Tuesday, December 3, 2019

SAINT BRAULIO

St. Braulio
Braulio of Saragossa
Feast day: March 26
Patron: of Aragon
Birth: 590
Died in Saragossa, Spain, . 646-651

Saint Braulio, son of a Hispano-Roman bishop, Gregory of Osma, became a monk of Saint Engratia's monastery in Saragossa, in 610. He was sent to Seville to study under Saint Isidore, who became his close friend. In 624, he was ordained by Isidore, but the following year he returned to Saragossa. Braulio was ordained to the priesthood by his own brother, John, whom he succeeded to the see of Saragossa in 631.

Braulio was a learned bishop and important reformer of his time, who followed only Saint Isidore as the most influential and respected bishop in Spain. Like so many monks who became bishop, Braulio continued to live an austere life of prayer, almsgiving, and frequent preaching. He participated in the councils of Toledo in 633, 636, and 638, and helped to convert the Visigoths from Arianism to orthodoxy. He also answered Pope Honorius I's charge that the Spanish bishops had been unnecessarily lenient towards the Jews who had converted to Christianity but subsequently lapsed.

Also like Isidore, he was devoted to learning; a number of his letters are still extant, which show familiarity with classical authors of Roman antiquity, as well as his desire to extend his knowledge of Christian writers. He excelled chiefly as a hagiographer of the Spanish saints. It was Saint Braulio who convinced Isidore to undertake his encyclopedic work called Etymologies, and after Isidore's death he polished the book to its final form.

In 650, he became half blind and the same year. His cultus was almost immediately approved locally.

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