Feastday: April 16
Death: 528
Abbot and founder of the Spanish abbey of Liebana in Asturias. Turibius was probably consecrated as bishop. The abbey became a Benedictine stronghold in time.
Monastery founded by Turibius at Liébana
Saint Turibius of Liébana (fl. c. 530), also known as Turbius the Monk (Turibius Monachus, Toribio el Monje), was an early Benedictine monk. He was born probably in Turieno and spent most of his life in the region of Liébana. He received a letter full of praise from Bishop Montanus of Toledo in 527. In his preaching he condemned as heresy the Priscillianism still rampant in Spain. Around the middle of the century he and five companions took up the Benedictine habit and founded the monastery of Liébana, either the second or third oldest Benedictine establishment in Spain, dedicating it to Martin of Tours.
Turibius of Liébana has been conflated with Turibius of Astorga (died 460), also a saint, whose bones came to rest in the monastery the former Turibius had founded and where he also was buried.
According to the Chronicon attributed to Hauberto, a Benedictine Mozarab of the reign of Alfonso III of Asturias, but actually a forgery by Antonio Lupian Zapata, Turibius became Bishop of Palencia in 533. He was also said to have translated the body of Antoninus of Pamiers to the Cathedral of Palencia, thereafter named in his honour.
His feast day is 11 November, or 16 April in other calendars.
Notes
- ^ Jorge Loring, "El “Lignum Crucis” de Santo Toribio de Liébana", who cites Pedro Álvarez, El Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana y el Lignum Crucis (1995, ISBN 84-605-2539-2).
- ^ T. D. Kendrick, Saint James in Spain (University of Glasgow Press, 1960), 143.
- ^ Gregorio de Argaiz, Población eclesiástica de España y noticia de sus primeras honras: hallada en los escritos de S. Gregorio obispo de Granada y en el Chronicon de Hauberto, monge de S. Benito, (Melchor Sánchez, 1667), 68.
