Braga is one of the oldest Portuguese cities and one of the oldest Christian cities in the world; founded during the roman era as Bracara Augusta, it has more than 2000 years of History as a City.
In the course of the centuries some legends, tales and myths were born.
Legend and celebration of Saint Gerardo’s Day
On the 5th of December, we celebrate Saint Gerardo’s Day, patron of the city and Braga’s first archbishop.
His chapel is located on the northern front of the Primary See. Between 1418 and 1467, the archbishop D. Fernando da Guerra, after Gerardo’s sanctification, dedicated the chapel to this archbishop, buried in the main altarpiece.
On the Saint Gerardo’s Day, the chapel is open showing altars decorated with fruits, instead of the traditional flowers. Such picturesque decor arises from a legend related with the saint archbishop: “S. Gerardo was very ill, at the gates of death, in Bornes, a cold land, in early December, trapped in the hut where he had taken refuge with his family and fleeing the snow which abundantly fell in those lands. In the ardours of the fever that consumed him, he asks one of his relatives to bring him a few pieces of fruit to quench the thirst and to breath some life into his weakened body.
However, his relative replied that in such place and in the cold winter time the trees were striped of leafs and fruits. One could find some chestnuts on the ground and nothing more.
Immediately Saint Gerardo replied:
- Go outside and look for it!
Then, through a crack in the door, through-where was freezing cold, the servant saw that the trees around the outside yard were filled with fruits.” Saint Gerardo’s Day celebrations: In this day the chapel of Saint Gerardo is open to the public.
