MARTINO di BRAGA, santo. – He lived approximately between 515 and 580, was a native of Pannonia, and became a monk in Palestine. Having gone 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, the metropolitan see of Braga before 572.
Through his literary activity, M. is the link between East and West. The fruit of his Hellenistic education, by then uncommon in that age and acquired by him in Palestine, is the translation of 109 (110) sayings of the Egyptian Fathers (Aegyptiorum Patrum sententiae). Similarly, a monk of Dumio, Pascasio, translated under M.’s direction another, more systematic anthology in 44 chapters, under the title Verba seniorum or Interrogaciones et responsiones Aegyptiorum Patrum.
M. may be regarded as the first Spanish scholar of Seneca. Almost all M.’s works are largely a mosaic of sayings by the philosopher, who is not, however, named. At times the names of Seneca and M. have been confused in the manuscript tradition.
M.’s three principal works are: Formula vitae honestae, written at the request of King Miro (570–83), which is a compendium of natural ethics based on Plato’s four cardinal virtues: prudentia, magnanimitas (fortitudo), continentia (temperantia), and iustitia, and dedicated to laymen. According to Bickel’s thesis, followed by everyone, this work preserves the substance of Seneca’s no longer extant writing De officiis. De ira, dedicated to Witimiro, bishop of Orense, is an extract from Seneca’s work of the same name. Its content is expressed as follows: « De fugienda ira, saltem, si id non eveniat, de lenienda disserui ». The three writings Pro repellenda iactantia, De superbia, and Exhortatio humilitatis form a unity of thoroughly Christian content, inspired by the sayings of Scripture and influenced by Cassian’s Iustitutio coemborum. The following are liturgical and canonical in character: Capitula Martini, an anthology of canons from African, Eastern, and Spanish councils; Epistula ad Bonifacium episcopum de trium mersione, of interest for the history of the baptismal liturgy in Spain; and perhaps also the reworking of the treatise De pascha, of uncertain origin, concerning the manner of determining the date of Easter. Another highly characteristic booklet is De correzione rusticorum, written at the request of Polemio, bishop of Astorga, as a sermon specifically intended for bishops’ pastoral visitations, in accordance with the prescriptions of the Second Council of Braga (572). It combats superstitions and remnants of paganism in the countryside and condemns the pagan names of the days of the week, a correction that is still preserved today in the Portuguese language. M. also composed, albeit late and not with great distinction, several poetic writings: In refectorio, In basilica, and an Epitaphium for his own tomb.