The Chronicon Iriense is a short Latin

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

 chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...

 of the Diocese of Iria Flavia, modern Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

, during the period beginning in 561 and ending in 982. It is usually found appended to the Historia Compostellana in medieval manuscripts, though it is also found in twelfth-century manuscripts that are otherwise in disagreement with the Historia. It may have been designed to complete the account of the diocese found in the Historia, but there is a school of thought which places its composition immediately after the last events it records, around 982, by the vengeful and recently deposed bishop Pelayo Rodríguez

Pelayo Rodríguez (bishop)

Pelayo Rodríguez was the Bishop of Iria Flavia . He was a son of the powerful magnate Rodrigo Velázquez and his wife Adosinda and is usually associated with the conflicts surrounding the accession of Vermudo II after a Galician rebellion in 982.-Episcopal election:There is disagreement in the...

, as both Justo Pérez de Urbel and M. R. García Álvarez believed.

The Chronicon begins with Andrew, bishop during the First Council of Braga

First Council of Braga

In the First Council of Braga of 561 eight bishops took part, and twenty-two decrees were promulgated, among others the following: that in the services of the church the same rite should be followed by all, and that on vigils and in solemn Masses the same lessons should be said by all; that bishops...

 in 561 and continues to the episcopate of Pedro Martínez de Monsoncio. It mentions the discovery of the purported body of James, son of Zebedee, during the episcopate of Theodomirus, during the reign of Alfonso II the Chaste

Alfonso II of Asturias

Alfonso II , called the Chaste, was the king of Asturias from 791 to his death, the son of Fruela I and the Basque Munia.He was born in Oviedo in 759 or 760. He was put under the guardianship of his aunt Adosinda after his father's death, but one tradition relates his being put in the monastery of...

, but it does not describe how the body was found. According to the Chronicon, Theodomirus became the first bishop of the new see of Santiago de Compostela in the days of Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 (called rex Franciae, king of France).

Editions

• In Juan de Ferreras, ed. Historia de España, XVI (Madrid: 1727)
• In Enrique Flórez
  Enrique Florez
  Enrique Flórez de Setién y Huidobro was a Spanish historian.Florez was born in Valladolid. At 15 years old, he entered the order of St Augustine. He subsequently became professor of theology at the University of Alcala, where he published a Cursus theologiae in five volumes...
  
  , ed. España Sagrada, XX (Madrid: 1765), 598–608.
• In M. R. García Álvarez, ed. "El Cronicón Iriense" (Madrid: 1963).