Ildefonsus, St

Ildefonsus, St.

archbishop of Toledo, was born in that city in 607. He studied under Isidore of Seville, became monk, then abbot of the convent, of Agli, near Toledo, and was finally made archbishop of his native city in 658. According to Julian of Toledo, Ildefonsus composed a large number of works, most of which, however, were left unfinished. The only writings supposed to be authentic that we now possess under his name are, De illibata b. Visginis virginitate (in the Biblioth. Patr., Lugd., 7): — two books, De cognitione baptismi et de itinere deserti quo pergitur post baptismum, a rule of faith and conduct for converts: — a continuation of Isidorus's De viris illustribus, beginning with Gregory the Great, and containing notices of thirteen other writers, mostly Spanish bishops (in Fabricius, Bibl. eccles. p. 60 sq.). One of his successors in the see of Toledo, St. Julian (680-690), added to this a Vita Ildefonsi Toletani, from which almost all our information concerning Ildefonsus is derived. Two letters of his, with answers by Quirinus bishop of Barcelona, are found in D'Achery, Spicil. The Adoptianists (q.v.), in the 8th century, quoted the writings of Eugenius, Ildejbnsus, Julianus, Toletance sedis antistites, as favoring their peculiar views (see Alcuin, Opp. 2, 568). See the Bollandists, Jan. 23rd; Gregorio Mavlns, Vida de S. Ildelfonso (Valentia, 1727, 12mo); Baronius, Annales, 667, No. 5, 6; Baillet, Vies des Saints, Jan. 23rd. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 6, 633; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, 25, 811 sq.; Neander, Ch. Hist. 3, 581.