La biografía cristiana entre realidad y retórica: El caso de Gaudencio de Brescia

Abstract

The Christian biography from its first centuries was primarily characterized by presenting the aspects that made its subject a holy man, which inescapably led to exaggerations and contrived accounts. This paper examines one of the first, if not the first, biographies from Northern Italy. It was written in the first decade of the 5th century by Gaudentius of Brescia to celebrate Filastrius, his predecessor in the episcopal seat. A detailed historical-philological analysis of this writing together with that of the work of Filastrius and other sources from the same period allow us to find out the historicity of his origins and biographical circumstances: his traveling preaching across broad territories, the fight against Arianism in the city of Milan and, finally, his undertaking in the definitive constitution of the Christian community in Brescia.