Saint of the Day – 25 January – Saint Bretannion of Tomi (Died c380) Bishop, Confessor, Defender of the Faith against heresy. Born of Cappadocian origin, he occupied the See of Tomi from 360 until his death in c380 of natural causes. Also known as – Brittany, Vetranio, Vetranius, Bretannione.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Tomi in Scythia, St Bretannion, Bishop, who by his great sanctity and his zeal for the Catholic Faith, shone in the Church under the Arian Emperor Valens,. whom he opposed with fortitude.”
Bretannion lived in the 4th Century and was the Bishop of Tomi, today’s Constance in Romania, on the shores of the Black Sea.
According to the renowned Roman Lawyer and Historian, Sozomen (c400-c450), around the year 368, during the Roman campaign against the Goths in the Danube regions, Emperor Valens stopped in Tomi and spoke to the people gathered in front of the Cathedral to persuade them to betray theTrue Faith proclaimed by the Council of Nicaea.
In fact, it seems that this Emperor had made a personal decision to visit all the Diocese of the Empire, to convince all the faithful to embrace the Arian cause. Bishop Bretannion, however, placed himself at the head of the Clergy and the people of Tomi and all together they moved away from the Church where Emperor Valens was carrying out his heretical propaganda in favour of Arianism.
For this gesture the holy shepherd was exiled but thanks to the protest of the faithful and the fear of sedition in the border territory, the Emperor was induced to revoke the punishment against the Bishop.
Bretannion sent the body of the famous Martyr, Saint Sheba the Goth, who died in Romanian territory, to Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea, accompanying it with a letter from faithful Goths, aimed at illustrating the ‘Passio’ of the Saint, attributed to St Ulfilas “Apostle of the Goths”(c311-c380) but certainly written by Bretanion himself. It was accompanied by a personal letter to St Basil, to which St Basil replied thanking him.
Contradictory reports have been handed down regarding the possible participation in the Council of Constantinople, convened in 381. According to some sources, in fact, Tomi was represented, not by Bretannion, who had probably already died but, by the Bishop Gerontius whom we presume was his successor..
Cardinal Cesare Baronio, in compiling the Martyrologium Romanum, seems to have arbitrarily chosen the date of the commemoration of our Saint Bretannion as 25 January.
AnaStpaul 