Braulio of Saragossa, Saint

BRAULIO OF SARAGOSSA, Saint. - Bishop of Saragossa, b. ca. 590, d. 651. From a distinguished Hispano-Roman family, he was educated at Saragossa in the monastery of St. Engratia; around 620 he went to Seville to the school directed by St. Isidore, with whom he formed a deep friendship. He encouraged and assisted him in the composition of the Etymologiae and, it seems, oversaw its edition (637), dividing it into 20 books. After Isidore's death he added to the De viris illustribus the catalogue of Isidore's own works and an enthusiastic eulogy. He succeeded his brother John in the bishopric of Saragossa (631) and soon became the most important member of the Spanish episcopate because of his learning. The letters, addressed to those who sought his advice, show his upright judgment, his discretion and an erudition surpassed by no one except St. Isidore. The intellectual movement of Visigothic Spain owes much to him, both for his personal works and for the studies he stimulated in every way, also having manuscripts copied and codices sought out. He took part in the IV, V and VI Councils of Toledo, shining for his canonical learning: in the last he compiled the famous letter of reply to Honorius I, who had accused the Spanish episcopate of softness and weakness toward the Jews. His cult arose and developed around the 13th-14th century.

He wrote the Life of St. Aemilian, printed many times, the so-called Smaragdus of Toledo, a hagiographic opuscule, numerous musical compositions and, perhaps, the Passio ss. innumerabilium Caesaraugustanorum martyrum. In the 18th century 44 letters of B. were discovered in a codex of León, published in España sagrada, XXX, Madrid 1775 and republished by Risco in 1859 (PL 80, coll. 649-700). A new, more accurate edition was made by J. Madoz, Epistolario de s. B. de Zaragoza, Madrid 1941, with an ancient 15th-century Spanish translation. Recently, however, Fr. M. Alamo (Rev. hist. eccles., 38 [1942], p. 417 ff.) raised serious doubts about the authenticity of part of these letters, which would have been composed in the 9th century to serve as models of style. In any case, those that are certainly authentic are an excellent source for reconstructing the personality of B. and the most important testimony for penetrating into the intimacy of the Visigothic Church of the first half of the 7th century. On B.'s contribution to the Mozarabic liturgy, cf. what Fr. Alamo hints at, ibid., p. 421.

Noemi Crostarosa Scipioni