Subj : =?UTF-8?Q?March_20th_=E2=80=93_St=2E_Martin=2C_Archbishop_of_Braga?=
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Mon Mar 19 2018 10:05:00

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

March 20th =E2=80=93 St. Martin, Archbishop of Braga
d. 579

ST. MARTIN OF BRAGA is said by St. Gregory of Tours to have surpassed
in learning all the scholars of his age, and the Christian poet
Fortunatus described him as having inherited the merits as well as the
name of St. Martin of Tours. His early history is uncertain. The story
that he was a native of Pannonia is possibly the mistake of some
scribe who confused him with St. Martin of Tours. He is said to have
made a pilgrimage to Palestine, and it was perhaps with returning
pilgrims that he made his way to Galicia in Spain. There the Suevi
held the mastery and had propagated Arian doctrines. St. Martin,
however, by his earnest preaching brought Galicia back to the Catholic
Church. He began by converting and instructing King Theodomir, and
subsequently reconciled many other Arians and lapsed Catholics. He
built several monasteries, the principal among which, Dumium, served
him as a centre for his missionary efforts.

The Suevian monarchs out of regard for him made Dumium the seat of a
bishopric (now Mondo=C3=B1edo), of which he became the first occupant, and
so closely did they attach Martin to their court that he was called
=E2=80=9Cthe Bishop of the Royal Family=E2=80=9D. Nevertheless he never rel=
axed his
own severe monastic rule of life, and maintained strict discipline in
the government of his monks. He was afterwards promoted to the see of
Braga, which made him metropolitan of the whole of Galicia, and he
held that dignity until his death.

Besides his main work as a missionary, St. Martin rendered great
service to the Church by his writings. The chief of these are a
collection of 84 canons, a Formula vitae honestae, written as a guide
to a good life at the request of King Miro, a description of
superstitious peasant customs entitled De correctione rusticorum, a
symposium of moral maxims, and a selection of the sayings of the
Egyptian solitaries. St. Martin died in 579 at his monastery at
Dumium, and his body was translated to Braga in 1606.

Our principal authorities are here Gregory of Tours and Venantius
Fortunatus. See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii; Florez, Espa=C3=B1a
Sagrada, vol. iv, pp. 1511-158 Gams, Kirchengeschichte Spaniens, vol.
ii, Pt 1, pp. 472-475. A cordial appreciation of the work and
scholarship of St. Martin of Braga may be found in the Cambridge
Medieval History, vol. iii, pp. 489-490. Prominence is also given to
him in Ebert's Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalter, vol. i, an=
d
ed. pp. 579-584. There is an account of his life in Martini Episcopi
Bracarensis Opera Omnia (1950), ed. C. W. Barlow.


Saint Quote:
Anxiety proceeds from an ill-regulated desire to be delivered from the
evil we experience, or to acquire the good to which we aspire;
nevertheless, nothing aggravates evil and hinders good so much as
anxiety and worry.
-- Saint Francis de Sales

Bible Quote:
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with
His stripes we are healed.   (Isaiah 53:5)


<><><><>
 God Alone Suffices!

I offer You, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on You;
my words: to have You for their theme;
my actions: to reflect my love for You;
my sufferings: to be endured for Your greater glory.

I want to do what You ask of me:
in the way You ask,
for as long as You ask,
because You ask it.
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