Saint Turibius of Astorga

Santo Toribio – Toribio de Astorga

Santo Toribio de Astorga (Astorga, 402? – died there, 476), also known as Toribio de Liébana, was a Spanish Catholic churchman, Bishop of Astorga.

After selling all his possessions, Toribio travelled to Jerusalem, where he won the esteem of Patriarch Juvenal and was appointed chief sacristan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The circumstances under which he came into possession of several relics are unclear, most notably the Lignum Crucis, a fragment of the cross on which Jesus Christ died, although everything suggests he received them from Juvenal himself as a reward for his services. Legend also credits him with bringing the original image of the Virgen de La Encina berciana to El Bierzo (Provincia de León).

On his way to the Iberian Peninsula, he passed through Rome, where he met Pope Leo I the Great. There he was appointed archdeacon of Tuy, where he was later ordained a priest. A few years later, in 444, he was appointed Bishop of Astorga, from where he sent a letter to the Pope expressing his concern over the resurgence of a doctrine he believed extinct: Priscillianism. In response to this letter, Leo I charged him with holding a council, of which there is no historical record that it actually took place (some authors place it around the year 447), aiming to excommunicate any bishops who failed to condemn this heresy. This earned him the wrath of both the people and the clergy, to the point that he had to withdraw once again to Tuy.

Years later, he suffered persecution under Theodoric II and had to take refuge in the Asturian region of Monsacro. Back in Astorga, he died in the year 476. His remains were transferred around the 8th century to the Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana (Cantabria), along with the Lignum Crucis, in order to protect them from the Muslim advance.

His feast day is celebrated on 16 April.

Santo Toribio

See also:

Astorga

San Justo de la Vega