengar's lot to whom, having resigned his canonry at Ilerda, is not sufficiently clear. There is deep silence about it in Francisco Diago, describing the life of Berengar in book 2 of the History of the province of Aragon of the Order of Preachers, chap. 38. Michael Pio, in book 1 on the Illustrious Men of his Order, writes that he was born at Ilerda: but whence he drew this he does not set out. Marchese also and Jacques la Fon assert the same, the latter in the Year, the former in the Dominican Diary at the XXII day of November, but timidly. On the contrary, however, Domenec in book 2 on the Saints of Catalonia hands down most expressly that he was born at Monzón (it is a town of Aragon, on the side facing Catalonia). He was therefore a Spaniard by nation; whether a Catalan or an Aragonese I should not easily say, on account of the discrepant opinions of the aforesaid authors. However that may be, it is certain that Berengar was enrolled among the canons of Ilerda, and this is gathered from the instrument of a certain privilege formerly granted by the bishop and chapter of Ilerda to the convent, to which Berengar subscribed in the penultimate place among the canons in the year 1249 in these words: I, B. de Peralta, canon of Lleida, subscribe and set this sign. Marchese and la Fon write that he was endowed with a canonry when he had not yet passed the 15th year of his age; about which both Diago and Domenec are silent; of whom the former, both from tradition and from the cited instrument and from the death year of Berengar, namely 1256, does indeed hand down that Berengar was of little advanced age when he was elected successor to William Barberà, of the same family of St. Dominic, deceased bishop of Ilerda; but he makes no mention of the determinate year of the canonry taken up by him. Let the credit, therefore, rest with the said authors.
[5] Bl. Berengar, enrolled, Further, the same writers report that Berengar, from love of religious quiet and desire of higher perfection, having let go the canonical dignity and the revenues which he received from it, took the Dominican habit in the convent of Ilerda and professed the Rule, relying not only on ancient tradition but also on a writing of the archive of the see of Ilerda, in which Berengar, notary of the chapter, once asserted that this was contained. This new Alumnus of the Dominican institute soon made such progress in virtue that he was an object of admiration and at the same time of veneration not only to all Aragon, but also merited, by divine admonition, when he was only a deacon, to be substituted for Barberà, the deceased bishop of Ilerda. And they will have this to be the sequence of the election carried out. The votes of the canons (with whom that right was still in force) were divided in electing the bishop: assemblies were often convened, but to no purpose; namely the dissension of the electors hindered their desired outcome. Time was being worn away in these altercations, when at length, heaven being judge, the dispute was decided. For an angel appeared to them as they wrangled, and proclaimed that the infulae of Ilerda were to be conferred on Berengar. What has been narrated of the dissension of the canons they do not hand down as certain, but think it probable. Treating of it, Michael Pio cites Diago in the History of the province of Aragon, who, in book 2, chap. 38 of the praised History, seems in that matter to have lit the way most of all both for Michael Pio and for other more recent writers. For the rest, they say that the miraculous election of Berengar is received from ancient tradition, and is confirmed by a painting which is seen on the wall above his sepulchre and shows an angel bringing him the episcopal mitre.
[6] and, elected bishop of Ilerda, dies in the year 1256, The canons, to whom the virtue of Berengar was well known, obeyed the divine command not unwillingly. But he preferred rather to lack life than religious quiet. And so, turning to prayers, he began to beseech God that He would avert so heavy a burden from his shoulders: nor did the divine loving-kindness spurn the prayers of His Servant. For, not yet confirmed or consecrated in his dignity, he piously fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1256 on the 2nd day of October, as the epitaph inscribed on his tomb has it: In the year of the Lord MCCLVI, on the sixth day before the Nones of October, the passing of the venerable father the Lord Berengar de Peralta, elect of this most holy see. Whence I wonder that Michael Pio, in the Illustrious Men of his Order, part 1, chap. 38, and again in part 2, where he recounts the bishops of his Order, affixed the death day of Berengar not to the 2nd but to the X of October, the others protesting against it, and the sepulchral inscription itself, in which it is read in express words that he died on the sixth day before the Nones of October. But de Vienne, a priest of the third Order of St. Dominic, strays further from the truth when in the Dominican year written in French he writes thus at the XXVIII day of July: On this same day died Bl. F. Berengar de Peralta, alta, bishop of Ilerda, powerful in charity towards his neighbour and in lofty humility. They have left it attested to posterity that Berengar was also famous for frequent miracles, the memory of which, however, has perished, whether through the injury of the times or the carelessness of writers. The only one they bring forward in particular is drawn from Diago; namely that there was one of the bishops of Ilerda who wished to open Berengar's coffin, either for the sake of inspecting the body, or, as others will have it, of transferring it elsewhere; but that this could by no means be accomplished, so great an abundance of blood bursting forth that it spread itself over the front of the tomb (not over the face and vestments of the bishop, as la Fon wrongly translates), by which it was brought about that the veneration of Berengar among the people of Ilerda took no moderate increase. The tomb, moreover, says Marchese, retains to this very day the marks of the blood poured out.
[7] For the rest, that Berengar was held among the number of the Saints by the people of Ilerda from time immemorial, and he obtains ecclesiastical cult. and venerated as such, they prove by a threefold argument. The first is that, from the prodigy just mentioned having been wrought, incense began to be offered at his tomb by the deacon as often as it is offered at the principal altar. The second is that both an altar erected to his name and the title of Saint ascribed to him are read in a certain ancient charter, by which the vicar general of Romeus, bishop of the same see, and the whole chapter grant to John de Peralta, canon of Ilerda, the faculty that he may institute and endow in the said (cathedral) church a certain chaplaincy in and upon the altar or sepulchre of saint Berengar of the see of Lleida, with a double and an anniversary; which is read to have taken place in the year 1370 in Diago and Domenec, but erroneously; but in the year 1379 in Marchese and la Fon. The third, finally, is that in memory of Berengar a certain door of the same church called St. Berengar's is found in a certain receipt of the archive of the chapter of Ilerda of the year 1373, seen by Domenec: and that receipt treats of a supplication then held by the canons at the translation to the cloister of the church of the bones of Bl. Berengar, hitherto kept In that sarcophagus (the words are the receipt's) or monument which was outside the see towards the gate of saint Berengar. Ferrarius, in the general Catalogue of the Saints at the 2nd of October, mentions Berengar in these words: At Ilerda in Spain, of Bl. Berengar, bishop. He adds in the Notes: He passed from this life in the year MCCLVI, elected but not yet consecrated bishop. An altar erected to him is seen in the church of Ilerda. I do not add more martyrologists, since the others, at least those whom I have consulted, are silent about Berengar.