Spain not Christian until the Sixth Century?

On October 8, 2014, I encountered an article on TheBlaze.com by Oliver Darcy with the tag line, “Archeologists have discovered an artifact depicting Jesus that ‘forces us to rethink the history of Christian Spain’”.[1]  Intrigued, I opened the link and read that a glass plate, bearing an etching of a beardless Christ was found in Spain.  The plate was of Roman craftsmanship and the etching was Roman in style.  The interesting part of the article was that it claimed that historians now have to reevaluate their conclusions regarding when Christianity came to the Iberian Peninsula.  The plate indicates the presence of Christianity before the year 400 AD, not after 500 AD as historians assume.

            Two words I used to frequently say while still in grade school in the late ‘80’s were the first to force their way through my befuddled humor: “Well, duh!”  My second reaction was to wonder which historians the article might be referencing.  I was aware of the tradition that St. James the Apostle had preached in Spain and that Spain, as part of the Roman Empire would have received missionaries long before the western Empire fell.  Yet, these were assumptions.

            Might I have been misled?  The lives of the saints in the earliest years of the church are often unverifiable, and many accounts have been embellished.  The loss of records and libraries in the fifth and sixth centuries due to the barbarian invasions have contributed to an uncertainty about many details of the early church, and what remains often falls into the category of hearsay.

            We know St. Paul wanted to visit Spain.  In his epistle to the Romans, he says “When I shall begin to take my journey into Spain, I hope that as I pass, I shall see you,” (Rom 15:24 DOUAY).  There is a Spanish town on the Mediterranean coast called Santa Pola, near the island of Tabarca, which also used to be called Santa Pola.  Local legend claims that this island was where St. Paul first landed in his journey to Spain.  Yet, this is the only evidence that I could find about St. Paul, and this was only an unsupported legend mentioned in Wikipedia.[2]

            However, St. John Chrysostom believed that the great apostle landed in Spain, “For after he had been in Rome, he returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again into these parts, we know not.”[3]  St. Cyril of Jerusalem also stated that St. Paul “instructed even imperial Rome, and carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain.”[4]  Even with these two Fathers of the Church indicating that the Apostle of the Gentiles did reach Spain, there seems to be little corroborating evidence.  This is hearsay, possibly grounded in fact, but hearsay, nonetheless.

            But what about St. James?  The Spanish have believed that St. James preached in the Iberian Peninsula, and that his body is buried in Compestela.  Is there evidence for the missionary work of St. James?

            The Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org mentions this tradition, yet also presents imponderables about the story.  St. Paul, in the above mentioned Epistle to the Romans, just before he said that he was planning on going to Spain, had just said that he builds on no other man’s foundation.[5]  Yet this is not insurmountable for St. Paul went to Rome, even though St. Peter was there.  However, there is a problem with the dates of St. James’ martyrdom.  He was killed in 44 AD, and according to tradition, he had not yet left Jerusalem.[6]  There is also the fact the scholarship on this issue is divided.[7]  Thus it seems that the visits of St. Paul and St. James to Spain, while possible and even probable, are doubtful.  There is not enough corroborative evidence.  What, then, would be the earliest concrete evidence for Christianity in Spain?

            That evidence can be found in the lives of the saints.  The website Catholic Online mentions St. Torquatus and several companions who evangelized Spain and suffered martyrdom.[8]  Other saints are mentioned on the website Orthodox England, namely St. Geruntius, Bishop of Italica and St. Basil of Braga.[9]  The same website also lists over fifty Spanish martyrs from the second century.[10]   If Christianity was persecuted in Spain in the second century, indicating its presence, how did the idea that Spain did not receive Christianity until the sixth century arise?      

            There is one possibility, and that has to do with Arianism.  Fr. John Laux, in his book Church History, explains that Theophilius and Wulfila preached to the Goths.  However, these two missionaries were Arian, and thus when the Visigoths invaded Spain, they brought Arianism with them.[11]  It was not until the late sixth century that King Reccared I of the Visigothic kingdom of Spain converted to Nicean Christianity.[12]  This conversion, and the subsequent conversion of all of Spain, may be the source for the idea that Christianity did not reach Spain until the sixth century.

            While the accounts of St. James and St. Paul preaching in Spain are unsubstantiated, the presence of martyrs in the first and second century indicate that Christianity had entered the Iberian Peninsula at a much earlier date than the one assumed by the article on The Blaze.  The traditions surrounding the story of St. James are so strong, however, that to dismiss them completely would be a scholastic failing; and the fact that this article not only ignores the possibility of Apostolic missionary activity in Spain, but also the presence of martyrs on the Spanish soil indicates a lack of research.  I am still left with a question however: which historians was the article referencing, and how could these historians arrive at such an erroneous conclusion, and if it was because they did not research the topic, can they truly be called historians?

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[1] Oliver Darcy. “Archeologists have discovered an artifact depicting Jesus that ‘forces us to rethink the history of Christian Spain’” at The Blaze (8 October 2014) www.theblaze.com

[2] “Santa Pola”. Wikipedia. (21 March, 2014)

[3] St. John Chrysostom. “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume XIII/On Timothy, Titus, and Philemon/On 2 Timothy/2 Timothy 4:9-13” at Wikisource (25 December 2010) en.Wikisource.org

[4] St. John Chrysostom. “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VII/S. Cyril/Lecture17” at Wikisource (10 December 2010) §26

[5] Rom15:20

[6] Achille Camerlynck. "St. James the Greater." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. at New Advent (4 Mar. 2015) www.newadvent.org/cathen/08279b.htm.

[7] Camerlynck. “St. James the Greater”

[8] “St. Torquatus”. at Catholic Online (2015) www.catholic.org/saints

[9] “The Apostolic Age” Orthodox Europe Hispania Sancta :: The Saints of Spain at Orthodox England (2015) http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/oespain.htm

[10] “The Age of the Martyrs” Orthodox Europe Hispania Sancta :: The Saints of Spain at Orthodox England (2015) http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/oespain.htm

[11] Fr. John Laux, M.A. Church History (Rockford, Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. 1989) 176.

[12] Johann Peter Kirsch. "St. Hermengild." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. (4 Mar. 2015) www.newadvent.org/cathen/07276a.htm.