St. Hermenegild, Martyr Prince (6th Century), is recognized as 'the seed' which brought Spain into the bosom of Holy Mother Church.
Leovigild, King of the Visigoths in Spain, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who reigned conjointly with him. All three were Arians, but Prince Hermenegild married a zealous Catholic, Princess Indegundis, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France, and by her holy example, Hermenegild was converted to the true Faith. Here is illustrated yet another reason why France is known as the 'Eldest Daughter of the Church' - for through her intercession Spain became Catholic. Queen Goinswintha, Hermenegild's step-mother and Leovigild's second wife, did all she could to pressure Inegundis to embrace the Arian doctrine, but the young princess held fast to the truth.
Leovigild sent Hermenegild south to rule. It is there that he met St. Leander, the great bishop of Seville. Hermenegild accepted instruction in the Faith from him and was received by him into the Church (579 AD). St. Leander came from a very staunch and strong Catholic family. St. Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, is his best known brother. However a third brother, Fulgentius, was also made a bishop and subsequently canonized. Their sister, St. Florentina of Cartagena, was an abbess and directed forty convents and over one-thousand nuns. (St. Leander and St. Isidore are shown in the picture above, with Princess Inegundis kneeling at Bishop Leander's feet.)
On hearing the news that his son had accepted the faith of the despised (and defeated) Roman Empire, King Leovigild denounced him as a traitor, and marched to seize his person. Hermenegild was able to defend his lands and informed his father that he only wanted peace for the Iberian peninsula. Secretly, his father used 30,000 pieces of gold to traitorously employ a mercenary army of Byzantines to attack Hermenegild. The Catholic prince escaped a siege and fled to Cordova, yet the Byzantines imprisoned his wife and son.
Hermenegild tried to rally the Catholics of Spain in his defense, but they were too weak to make any stand, and, after a two years’ fruitless struggle, Hermenegild sought sanctuary in a church. His father refused to violate the sacred space. Recared spoke to his brother and convinced him to emerge on the assurance of a pardon. Once in the royal camp, Queen Goinswintha poisoned the king against his son. She insisted that a Catholic prince would always be a threat and potential traitor. Thus, his father had him chained and cast into a foul dungeon in Seville, Spain. Hermenegild was bribed and tortured in order to shake his faith, but instead, he wrote to his father and told him that he held the crown as nothing and preferred to lose his life and kingdom rather than betray the truth of God.
[column size="2-3" last="0"]In prison, Hermenegild began to despite the earthly, and ardently long for the heavenly, kingdom. He requested a hairshirt and by penance and prayer besought the aid of the omnipotent God.
On Easter night, an Arian bishop entered his cell, and promised him his father’s pardon if he would but receive Communion at his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejected the offer, and knelt with joy for his death-stroke. He was axed to death in the year of Our Lord 586. That same night a light streaming from his cell and sweet angelic music informed the Christians who were watching nearby that the martyr had won his crown, and was keeping his Easter with the Saints in glory.
Leovigild on his sick-bed, though still an Arian, bade his other son, Recared to seek out St. Leander, whom he had himself cruelly persecuted, in order to be received by St. Leander into the Church, after the example of Hermenegild. It seems Leovigild died with some repentance for his evil, but without the courage to profess the Catholic Faith for fear of his subjects. Prince Recared heeded the dying wish of his father, undoubtedly though the heavenly intercession of his martyred brother. St. Leander instructed Recared well and the prince converted. After his father’s death, King Recared labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. St. Gregory the Great, a personal friend of St. Leander, writes, “Nor is it to be wondered that Recared came thus to be a preacher of the true faith, seeing that he was brother of a martyr, whose merits did help him to bring so many into the lap of God’s Church.”[/column]
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The blood this royal martyr produce its fruit. Spain threw off the chains of the Arian heresy which had enslaved her. The Third Council of Toledo (589 AD) was overseen by St. Leander and helped complete the conversion begun by St. Hermenegild's vicarious sacrifice. There are few instances recorded in history of a whole nation rising up en masse to abjure heresy; but Spain did it. Shortly thereafter she was however put through the ordeal of the Saracen invasion.
Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644) composed the following hymn for the feast of the martyr:
Hymn: Regali Solio Fortis Iberiae
The royal throne of heroic Iberia
counts thee, Hermenegild, as one of its glories:
so, too, do the Martyrs, whose love of Christ
has numbered them among the Blessed of Heaven.
How courageously didst thou keep thy promised allegiance to God!
He was dear to thee above all things else;
and as to the dangerous pleasures of this world,
thou warily didst reject them.
Thou restrainedst the passions,
which excite and foster vice.
Thou marchedst onwards, with unfaltering step,
to where the path of truth directs.
Thy father's promises could not seduce thee.
The luxuries of a life of ease and wealth,
the glitter of diamonds, the prospect of a throne,
--they could not allure thee.
Thou wast not affrighted by the threat of a cruel death,
or by the executioner's merciless rage;
for the everlasting joys of Heaven
were dearer to thee than those of time.
Do thou now kindly protect us from thy heavenly throne,
and graciously receive the prayers we present to thee
whilst celebrating the palm
made thine by martyrdom.
To the Father, the Lord of all things, be eternal honor!
Let the Faithful assembled here in prayer, glorify the Son;
let them sing forth endless praise to the Holy Ghost.
Amen.