Saint Fructuosus of Tarragona and Companions

Alban Butler calls Fructuosus "the zealous and truly apostolical bishop of Tarragon, then the capital city of Spain". ³ Almost nothing is known of him before his arrest. The Catholic Encyclopedia's article on Tarragona says that the first written testimony to the bishops of the see is the Acts of his martyrdom, so that its list of bishops begins with him, though others whose names are lost may have come before. ⁵

Those Acts are what the story rests on. Butler took his account "from his most valuable acts in Ruinart", the collection of early martyrs' records the Benedictine Theodore Ruinart published in 1689, and notes that Augustine quoted them and Prudentius put them into verse. ³⁶ What follows is told largely from Butler's version.

In 259, with the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus "raging", the governor Aemilianus sent soldiers to arrest the bishop. ³ They found him at home on Sunday, January 16, with his two deacons, Augurius and Eulogius. ³ The Catholic Encyclopedia says they were led into prison during the night. ⁴ Butler writes that Fructuosus was lying down on his bed and asked only for leave to put on his shoes, and then "cheerfully followed the guards". ³

They spent six days in prison. ³ Fructuosus prayed with the deacons, blessed the Christians who came to visit him, and on the Monday baptized a catechumen named Rogatianus in the jail. ³ On the Wednesday he kept the customary fast of the "stations", which in those days lasted until three in the afternoon. ³

On Friday, January 21, they were brought before the governor. ³⁴ In Butler's account Aemilianus asked Fructuosus whether he knew what the emperors had commanded. Fructuosus said he did not, "but that whatever they were, he was a Christian." ³ "The emperors," said Aemilianus, "command all to sacrifice to the gods." Fructuosus answered, "I adore one God, who made heaven and earth and all things therein." ³

"Do you not know that there are gods?" the governor asked. "No," said the bishop. ³ Aemilianus then turned to the deacons. Augurius answered in a few words that he worshiped the same almighty God. ³ When Eulogius was asked whether he did not worship Fructuosus, he replied, "I adore not Fructuosus, but the same God whom he adores." ³

Last, Aemilianus asked Fructuosus whether he was a bishop, and when he said that he was, told him to say instead that he "had been one", meaning, Butler explains, that he was about to lose his office with his life. ³ He condemned all three to be burned alive. ³⁴

Butler says even the pagans wept to see them led to the amphitheater, because they loved Fructuosus. ³ On the way the faithful offered the bishop a cup of wine, and he refused it: it was ten in the morning, and the Friday fast was kept until three. ³ He meant, Butler says, to end that day's fast "with the patriarchs and prophets in heaven". ³

At the amphitheater his lector, Augustalis, came to him in tears and asked to take off his shoes; Fructuosus said he could do it himself, and did. ³ A Christian soldier named Felix asked him to remember him in his prayers. Fructuosus answered aloud, "I am bound to pray for the whole Catholic church spread over the world from the east to the west." ³ Butler notes that Augustine praised the saying, taking it to mean that whoever stays within the Catholic Church shares in the martyr's prayers. ³ To Martial, one of his flock, who asked for a word for the church he was leaving, he said, "My brethren, the Lord will not leave you a flock without a pastor. He is faithful to his promises. Do not grieve for me. The hour of my suffering is short." ³ The current Roman Martyrology says that he prayed in a clear voice, before the faithful, for the peace of the Church. ¹

The sources tell the end in slightly different ways. ¹²³⁴ In Butler, the three were fastened to wooden stakes, but the fire at first burned only the cords on their hands, so that they were free to stretch out their arms in the form of a cross, and they died praying "before the fire had touched them". ³ The 1897 Martyrology says they were thrown into the fire and, when their bonds were burned, extended their arms in the form of a cross. ² The current Martyrology, translated from the Italian, says they were thrown into the flames and completed their martyrdom "praying on their knees". ¹ The Catholic Encyclopedia says they were burned alive and died "praying and with outstretched hands", and that this is how they are depicted. ⁴

Butler adds that two Christian servants of the governor, Babylas and Mygdone, saw the heavens open and the martyrs carried up with crowns on their heads. ³ That night the faithful put out the fire and took away the half-burned bodies, each carrying home a part, until, being "admonished from heaven", they brought them back and laid them in one tomb. ³

Their story was known well beyond Tarragona. The 1897 Martyrology notes that Saint Augustine preached to the people on their anniversary, and the Catholic Encyclopedia identifies the sermon as his Sermon 273. ²⁴ Butler calls it a "panegyric" and says the name of Fructuosus has always been famous in the Western Church, "especially in Spain and Africa". ³ The Spanish poet Prudentius celebrated the three martyrs in the sixth hymn of his Peristephanon, a book of poems in praise of the martyrs of Spain and Italy. ⁴⁶ The Catholic Encyclopedia's article on the Acts of the martyrs cautions that Prudentius allowed himself a poet's license with his material and is not always reliable. ⁶

None of the sources consulted for this page names a patronage for Fructuosus or his deacons, so none is given here. ¹²³⁴ He stands, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, at the head of the list of the bishops of Tarragona. ⁵

Saint Fructuosus and his deacons Augurius and Eulogius share one feast, on January 21, the day they died. ¹²³⁴ The current Roman Martyrology enters them at Tarragona, "in Nearer Spain", under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus. ¹ The 1897 Martyrology places them under Gallienus and records Augustine's sermon on their anniversary. ²

What survives of him is mostly his last six days, and they are ordinary in a way that makes them hard to forget. He asked to put on his shoes. In prison he baptized a catechumen and kept the Wednesday fast. ³ On the way to his death he refused a cup of wine because it was not yet three o'clock. ³

The answers at the trial are short. He was a Christian; he worshiped one God, maker of heaven and earth; there were no other gods. ³ His deacon Eulogius put the point most exactly when he was asked whether he worshiped his bishop: no, but the God his bishop worshiped. ³

His last words looked outward. He told a soldier that he had to pray for the whole Church from east to west, and told his own people not to grieve, because the Lord would not leave them without a shepherd. ³ Augustine thought the first saying worth dwelling on. ³ The second was a promise made by a man about to be burned, to a church that would have to go on without him.