Valerio of Bierzo (or Valerius of Bierzo; c. 630–c. 695Liz Herbert McAvoy, (2010), ''Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe'', page 93. Boydell & Brewer ) was an ascetic

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

and

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

from the

Bierzo El Bierzo (; ; gl, O Bierzo) is a ''comarca'' in the province of León, Spain. Its capital is the town of Ponferrada. Other major towns are Bembibre and Villafranca del Bierzo, the historical capital. The territory of El Bierzo includes m ...

region of

Visigothic Spain The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths ( la, Regnum Gothorum), was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to ...

. A number of his writings still survive, including three short autobiographical works in which he complains about his many sufferings.

Life

Valerio was a member of the

Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

ic aristocracy. In his writings Valerio describes how, after an eventful youth, he retired from the world seeking a more spiritual life. During one period he was a

at the Monastery of Compludo, but this he abandoned in favour of a "desert hermitage" outside the city of

Astorga, Spain Astorga () is a municipality and city of Spain located in the central area of the province of León, in the autonomous community of Castilla y León, southwest of the provincial capital. It is located in the transit between the Páramo Leonés ...

.Maribel Dietz, (2005), ''Wandering monks, virgins, and pilgrims: ascetic travel in the Mediterranean'', pages 183-4, Penn State Press After falling out with a local priest, some well-wishers built a church for him on an estate called Ebronanto where he lived as a

in a cell by the altar, receiving food and other supplies from the family owning the estate.Roger Collins, (2004), ''Visigothic Spain, 409-711'', page 201-2. Wiley-Blackwell However, the head of this estate, a man called Ricimer, pulled the church down and built a new one, apparently with the intent of employing Valerio as a priest. But Valerio saw this as an attack by the devil, intent on destroying his reclusive life, and he was only spared when the church fell down and killed Ricimer. Later in life he was joined in another hermitage by his nephew and a servant, and the three men built a small church on the hillside next to their cells. Valerio was connected in some way with the Abbey of San Pedro de Montes; he wrote for the monks there, and later writers mistakenly assumed that he had been

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

."Valerio of Bierzo" entry in ''

New Catholic Encyclopedia The ''New Catholic Encyclopedia'' (NCE) is a multi-volume reference work on Roman Catholic history and belief edited by the faculty of The Catholic University of America. The NCE was originally published by McGraw-Hill in 1967. A second edition, ...

'', (2003) An inscription, extant in the church of San Pedro, calls him "sanctus" (saint), which at that time was simply a title of honor.

Works

A number of short works by Valerio survive. These works include: three brief accounts of visions of the

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...

as seen by three monks; a summary of a journey to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

by the fourth-century ascetic Egeria;Roger Collins, (1995), ''Early medieval Spain: unity in diversity, 400-1000'', page 85. Palgrave Macmillan. some short works of monastic instruction; and a small body of poetry. Of particular historical value are three short autobiographical works which describe the difficulties and persecutions to which he was subjected at the hands of the local clergy and populace. These autobiographies particularly emphasize his sufferings, many of which he regarded as being directly inflicted by

the devil Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. ...

. One short

hagiographical A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...

work known as the ''Vita Fructuosi'' (''Life of

Fructuosus of Braga Fructuosus of Braga was the Bishop of Dumio and Archbishop of Braga, a great founder of monasteries, who died on 16 April 665. He was the son of a Visigothic ''dux'' in the region of Bierzo and at a young age accompanied his father on official t ...

''), was from the 16th to the mid 20th century wrongly thought to have been written by Valerio.Francis Clark, (2003), ''The "Gregorian" dialogues and the origins of Benedictine monasticism'', page 353. BRILL

Life

Works

Notes

Further reading

Translations

Studies