The Church Fathers · c. 680–695
The Autobiographical Writings
Valerius of Bierzo · c. 630 – c. 695
What it is
A hermit of the Spanish mountains complains in the first person about everything: robbers, a rival priest who stole his congregation, the bishop who ignored him, being beaten and stripped, and the neighbours who would not leave him alone. He also copied out the pilgrimage of Egeria and so preserved it.
Why it lasted
The only sustained self-portrait between Augustine and the twelfth century, and an entirely unedifying one — a saint's life written by the saint, complaining. Egeria survives because he admired her.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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