The monastery of Agali, probably dedicated to

Saints Cosmas and Damian Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were ...

, was founded around 590/600 in the vicinity of

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

. It probably lay along the important road from Complutum to

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only durin ...

.García Moreno 1993, 186. Several of its monks became bishops of Toledo during the seventh century. Agali was one of the earliest sites of regular monasticism—"monastic communities following received rules"—in central, southern or western Spain, although such communities did exist prior to the late sixth century on the Mediterranean coast and in the northeast.Collins 2004, 153. In the rest of Spain there was "an older tradition of individual or family asceticism, represented by voluntary

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...

and the setting up of private monastic households". Regular monasticism seems to have been introduced by exiles from Africa, fleeing the Byzantine government's enforced resolution of the

Three Chapters controversy The Three-Chapter Controversy, a phase in the Chalcedonian controversy, was an attempt to reconcile the non-Chalcedonians of Syria and Egypt with Chalcedonian Christianity, following the failure of the Henotikon. The ''Three Chapters'' (, ''t ...

and the Berber raids precipitated by Byzantine military weakness. Agali may have been founded by African expatriates. Agali's second abbot, Helladius, became bishop of Toledo in 615, and was succeeded as abbot by

Justus Justus (died on 10 November between 627 and 631) was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. He was sent from Italy to England by Pope Gregory the Great, on a mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism, probably arriv ...

, a monk of Agali from childhood.Collins 2004, 167–68. In 633, Helladius returned to Agali to die. During his final days, he consecrated as a deacon the monk Ildefonsus, who subsequently became abbot and finally bishop in 657. Helladius was succeeded as bishop by Justus, who was succeeded as abbot by Richila. While bishop, Justus sent a now lost treatise to Richila, but its contents are unknown. In 636, Justus was succeeded by Eugenius II, another monk of Agali and student of Helladius, who had followed his teacher to Toledo in 615.

Notes

Sources

* Collins, Roger. ''Visigothic Spain, 409–711''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. *García Moreno, Luis A
"Los monjes y monasterios en las ciudades de las Españas tardorromanos y visigodas"
''Habis'' 24 (1993), 179–92. {{coord missing, Spain Christian monasteries established in the 6th century Christian monasteries in Spain