[309] St. Peter Pascual is a figure of mystery. The evidence for most of his story is a mare's-nest of surmise and critical problems; but no Valencian would forgive the omission of his story. The son of Mozarabs in Valencia, he left that city, shortly before the Christians attacked it, to study at the university of Paris. Some say he held a canonry at the cathedral of Valencia until 1250, resigning it at Rome to join (perhaps) the Mercedarians. He had a varied career as tutor to King James's son Sancho; then as assistant for nine years to the latter, who had become primate of Toledo; as writer of theologico-controversial tracts; and as preacher throughout the western Mediterranean from Tuscany to Andalusia. He was named bishop of Jaén in 1296, was snatched by the Moors into three years' captivity, and was beheaded at Granada. A careful reading of his works (assuming that they are genuine, and assuming also that he is not two different persons under the same name) yields no information on religious conditions in early Valencia.¹

St. Bernard Calvó is quite another case. His life is well documented and his connection with Valencia clear. Of knightly family, a jurist and a civil functionary at the episcopal curia or Tarragona, he became a Cistercian monk at Holy Crosses (1214) and subsequently abbot. he was elected bishop of Vich in 1233, went on crusade with his household in 1238, materially aided at the sieges of Burriana and Valencia, and was present with his troops at the first Mass in the central mosque of the fallen capital. He traveled again to Valencia in 1242, owned substantial grants in the new kingdom, and helped publish the Furs. He died in 1243.²

The Franciscan martyrs John and Peter, who came down from Teruel to die at Valencia city shortly before the crusade, were mentioned in Chapter XI.³ Another [310] set of pre-crusade martyrs, who also seem to have been venerated by the settlers of Valencia, were Bernard of Alcira, Mary, and Grace (Gracia). Bernard is supposed to have been a Moslem ambassador to King Alphonse II of Aragon, later becoming a Christian and a monk of Poblet. There is really very little reason for believing this story. What evidence can be gathered, suggesting some vague substance underlying the legend, has been enthusiastically but not too convincingly elaborated in the biography by Andrés Monzó Nogués.⁴ In 1262, a legacy of 21 solidi was left for the support of "St. Bernard of Alcira," by the son of the converted ex-king of Moslem Valencia. Today St. Bernard is venerated along the Júcar River, especially in Benifairó de Valldigna, and as the patron of Alcira and Carlet.

The Dominican Michael of Fabra, who was prominent at the Majorcan crusade, and who came on the Valencian crusade, was a founder of the influential Dominican community in Valencia city.⁵ He passed the preliminary phase of the canonization process, but is today relatively neglected. After his death, because of his reputation for holiness and because of luminous phenomena above his grave, his body was removed form the Dominican cemetery into the church, with due solemnities.

Jordán and other Augustinian authors tend on slender evidence to exalt the sanctity of the Augustinian Salelles or Serelles; it is difficult to take this sort of exercise seriously today. St. Peter Nolasco, whose connections with Valencia were recounted in Chapter XIII, is a universally known figure.⁶ A Catalan whose ideas were a powerful force in thirteenth-century Valencia was the celebrated St. Raymond of Penyafort. The same may be said perhaps for Blessed Raymond Lull; and it seems likely that Lull traveled in the new kingdom as a youngster.

King James, though surrounded by saintly in-laws (St. Ferdinand III of Castile, St. Louis IX of France), and proud of his relation to the recently deceased and canonized St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and of his granddaughter St. Elizabeth of Portugal,⁷ was unhappily far from being a saint himself -- though he had the privilege of being lengthily rebuked by one for that circumstance (the pope, Blessed Gregory X). A naïve descendant of the king was later (1634) to propagandize for the canonization of the old sinner. The king's abandoned wife, "the holy queen" Teresa, enjoyed a reputation for sanctity in the new kingdom of Valencia, where she lived and died.⁸

1. The available information is summed up by Ventura Pascual y Beltrán, though less critically than one might wish, in his "Recuerdos de un insigne mozárabe valenciano, su estatua, su casa, sus libros," ACCV, XII (1944), 82-97. See too R. Menéndez Pidal, "Sobre la bibliografía de San Pedro Pascual," BRAH, XLVI (1905), 259-266; Fidel Fita, "San Pedro Pascual, incidente bibliográfico," ibid., pp. 266-269; idem, "Once bulas de Bonifacio VIII inéditas y biográficas de San Pedro Pascual," BRAH, XX (1892), 32-61. There is a very complete though piously naïve biography of him by Pedro Armengol Valenzuela, Vida de S. Pedro Pascual, religioso de la Merced, obispo de Jaén, mártir glorioso de Cristo (Tome, 1901); and another life by Ramón Rodríguez de Gálvez, San Pedro Pascual, obispo de Jaén y mártir, estudios críticos (Jaén, 1903). Pedro Armengol Valenzuela has edited the works attributed to the saint, Obras de S. Pedro Pascual, mártir, obispo de Jaén, y religioso de la Merced, en su lengua original, con la traducción latina y algunas anotaciones, 4 vols. (Rome, 1905-190-8).

2. Diplomatari de Sant Bernat Calvó, with bibliography. Acta sanctorum, October, XII, 21-102. Honorio García, "Un santo en la conquista de Valencia," BSCC, XXV (1949), 69-75. J.M. Canivez, "Bernard Calvo," DHGE, VIII, cols. 766-767. José Ricart, San Bernardo Calvo (Barcelona, 1943), a brief biography.

3. See Chapter XI, note 3.

4. La Vall d'Alcalá y sus egregias figuras Ahmet ben Almançor, Çaida, y Çoraida (Carlet, Valencia, 1954), with full bibliography. Pedro Antonio Pérez Ruiz has a popular biography in his Glorias de Valencia, biografías de hijos inmortales del reino [series 2] (Valencia, 1955), pp. 25-37. There is a long dissertation on St. Bernard in Finestres, Poblet, II, 93-112.

5. See Chapter XI, notes 43, 44.

6. See Chapter XIII, notes 82-84 and text. For Serelles see Chapter XI, note 94.

7. James married the sister of St. Elizabeth (d. 1231) a few months after the canonization (1235); Elizabeth had been the wife of Ludwig, landgrave of Thuringia. St. Elizabeth of Portugal was the daughter of James's son, Prince Peter. She became queen of Portugal at the age of twelve; James I is said to have considered her a precocious saint even as a small child, and liked to keep her near him.

8. See Chapter XII, section 4, "Cistercian Nuns."