Iberian Fathers, vol. 1
Overview
In this volume, The Fathers of the Church returns to the Christian Latin writers of the Iberian Peninsula, hitherto represented only by Orosius (Vol. 50) and Prudentius (Vols. 43, 52).
What is now Portugal embraces Braga, the sec-city of Martin, Pannonian-born missionary. While abbot of nearby Dumium, Martin had a pupil Paschasius, whose Questions and Answers of the Greek Fathers has never before been translated complete in any language. To what is now Spain belongs the third author in the volume, Leander, future bishop of Seville, where he was succeeded by his more famous and more prolific brother, Isidore. As with Paschasius, the works of Leander of Seville and of Martin of Braga are translated complete, many for the first time. The subjects range widely and include ethics (with the doctrine sometimes coming from Seneca or other pre-Christian writers), pastoral and ascetical theology, monastic discipline, liturgy, and the computation of the date of Easter.
For The Fathers of the Church series in its entirety, see Fathers of the Church Series (127 vols.).
Key Features
- Quality translation of the original Latin
- Provides insight into the teaching of these Spanish authors
- One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers
Top Highlights
“The blessed Antony used to say frequently: ‘If the baker did not cover the eyes of his animal at the mill, it would turn around and consume its own recompense. So we receive a veil through the dispensation of God, that we are unable to comprehend the good that we do, lest we consider ourselves blessed and thus become extolled and lose our reward. The reason for our being left with sordid thoughts is that we must concentrate on condemning ourselves and our thoughts; yet we must not allow the sordid things in us to obscure the small amount of good we have done. A man is never good, even if he wants to be good, unless God dwells in him, ‘for no one is good but God only.’1 We must therefore always truthfully criticize ourselves. When one does not reprehend himself, he loses his reward.’” (Pages 137–138)
About the Authors
Martin of Braga(520-580 AD) was an archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia, a missionary, a monastic founder, and an ecclesiastical author.
Leander of Seville was brother of St. Isidore of Seville and served as the Catholic Bishop of Seville. He caused the conversion to Catholicism of the Visigothic kings Hermengild and Reccared of Hispania.