Martin of Braga
6th century Archbishop of Braga in Portugal
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Through Portugal, Missionary and Christianity
Life
Born in Pannonia, in Central Europe, Martin made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he became a monk. Around 550, he travelled by sea to Hispania and settled in Gallaecia. "His intentions in going to a place so remote by the standards of his own day are unknown," writes Roger Collins. Though some scholars have suggested that he was an agent of Byzantine diplomacy (owing to the coincidence between his date of travel and the beginnings of the Byzantine reconquest of parts of Visigothic south-eastern Hispania), and others have suggested he was sent to the Suevic court as a missionary, neither hypothesis is certain.
Nonetheless, his arrival in Gallaecia was historically significant, for he played an important role in converting the Suevi from their current Arian beliefs to the Chalcedonian Christianity. While there he founded several monasteries, the best known of which was at Dumium (modern-day Dume), established close to the Suevic capital at Braga. He became bishop of this monastic bishopric and attended the First Council of Braga in 561 in this capacity. He was subsequently raised to the status of metropolitan bishop of Braga some point before the Second Council of Braga, over which he presided in 572, near the end of his life. He played a central role in the reorganization of the church in the Suevic kingdom.
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De correctione rusticorum
In 572, the Second Council of Braga decreed that bishops are to call the people of their church together, so they may be converted to Christianity. After the council, a bishop named Polemius of Astorga wrote to Martin of Braga asking for advice on the conversion of rural pagans. Polemius was especially concerned about their perceived idolatry and sin. Martin's reply was a treatise in the form of a sermon, enclosed in his responding letter to Polemius.
Out of all of Martin's works, De correctione rusticorum (On the Reform of Rustics) is of particular interest to modern scholars. It contains both a detailed catalogue of sixth-century Iberian pagan practices, and an unusually tolerant approach to them by Martin. Alberto Ferreiro attributes Martin's acceptance to his classical education in the East, as well as the influence of philosophers like Seneca and Plato. Martin himself had avoided religious suppression by traveling to Dumium, in what is now Portugal. He had sailed east around 550, during the period when Justinian I was attempting to reunite the Later Roman Empire through consolidation of the empire's faith. In 529, Justinian had placed the Neoplatonic Academy under state control, effectively signifying the end of pagan philosophical teaching. Later, in 553, Origen was also anathematized, effectively crushing Origenism. The Codex Justinianus enforced Nicaean Christianity over all other rival doctrines. Martin may have chosen to flee east to avoid Rome's anti-intellectual policies, which possible explains his relatively gentle approach to the Suevi in Gallaecia.
Although Martin's training as a monk was based on the ascetic Desert Fathers of the Egyptian desert, he lessened their severe monastic regulations to aid the Iberians to adapt. When converting the Suevi, he avoided enforcing Catholicism, preferring persuasion over coercion. He also wrote his sermon in a deliberately rustic style, incorporating ungrammatical Latin constructions and local vulgarisms.
In his instructions, Martin objects to the astrological custom of naming the days of the week after gods (planets). Due to his influence Portuguese and Galician (which, at the time, were one single language), alone among the Romance languages, assumed names for the days from numbers and Catholic liturgy, rather than from pagan deities. Galician has largely returned to the earlier nomenclature.