Saint Fructus

Saint Fructus—also called San Frutos, Frutos de Segovia, or San Frutto—was born at Segovia about the year 642 into a noble Christian family of deep faith, which local tradition links to Roman patrician stock. From youth he burned with love of God. After the early death of his parents he resolved, with his younger brother Valentine (Valentín) and sister Engratia (Engracia), to sell the family goods, distribute the proceeds among the needy, and leave the city for solitude amid the troubled times that closed the Visigothic age.

They chose the harsh rocky banks of the river Duratón, in the territory now called Carrascal del Río near Sepúlveda—the Hoces del Duratón. At first they dwelt in natural caves, then in separate hermitages far enough apart to guard silence, penance, and continual prayer. Fructus built a simple hut and lived in austerity; people came from afar seeking counsel and consolation, and he received Christian refugees when Muslim armies advanced after 711.

Tradition relates that when Moorish forces pressed to the very door of his hermitage, Fructus went out to meet them, sought to convert them, and with his staff drew a line across the rock, forbidding them to pass. The earth opened in a great cleft—still shown as La Cuchillada de San Frutos—and the attackers fled, leaving the hermit and those with him in peace. Other wonders are told of his life: fierce bulls tamed into oxen to haul stone for a sanctuary of the Virgin, and an aged proof of the Real Presence when a donkey knelt before a consecrated Host hidden in its fodder.

Fructus died a natural death in his hermitage in 715 at about seventy-three years of age and was buried there by his brother and sister. Valentine and Engratia later withdrew to Caballar, continuing the eremitical life until they were beheaded by Saracen forces. In the eleventh century the relics of the three were translated to the old cathedral of Segovia; later searches under Bishop Juan Arias Dávila recovered them, and Fructus's remains are now venerated in an urn behind the choir of Segovia Cathedral, while those of Valentine and Engratia are honored at Caballar. Benedictines of Silos received the site of his hermitage in 1076 and raised the Ermita de San Frutos. The three saints are patrons of Segovia and are commemorated on 25 October; pilgrims still keep the feast at the Duratón and the cathedral procession known as the Paso de la Hoja.

May Saint Fructus intercede for us, and may we imitate today his detachment and trust in God amid every trial.