Martin of Braga, Saint

MARTIN OF BRAGA, Saint. - He lived between c. 515 and 580, a native of Pannonia and a monk in Palestine. Having moved to Galicia, he founded a monastery at Dumio and then became the first bishop of that city, which became a diocesan see in 557, and later metropolitan of Braga before 572.

Through his literary activity M. is the link between East and West. The fruit of his Hellenistic formation, by then rare in that era and acquired by him in Palestine, is the version of 109 (110) sentences of the Fathers of Egypt (Aegyptiorum Patrum sententiae). Similarly a monk of Dumio, Pascasius, translated under M.'s direction another, more systematic anthology in 44 chapters under the title Verba seniorum or Interrogaciones et responsiones Aegyptiorum Patrum.

M. can be considered the first Spanish scholar of Seneca. Almost all of M.'s works are in large part a mosaic of sentences of the philosopher, who, however, is not named. Sometimes the names of Seneca and of M. have been confused in the manuscript tradition.

The three principal works of M. are: Formula vitae honestae, written at the request of King Miro (570-83), which is a compendium of natural ethics based on Plato's 4 cardinal virtues: prudentia, magnanimitas (fortitudo), continentia (temperantia), iustitia, and dedicated to the laity. According to Bickel's thesis, followed by all, in this work the substance is preserved of Seneca's no longer extant writing: De officiis. The De ira, dedicated to Witimir, bishop of Orense, is an extract of Seneca's work of the same name. Its content is expressed thus: « De fugienda ira, saltem, si id non eveniat, de lenienda disserui ». The three writings: Pro repellenda iactantia, De superbia and Exhortatio humilitatis form a group of purely Christian content inspired by the sentences of Scripture and under the influence of Cassian's Iustitutio coemborum. Of liturgical and canonical genre are: Capitula Martini, an anthology of canons of African, Eastern and Spanish councils; Epistula ad Bonifacium episcopum de trium mersione, interesting for the history of baptismal liturgy in Spain; perhaps also the reworking of the treatise De pascha, of uncertain origin, on the manner of establishing the date of Easter. Very characteristic is another opuscule, written at the request of Polemius, bishop of Astorga, as a sermon proper for the pastoral visits of bishops according to the prescriptions of the Second Council of Braga (572). De correzione rusticorum, in which the superstitions and remnants of paganism in the countryside are combated and the pagan names of the days of the week are condemned, a correction maintained to this day in the Portuguese language. M. also composed, though late and not so excellently, some poetic writings: In refectorio, In basilica and an Epitaphium for his own tomb.

Giuseppe Madoz