Tagilde, from the bishopric of Braga, is the Portuguese town where he was born. Due to the discretion that he showed since he was little, the Archbishop of Braga takes him under his roof, preparing him for the priesthood. Then, as he learned about his qualities, he entrusted the Abbey of San Pelayo to him. Gonzalo is very responsible and jealous of his sheephe tries to bring them closer to Jesus Christ with his works than with his sermons, for this reason he adopts a beggar’s clothes and, intensifying his penance, gives alms to the poor as much as he can get.
as he has a yearning to visit the Holy Places, leaves a nephew in the care of the Abbey and begins his dream pilgrimage. Full of gratitude and with many tears of regret, Gonzalo contemplates with admiration, looks pious, kisses with affection and venerates with respect what for the faith are monuments. In fact, time passes numbly in the rapture of him.
At the age of 14 he returns to take care of his sheep. The absence has been very long. The Abbey has changed. The shepherd he left behind has become a wolf. He has abandoned caring and dedicated himself to dispossession. Between binge eating, hunting, vices and vanities he has turned from servant to owner. Like so many. He does not obey his uncle’s requirements and even throws him out with violent threats, physically mistreating him. He already tried before to prove his death to secure the position.
the lawful abbot learned a lot in Palestine. He leaves humiliated and defeated. He walks around and happily preaches the Gospel; he builds a small hermitage and becomes a solitary praying hermit, preacher and counselor around Tamaca.
The Virgin takes him to spend a night in the monastery of Vimaroof the Dominicans. There he is accepted as religious, receives the habits, makes his vows, and edifies all with his piety, mortification, and holiness.
With the authorization of the prelate, he returned to the oratory of Amarante where he unlimited dedication to prayer, penance and apostolate until the end of his life burned in love for God and for the good of his brothers. He contracted a very serious illness and prepared to die like the best disciples of the Lord. He dies in the hands of the Virgin on January 10, 1260.
Apart are the “ornaments”. To the simple and noble figure of the saint, piety, affection or fantasy added unlikely notes, not at all necessary and impossible to verify by historical science, but which embellished in a marvelous and supernatural way, like a halo, the greatness of a faithful man. . It was time that added the winks that Gonzalo made to Jesus crucified while he suckled the breasts of his milkmaid when he was a baby; the chatter of the people commented on the apparitions he had of the Virgin and stretched them to make them frequent and almost continuous; the peasants devoted to the saint saw that the fish from the river jumped to the shore, offering themselves as food for those who preached Jesus Christ.
other saints today
Gregory X, pope; Nicanor, martyr; Agathon, Martian, presbyters; Aldo, Gonzalo, confessors; William, John the Good, Patrocinio and Domitian, Petronius, Maurilo, bishops; Pedro Urseolo, Gonzalo, monk; Aringa, virgin; Leonia Francisca de Sales Aviat, blessed.
Steps for canonization
Postulation: is the process by which the intention to propose a person as a saint is presented and made known. This process requires biographical data and testimonials.
God’s servant: initiation of the postulate within the process of beatification and declaration as a person linked to the Catholic Church.
Venerable: It is equivalent to a person worthy of esteem and honor. Associated with an exemplary life and prior to beatification.
Beatification: if the existence of a miracle related to the venerable is proven, he proceeds to beatification.
Canonization: if the blessed can be attributed a second (or more) miracles, he is canonized.