FULGENTIUS OF ÉCIJA, ST.

Bishop of Écija; b. Seville(?), Spain, c. 540–60; d. Écija(?), c. 619. He is one of four saints in an important Hispano-Roman family that had migrated, probably before his birth, from Byzantine-held Cartagena on the Mediterranean to Visigothic Seville on the Atlantic. He attended the Councils of Toledo (610) and Seville (619). His older brother, leander, in his De institutione virginum, advised their sister florentina to pray for Fulgentius, whom he had sent to Cartagena. His younger brother, isidore of seville, wrote the De officiis ecclesiasticis at his request (Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne, 217 v. 83:737). Certain Spanish Breviaries attribute to Fulgentius writings by Fulgentius of Ruspe and Fabius Planciades Fulgentius; but N. Antonio in 1696 and E. Flórez in 1753 refuted these claims. A like attribution that he was bishop of Cartagena seems to have arisen about 1330 when his relics were discovered near Guadalupe. In 1593 the relics were shared with the Escorial and the See of Cartagena, of which Fulgentius is patron saint. His cult in Spain is immemorial.

Feast: Jan. 16.

Bibliography: Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae ct mediae aetatis, 2 v. (Brussels 1898–1901; suppl. 1911) 2:4810. n. antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana vetus, 2 v. (Madrid 1788) 1:306–314. h. flÓrez, et al., España Sagrada (Madrid 1747–1957) 10:88–107. u. chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen–âge. Biobibliographie, 2 v. (2d. ed. Paris 1905–07) 1:1626. h. ward, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, ed. w. smith and h. wace, (London 1877–87) 2:584–585. Enciclopedia universal ilustrada Europeo-Americana, 70 v. (Barcelona 1908–30) 25:11. g. bardy, Catholicisme 4:1668–69.

[e. p. colbert]