Saint Amaro has been identified with Saint Maurus, disciple of Saint Benedict, who founded the first Benedictine monastery in France.
19 Facts About Saint Amaro
2.
Around the historical character of Saint Amaro converged many pagan traditions present in Asturias and Galicia related with Gaelic immrama and echtrai, like The Voyage of Mael Duin, The Voyage of the Ui Chorra, The Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riagla or The Voyage of Bran.
3.
An edition of the Life of Saint Amaro was published at Burgos in 1552.
4.
Saint Amaro's legend holds that Amaro was a noble Catholic from Asia who was obsessed with the idea of visiting the earthly paradise.
5.
Saint Amaro would have to build a boat and follow the path of the sun across the Atlantic Ocean.
6.
Saint Amaro took to the sea with some companions and sailed for six days and seven nights until he reached an island.
7.
Saint Amaro spent six months there until he heard a voice in his dreams telling him to depart the island.
8.
Saint Amaro sailed through the "Red Sea" until he reached the land of a beautiful fountain, where the people were beautiful and lived peaceful lives that lasted three hundred years.
9.
Saint Amaro remained there for three weeks until an old woman advised that he leave the island before he became accustomed to the good life.
10.
Saint Amaro was rescued by an apparition of a group of women, who advised him to empty his bottles of wine and oil into the sea, and then fill the bottles with air.
11.
Saint Amaro remained there, receiving further instructions on how to reach Paradise from a holy woman named Baralides.
12.
In Paradise, Saint Amaro found an enormous castle built from gems and precious metals, with battlements of gold and towers of rubies, walls made with multicolored bricks.
13.
Saint Amaro was allowed to do this, and saw many things, including the tree of life from which Adam ate; a primeval and eternal garden; enormous trees; birds whose song was so beautiful one could remain entranced by it for a thousand years; young musicians playing strange and unknown musical instruments; beautiful ladies adorned with a crown of flowers and dressed in white; the Virgin Mary, who accompanied these young ladies.
14.
Saint Amaro begged to be allowed in; the gatekeeper refused and informed him that during the saint's viewing of Paradise, three hundred years have passed.
15.
Saint Amaro returned to the coast to find his companions gone and a city named after him built there.
16.
Saint Amaro told the city's inhabitants his story and they built him a house alongside the monastery of Valdeflores, where he lived for a number of years until he died.
17.
Saint Amaro's cult was diffused in Portugal, where he is called Santo Amaro.
18.
Saint Amaro is venerated with an annual religious festival in the parish of Ponta Delgada.
19.
At Beja, the whitewashed church of Santo Saint Amaro is one of just four pre-Romanesque churches left in Portugal.