ON SAINT HERMENEGILD, KING AND MARTYR IN SPAIN,
IN THE YEAR 586.
LifeHermenegild, King and Martyr in Spain (Saint)
BHL Number: 3850
FROM MARIANA.
CHAPTER I.
The lineage of Saint Hermenegild, his marriage, his conversion to the Catholic faith. His parent's hatred.
Very many writers make mention of Saint Hermenegild, of whom more than sixty Tamajus Salazar cites in his Spanish Martyrology. Of these, the chief to us has seemed Juan de Mariana, in book five of De Rebus Hispaniae, whence we transcribe what follows, distributed by us into two chapters.
CHAPTER IX.
Athanagild, King of the Goths, having held the kingdom for fifteen years and six months, died at Toledo from disease, Athanagild the King being dead, in the year of Salvation 567: he begot from his wife Gosuinda two daughters; Galsuinda, wife of Chilperic, King of the Soissons; and Brunechild, younger born, who was joined in marriage to Sigibert, Chilperic's brother, King of the Mediomatrices.
CHAPTER XI.
[2] Athanagild being dead, Liuva, a powerful man and instructed in the use and knowledge of great affairs, Liuva is created King, and with him Leovigild; was announced King at Narbonne, where he had hitherto been conducting the affairs of Gothic Gaul. He, in the second year of his reign, appointed his brother Leovigild as consort of the kingdom, with power quite equalized, he himself being content with the dominion of Gothic Gaul, in which places he had long been accustomed. Leovigild had been enriched with twin offspring from his wife Theodosia: she was a daughter of Severian, Duke and Prefect of Carthaginian Province, from whom were born Saint Hermenegild and Recared, sister of Leander, Fulgentius, Isidore, and Florentina. The sons of Leovigild were Hermenegild and Recared. Theodosia having died, Leovigild had married Gosuinda, widow of Athanagild, at the time when he was summoned by his brother to the consortship of the kingdom. His brother Liuva died in Gaul in the year of Salvation 572, when he had reigned five years: some subtract two years from this number. …Leovigild, turning his mind to the state of the republic, and zealous to abolish the right of suffrage by which the Gothic nobles had hitherto been accustomed to create Kings, because he thought it greatly pertained to establishing in the family the succession of the kingdom, Kings are created by their father. declared his sons Hermenegild and Recared consorts of the kingdom with the territory tripartitely divided. Hermenegild was ordered to manage affairs at Seville (Gregory of Tours says at Merida): Leovigild himself fixed the seat of the kingdom at Toledo, whence that city began to be called the royal city, and became the seat of the Gothic kingdom hereafter, having previously been at Seville. Book 5 of the History, chapter 38
CHAPTER XII.
[3] Ingundis, daughter of Sigibert King of the Mediomatrices and of Brunechild, Saint Hermenegild's wife Ingundis, was joined in marriage to Hermenegild in the year of Salvation 579. By that marriage, since she was granddaughter of Gosuinda and Athanagild, the blood of both royal families was united: which King Leovigild was persuaded pertained not a little to the stability of the kingdom, if he should join the royal house of the Franks to himself by a new affinity. Sent from Gaul, by her grandmother Gosuinda with a royal retinue of nobles accompanying, her grandmother Gosuinda kept with her some time with marked signs of joy, omitting nothing of those things which seemed to pertain to conciliating her goodwill. Indeed, the shrewd woman was preparing to storm the maiden's mind with these blandishments, so that, the Catholic religion being forsaken, she might be brought over to the madness of Arius, with the bath of baptism, as was the custom among the Arians, renewed. When she refused to do this, she cannot be drawn to Arianism, once excusing herself as having been cleansed with Christian rite by the power of the holy bath, under the invocation of the Holy Trinity, which it was certain she would preserve inviolate to her last breath; the intemperate and wrathful woman, no more deformed in body (for she had lost the sight of one eye) than fierce in mind, not bearing the grief of repulse, it is said, in the heat of abuse and insults once seized the girl by her hair, and, dragging her along the ground, defiled her with the blood that was shaken out; again she cast her headlong into a pool below, with great danger of her life. By these injuries Ingundis not only did not change in any way from her constancy of mind; indeed by her diligence Hermenegild her husband is believed to have been recalled to the Catholic religion. by her and Saint Leander Saint Hermenegild is converted, The precepts of Leander, Bishop of Seville, formed the mind of the royal youth, inclined to the truth, to every part of true piety. An opportunity for teaching was provided by the departure of Leovigild his father to Hither Spain and even to the Carpetani. …and Hermenegild became plainly ours.
[4] From this change of religion a grave and long-lasting war was born: and to Leovigild's troubled mind, Leovigild, angered, the counsel of his son being known, Gosuinda was putting fire-brands with stepmotherly hatred: yet it pleased him to try everything before coming to arms. So, a legation having been sent, the father gave letters to his son after this pattern: reproaches Saint Hermenegild "I would have preferred, if through you it had been allowed, to discuss the whole matter face to face rather than through letters. For what would I not have obtained from you in person, whether commanding by royal authority, or correcting by paternal right? Certainly I would have recalled to memory benefits, which you have preferred to turn into mockery. From tender years, with perhaps excessive indulgence, I diligently nourished you in the hope of the kingdom of the Goths: when you were confirmed in age, the kingdom conferred; before you asked, greater things than you hoped for were conferred. I gave the scepter, that I might have a helper with authority; not that I should arm against me you and foreign nations with whom you prepare to enter into a league. By a new example I called you King, that content with the sharing of power, you should give the first parts to your father: and that at this turn of age you should be a support as well as a comfort to the old man. If there is anything you wish further, he accuses him of impiety and ambition, unfold it to your father; but if all things have been given to you beyond your age, beyond custom, beyond your merits; why, either ungratefully and impiously, or wickedly and cruelly, do you circumvent your father? Or was it a grievous thing to await the death of an old man? And were the few years that this age receives of so much value? Or did you envy the power shared with your brother? Concerning which it would have been fair to dispute with me as arbiter. But indeed the ambition of ruling violates all the laws of nature, and loosens those bonds which are bound by perpetual necessity. But you plead religion: in which I see you subverting not only human rights, he inveighs against the Catholic faith: but even divine, and provoking upon your head God's vengeance. Are you thus to depart at your own choice from that religion, by whose propagation the Gothic name has been increased, enlarged in wealth and power? Or are you to despise the authority of the ancestors, which ought to have been sacrosanct? The vanity of the new religion you could have considered especially from this, that it separates a son from a father, and weakens the names of highest charity with a hatred more than paternal and envy. I, Hermenegild, by the right of a father command; and for the age in which I am your senior, I counsel you: recall your mind to sobriety, and putting aside the desire for harmful things, be at rest: for thus pardon will easily be given for what has been done hitherto. If you refuse, and force me to take up arms, in vain shall you, when the matter is hopeless, implore paternal mercy."
[5] These letters were troublesome to Hermenegild, as was fitting: yet resolved to change nothing of his former opinion, he wrote back to this effect: "The threats and insults of your letters we have borne with an even mind: Saint Hermenegild responding, although provoked by no injury of ours, you could have restrained the freedom of your tongue. For your benefits, which I also perceive to be greater than my deserts, I desire sometime to repay an equal gratitude: to show to the utmost breath of life the tenor of observance, due to you, proper to me. As for the sounder religion, he praises the benefits, which you for the cause of envy call new, the embracing of it is counseled by the judgment of the world
we were following, supported moreover by many safeguards. he confesses the religion he has received, About the truth I do not dispute: I grant anyone free judgment on that matter, provided the same is given to us. You ascribe the happiness of the Gothic nation to Arian superstition—being ignorant, namely, that God is accustomed, in order that they should grieve more gravely by the change of fortune, those whom for their crime He prepares to punish, to grant sometimes more favorable circumstances and impunity: not certainly constant and perpetual: which the outcome of the Vandals and Ostrogoths in a similar cause declares. But if you are angered that I have dared to change religion without consulting you, grant me to grieve that not even this is allowed by you, that I should hold my salvation more important than all other things: for which, if matters should require, ready to pour out his blood for it. I am ready to pour out my blood and life: nor is it lawful for a father to have more power than divine laws and conscience. I pray to God that your counsels may be salutary to the republic, not destructive to us your sons. You take care, lest by lending ear to malicious accusations you commit that from which you may prepare for yourself grief for your whole life, and infamy for our name and race to posterity, equal to both the vanquished and the victors."
CHAPTER II.
The war waged by his father Leovigild. The captivity and Martyrdom of Saint Hermenegild.
[6] The loyalties of the kingdom were divided between father and son: the Catholics, of whom there was a great number, better in cause but unequal in forces, followed Hermenegild openly or by wish: with greater power, the Arians, the parts of Leovigild. Book 5, ch. 38 Gregory of Tours says that Hermenegild, having had his forehead anointed with the sacred chrism (this was the rite for receiving Arians into the Church), changed his old appellation to the name of John: He does not seem to have taken the name John, but the gold coins resist, struck in the very heat of war (so that they might serve as a military password), of outstanding purity, expressing the name and face of Hermenegild on one side, on the other the sign of victory with these words added: "HOMO REGEM DEVITA" (Man, shun the King). He was alluding, namely, to the sentence of Paul: "A heretical man, after one and a second admonition, is to be shunned." …
[7] The beginnings of the war fell in the year of Salvation 580. Seville and Córdoba were fortified and provisioned, whether the war was to be prolonged, or the evils of a siege to be borne. The Roman Dukes were conciliated by a pact: The Romans drawn into league by Saint Hermenegild, Hermenegild's wife and newborn son were left in their power, that they might be hostages of the given pledge; and if anything graver should befall, he wished to keep them furthest from the danger of war. On the other hand, Leovigild, considering his son's unconquered mind, broken neither by fear nor bent by promises, such that he should give ear to his father admonishing, turned his mind to arms and force. First the Romans, bribed by gold, they cross over to Leovigild: who were siding with the son with lightly founded fidelity, were conciliated to Leovigild with a great weight of gold. Mercenary men by nature, and those whose fidelity hung from fortune, wherever a better hope appeared, they inclined to that side, with no distinction of honorable and dishonorable. Then between the Catholics and Arians, whose disagreement on religion was known to have excited the war, a certain appearance of concord was devised. A council of the Arian Prelates was held at Toledo by Leovigild's command: with the Arians deceitfully asserting the Son equal to the Father. in that council was abolished the custom of rebaptizing familiar to the Arians, when Catholics had crossed over to their sect: that the Son was equal to the Father, about which so long there had been dispute, was sanctioned verbally, while they retained in their minds the poison of perverse opinion conceived. By the pretense of words the minds of many were circumvented, as if the cause of the dissension had been removed, Deceived, the Catholics abandon arms: either being drawn away openly from Hermenegild, or defending the best cause with more coolness than they had done. Many, doubtful in the double peril, and accustomed to have time and fortune in counsel, preferred to be spectators of the war, rather than to mingle the crisis of their own affairs with the outcome of others' fortunes. In accomplishing these things three years were consumed.
[8] Saint Hermenegild is besieged at Seville, Leovigild, with great levies being made in all his dominion, moving against his son, penetrated with sword to extreme Baetica. Seville was surrounded: there was little hope that the besieged would willingly do anything, their minds having been pre-occupied by Hermenegild and the Bishop Leander; it was decided to apply force and fear. This city is washed by the river Baetis, capable of great ships: to prevent transports, intercepting provisions, it was decided to divert the course of that river and turn it elsewhere. That undertaking was a great labor and a work of many days. Therefore at the fourth milestone above Seville, the walls of Old Italica were restored, as the ruins of ancient magnificence are witness: and a convenient seat was being sought for the war, which they were persuaded would be long-lasting. In our time there is a monastery in those places in the name of Saint Isidore. Myro the Sueve, although he differed in doctrines about religion, being joined with his forces to Leovigild, is believed to have paid the penalty for so great a crime with death, having died at the very time of the siege, with his son Eboric as successor. Gregory of Tours says Myro followed the side of Hermenegild: and when the war was at last finished, when he had made a treaty with Leovigild, he died in his homeland a little after; his health having been broken by the nature of the places, where intent on war he had stuck, and the unwholesomeness of the waters. Let us return to Seville, where, the Baetis being diverted, they labored with great and supreme difficulty in provisions. he slips down to the Romans, Hermenegild, after a year's siege, despairing of defense, secretly slipped away to the Romans: he was ignorant, namely, that they had been corrupted by his father's gold. By the surrender of the citizens Seville immediately came into Leovigild's power, in the year of Salvation 586.
[9] Equally, a few days after, the young King was captured by his father: he flees to Córdoba, whether by the treachery of the Cordovans, who were eager to procure the infamy and blame of defection for the calamity of the innocent procurer, when he had betaken himself there, fearing the venal faith of the Romans? Or, as Gregory of Tours is the author, to the town of Ossetum, where the baptismal fonts every year were demonstrated to have been accustomed to fill spontaneously? or to Ossetum, Trusting in the fortification and holiness of the place, Hermenegild had betaken himself there with three hundred chosen soldiers: and he hoped that his father, if he prepared to use force, could be surrounded and overwhelmed from behind and in front (for the rest of the forces were approaching near). and being captured there On the contrary it fell out. The plan of the son being explored (as nothing can be hidden in internal discord) his shrewd father crushed his attempts. With great speed the town was taken and marred with fire. Hermenegild himself, to the temple, destitute of all hope, fled to a church, to see if perhaps with his father's anger subsiding he might obtain pardon with a period of delay. Recared was following Leovigild's camps, a son younger in age, but equal to his brother in disposition of mind and prudence. He with his father's permission, a meeting with him having been made by his brother, was admitted into the church, is visited by his brother Recared: and for some time, with the force of tears closing his voice, he silently stopped: then, "It is soft of mind," he said, "to grieve at the fall of one's own, and to apply no remedy to grief except tears. I judge your calamity ours: for what can be separate between brothers and father? Nor do I blame your attempts from zeal for the religion you had received: although what just cause could there be for moving arms against your father? Nor indeed shall I accuse the counsels of those by whom you were led into deceit: it is easier to lament things past than to correct them. This was, this was the calamity of these times, and the fatal dissension with the minds of the provincials being divided: while either party sought a safeguard in our family, we have both plainly fallen. he persuades that he implore his father's mercy. It remains to recall minds to concord: certainly to provide and ensure, lest enemies exult further in the ruins of our house, which would that it had been pleasing while matters were whole: but it is better to have recourse to paternal mercy, and most eagerly to ask pardon of deeds, than to perish in obstinacy and arrogance. Let the condition of both fortunes admonish, lest you prefer contumacy with ruin to obedience with security. Remember this: when matters are prostrate, counsel is needed; an impulse of mind will then be both vain and deadly. I, if you do willingly what is necessary, receive your father for you appeased: certainly with royal honor retained, you shall expiate the fault with a moderate punishment." To these words the religion of an oath was added.
[10] The father being summoned, the grieving youth, prostrating himself at his knees, was received with a kiss in pretense of pardon, Captured and his mind having been soothed by flattering words, was led into the camp: soon, with his royal insignia torn off, he was sent to Seville into custody (Biclarensis says he was exiled to Valencia, killed at Tarragona). At Seville there is shown at that gate which takes its name from Córdoba, the tower famous for the custody of Hermenegild, horrid with the height of the place, with narrowness, and with darkness. he is shut in prison: In it, bound with his hands tied to his neck, he is related to have been kept. To the squalor of the prison, the harshness of food and clothing, he himself added the garment of a hair shirt, which even on his bed he used in place of coverings, his mind fixed in the contemplation of divine things, sighing for heaven, whither he hoped he would go as soon as possible. The feast of Easter, joyful with the memory of Christ God returning to life, had come, and fell on the 14th day of April in the year 586 from Christ's birth; which is understood by certain calculation, although some subtract two years from this number of years. Biclarensis certainly relates that Hermenegild was slain in the third year of the Emperor Maurice. Leovigild, solicitous about his son, refusing the Eucharist he is killed by an Arian Bishop. sends in the middle of the night a certain Arian Bishop, to give the Christian feast to the prisoner according to custom. When he, chastised by the contumely of his words, had repelled him from himself, he so exacerbated his father's mind (who interpreted that injury as pertaining to himself) that, Sisbert the executioner being immediately sent, he ordered him to be struck with an axe. The mind shudders and is held fast at the image of such cruelty. In Hermenegild there were simplicity and freedom: which, unless moderation be present, turn to destruction. …At this time Pelagius II held the Roman Church: Pelagius' Successor Gregory, surnamed the Great, described with fresh memory the death and cause of death of Hermenegild.
CHAPTER III.
History of the martyrdom of Hermenegild related by Saint Gregory the Great in book III of the Dialogues, chapter XXXI.
[11] "As we have learned from the account of many who come from the parts of the Spains, Converted to the faith by Saint Leander, recently King Hermenegild, son of Leovigild King of the Visigoths, was converted from the Arian heresy to the Catholic faith by the preaching of the most reverend man Leander, Bishop of Seville, long familiarly joined to me in friendship. Whom his Arian father tried both to persuade with gifts and to terrify with threats, to return to the same heresy. And when he most constantly answered that he could never relinquish the true faith which he had once recognized, his father, angered, deprived him of the kingdom and stripped him of all things. And when he had not been able thus to soften the virtue of his mind, shutting him up in close custody, he is shut in prison by his father, he bound his neck and hands with iron. Therefore the same King Hermenegild the young man began to despise his earthly kingdom, and with strong desire seeking the heavenly one, lying bound in hair shirts, to pour forth prayers to almighty God to strengthen him; and to despise the glory of the passing world the more loftily, the more he had recognized, even bound, that it was nothing that could be taken away.
[12] "Now, with the day of the feast of Easter coming on, in the silence of the dead of night, he refuses the communion of the Arian Bishop: his faithless father sent to him an Arian Bishop, that from his hand he might receive the communion of the sacrilegious consecration, and
through this might deserve to return to his father's favor. But the man devoted to God rebuked the Arian Bishop coming to him as he ought, and repelled his perfidy from himself with worthy rebukes: he is killed in prison: for though outwardly he lay bound, yet within himself he stood secure on a great height of mind. When therefore the Bishop had returned to himself, his Arian father roared; and immediately sent his officers, who should kill the most constant Confessor of God there where he lay: which also was done. For as soon as they had entered, he shines with miracles: driving an axe into his brain, they took away the life of his body: and they succeeded in killing in him that which he himself who was killed had resolved to despise. But for the showing of his true glory, there also were not lacking supernal miracles. For in the nocturnal silence the chant of psalmody began to be heard by the body of the same King and Martyr: and therefore truly of a King, because also of a Martyr. Some also report that lamps lit up appeared there at night: whence also it was brought about that his body, as of a Martyr, ought by right to be venerated by all the faithful. But his faithless and parricidal father, moved to penitence, grieved that he had done this, yet not to the point of obtaining salvation. Commended to Saint Leander For he recognized that the Catholic faith was true: but struck with fear of his nation, he did not deserve to attain it. He, falling into sickness, was brought to the extreme; and he took care to commend to Leander the Bishop, whom he had previously greatly afflicted, his son King Recared, whom he had left in his heresy; that in him too he might do such things as in his brother he had done by his exhortations. This commendation accomplished, he died.
[13] King Recared, from Arian becomes Catholic, After whose death King Recared, not following his faithless father, but his Martyr brother, was converted from the depravity of Arian heresy. He also led the whole nation of the Visigoths to the true faith, so that he permitted none to serve in his kingdom who did not fear to stand as an enemy of the kingdom of God through heretical depravity. Nor is it a wonder that he became a preacher of true faith, who is a brother of a Martyr: whose merits also help him, so that he should bring back so many to the bosom of almighty God. In which matter it must be considered by us that all this could by no means be accomplished, if King Hermenegild had not died for the truth. For, as it is written: 'Unless a grain of wheat falling to the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.' John 12:24 This we see happening in the members, which we know was done in the head: for in the nation of the Visigoths one died, that many might live; and while one grain faithfully fell for the obtaining of faith, a great crop of souls arose."
CHAPTER IV.
Analecta from various sources. The year and day of the martyrdom; sacred cult, relics, and temples dedicated to him.
BY G. H.
[14] Leander, Bishop of Seville, who is greatly praised by Saint Gregory, and who according to Juan de Mariana and other recent writers is reckoned as the maternal uncle of Saint Hermenegild, is in great veneration among the Spaniards; and his natal day is held on March 13, when we have treated of him, Crowned with martyrdom on April 13 and in §2 we have traced the conversion of Saint Hermenegild and of his brother King Recared with the people of the Goths: and we together have established that Saint Hermenegild was killed on the Vigil of Easter, on April 13, at least during the night preceding the Paschal feast, since on the previous night he had refused the communion of the sacrilegious consecration offered by the Arian Bishop. The year is 586, in which with the Moon cycle 16, the Sun cycle 6, in the year 586. and Dominical letter G, Easter of the Lord's Resurrection fell on April 14. We wonder that it is written by Mariana that the memory of the Martyr is venerated in Spain everywhere on the 18th day before the Kalends of May, that is April 14, which we have hitherto found in no Breviary or Missal, even more ancient. In the Vatican Martyrology manuscript of the Church of Saint Peter his memory is referred to April 15. In the Missale Mixtum, he is venerated in Spain and Portugal: according to the order of the holy Church of Toledo printed in the year 1551, his feast is prescribed on the very Ides of April, with an office of 9 Lessons; which is indicated in the proper offices of the said Church of Toledo printed at Madrid in the year 1607, as to be celebrated under a double rite. The same is observed in other Churches of the Spains, as also among the Portuguese: which the Breviary of Évora printed in the year 1548 testifies, and the proper Offices of the Churches of Lisbon and Coimbra, approved by Sixtus V and Gregory XIII. The Lessons of the second Nocturn are prescribed from the above-related Dialogues of Saint Gregory, the rest are taken from the Common of one Martyr, besides this Prayer: "O God, for whose name Blessed Hermenegild, King and Martyr, fell at the hands of the impious; grant, we beseech, that by his intercessions we may be freed from all perils." And Lucas Castellius, Procurator General of the Order of Preachers, testifies in the book which he published at Rome in 1628, On the Certitude of the Glory of the Canonized, p. 438, that Pope Sixtus V, at the instance of Philip II King of Spain, by Apostolic bull conceded, on February 12, 1585, that in honor of this glorious Martyr his feast might be celebrated in all Spain. Which cult at last became common to the whole Catholic Church under Urban VIII, and the whole Church. when an office to be performed with the rite of a semidouble was inserted in the Roman Breviary with new and proper hymns; where for the 2nd Nocturn, divided into three Lessons, are held what we have given above from the Dialogues of Saint Gregory.
[15] On the same day of April 13 the memory of Saint Hermenegild is inserted into the principal Martyrologies. inscribed in the Martyrologies: Wandelbert in his metrical Martyrology, under the Emperor Lothair about the year 850, wrote these words:
"On the Ides, Hermenegild, kindly King, enduring thy raging father, Thou bearest back a true triumph from death."
In the same century flourished Usuard, Ado, and Notker, who edited on April 13 their elogiums drawn from Saint Gregory. Usuard's words are these: "In Spain, of Saint Hermenegild the King, who for the confession of the Catholic faith, struck on the head with an axe, entered the heavenly kingdom for the earthly, a King and Martyr." The said Ado and Notker have more, and with them the author of the pseudo-Bede: later Martyrologists followed, Bellinus, Maurolicus, Felicius, Galesinius, Canisius, and many others. In the Roman Martyrology these things are read: "At Seville in Spain, of Saint Hermenegild, son of Leovigild, King of the Arian Visigoths: who, for the confession of the Catholic faith cast into prison, when on the solemnity of Easter he had refused to receive communion from an Arian Bishop, by the command of his faithless father was struck with an axe, a King and Martyr, he entered the heavenly kingdom for the earthly." In the same way those who have edited some Acts of the Saints and by writers of Lives of the Saints: celebrate on this April 13 the solemnity of Saint Hermenegild, among whom are Petrus de Natalibus in book 4 of the Catalogus, ch. 48; Thomas de Trujillo in volume 2 of the Thesaurus Concionatorum; Johannes Basilius Sanctorius, Alphonsus Villegas, Petrus Ribadeneira in the Flores Sanctorum, Johannes de Marieta, Tamajus Salazar, Jorge Cardoso, Laurentius Surius, and others following Surius, and many widely known.
[16] Other indications of the cult of the Martyr, undertaken once and propagated in Spain, Mariana brings forth in these words: "The place of the prison was in the following time transformed into a chapel under the name of Hermenegild, his name given to others and many mortals subsequently, men and women, were called Hermenegild, Ermesinda, or Ermenisinda. Armengol and Ermengaud, family names of the Spaniards, are thought to belong to the same, as well as Ermegildez and Ermildez, sounding more barbarous. Where the body is in our time is hidden; nor is it sufficiently clear in what place it was then buried: except that a bone of his, enclosed and bound in a silver statue, is preserved at Zaragoza, in the proper sacristy of the great temple." Thus there. Antonio de Quintanadueñas in De Sanctis Hispalensibus, p. 129, reports that the body of this holy King and Martyr was honorably buried at Seville, the head carried to Zaragoza, until the destruction of Spain by the Moors: when the Catholics carried off with them in flight to Zaragoza the head of Saint Hermenegild, the body being hidden. Which Queen Sancia, wife of Alfonso King of Aragon, gave to the monastery of Sigena built by her, to the Nuns of Saint John of Jerusalem: of which matter an ancient bull provides testimony, written on parchment and there preserved. Some part of this head the said Nuns gave as a gift in 1562 to Peter de Villalva, some part carried to Seville, Provincial of the Society of Jesus of Aragon, who deposited it in his college at Zaragoza. But that part afterwards in 1590 was transferred to Seville, to the college of the Society of Jesus, dedicated to this Saint Hermenegild. But the principal part of this head, by the command of Philip II the Catholic King, was transferred by Juan Bautista de Cardona, Bishop of Vich, who had been sent, in 1568 to the royal monastery of the Escorial: where it is honorably preserved with other Relics. others at the Escorial. Some bone (and it is believed to be of the arm) is still preserved at Zaragoza in the Seo Church, which Ferdinand of Aragon, of the Royal family Archbishop of that city, adorned with a silver plate of great value. other relics. Some relics also are held in veneration at Ávila in the Cathedral Church. Tamajus Salazar writes that there are besides some in the Church of Plasencia and elsewhere.
[17] Temples also and oratories have been dedicated to this holy King and Martyr. Chapel at Zaragoza: And first (as we indicated above from Mariana), at Zaragoza in the Metropolitan church a sacristy or oratory or chapel, honorably constructed by the mentioned Ferdinand of Aragon, is sacred to his name. At Seville Juan Cervantes, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Archbishop of Seville, at Seville a Hospital and Chapel, constructed a most celebrated Hospital dedicated to Saint Hermenegild, and endowed it with very great revenues; and dedicated to the same Saint a chapel in his church, in which he himself was buried in 1453: which Gonsalvus Davila indicates more fully in the Theatrum Ecclesiasticum of the Church of Seville, p. 72. In the same city, in the street of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a very ample college of the Society of Jesus was constructed and founded by Marcus Antonius de Alfaro and his wife Agnes de Avila, born in the same city, a church and college of the Society of Jesus, with an outstanding church and various schools of all sciences. In the high altar of the church is a painted panel of great value, in which Saint Hermenegild King and Martyr is depicted among his (as they call them) maternal uncles the Saints, Leander, Isidore, Fulgentius, and their sister Saint Florentina; in the same are seen his brother Recared, painting of the high altar: and his father Leovigild, Kings of the Visigoths. Among the other altars of the same Church stands out one, adorned with the most precious relics of Saints, among which in the middle place are placed certain relics of Saint Hermenegild, transferred there, as we said, from Zaragoza: relics on another altar, of all which Antonio de Quintanadueñas treats more fully: in
whom also and many others can be read what happened after the death of Saint Hermenegild, chiefly to his wife Ingundis and son Theodoric, carried to Constantinople and there dying.
[18] The executioner perishes miserably, That Sisbert, the killer of Saint Hermenegild, in the following year was put to death by the most shameful death, the Abbot of Biclaro writes, and from him others.