FRUTTUOSO, saint, martyr. – Bishop of Tarragona, arrested on 16 January 250 together with the deacons Augurio and Eulogio, in application of the second edict of the Emperor Valerian, directed toward the extermination of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
They were kept in prison for 6 days, then on the 21st brought before the governor and, having refused to sacrifice, were burned in the amphitheatre. The Acts of the martyrdom, worthy of credence, read on the anniversary during Mass (St. Augustine, Serm. 273) and later rendered in verse by Prudence (Peristephanon, VI), were compiled by a contemporary using the proconsular record. Feast on 21 January.
FRUTTUOSO, saint. - Archbishop of Braga. Of royal lineage, he studied with Conancio, bishop of Palencia around 625. Having become a cleric, he withdrew into solitude; he had many disciples, for whom he founded the monastery of Compludo (León), the first of a federation of monasteries established in the mountains of Bierzo, in Galicia, and in northern Portugal. At the Tenth Council of Toledo, he was made archbishop of Braga (656). Until his death, around 665, he lived as a monk.
His spirit endured in two rules: the Regula monachorum and the Regula communis, in force in the monasteries of the northwest Iberian Peninsula for three centuries. The most original and characteristic elements of these rules derive from Germanic law. In the Regula communis, one finds the Pactum, a celebrated formula of religious profession. Though very severe in regular and penitential life, he was gentle in speech and character. His disciple was St. Valerio, to whom the Vita of F. is apparently owed. Of him, a letter to Recesvinto (MGH, Epist., III [Berlin 1892], pp. 688-89) and one to St. Braulio of Zaragoza (J. Madoz, Epistolario de Braulio de Zaragoza [Madrid 1941], pp. 186-89) are also preserved. Feast on 16 April.