King Ricared and Saint Hermenegild

Recared: King of the Visigoths; Conqueror of Arianism

Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints

Many of us are, sadly, unfamiliar with the story of St. Hermenegild and Recared, but they played no small role in saving the West from the heresy of Arianism (which was prevalent among the germanic tribes of the early Middle Ages).

Leovigild, Arian King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who were reigning conjointly with him. All were Arians, but Hermenegild married a zealous Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France, and by her holy example was converted to the faith. His father, on hearing the news, denounced him as a traitor, and marched to seize his person. 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 surrendered on the assurance of a free pardon. Once he was safely in the royal camp, the king had him loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at Seville.

Tortures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his faith, but Hermenegild wrote to his father that he regarded the crown as nothing, and preferred to lose scepter and life rather than betray the truth of God. At length, on Easter night, an Arian bishop entered his cell, and promised him his father’s pardon if he would receive Communion from his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejected the offer,and knelt with joy for his death-stroke, praying for his persecutors. The same night a light streaming from his cell told the Christians keeping vigil nearby that the martyr had won his crown and was celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord with the Saints in glory.

King Leovigild, on his death-bed, was changed interiorly. He had been witness to the miracles that had occurred after his son’s cruel death, and he told his son and successor Recared to seek out Saint Leander, whom he himself had persecuted. Recared should follow Hermenegild’s example, said the king, and be received by the bishop into the Church. Recared did so; and although his father himself had not had the courage to renounce the false faith publicly, after his father’s death the new king labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church.“Nor is it to be wondered,” says Saint Gregory, “that he came thus to be a preacher of the true faith, since he was the brother of a martyr, whose merits helped him to bring so many into the haven of God’s Church.

(BenzigerBrothers: New York, 1894)

Two things are of particular interest in this hagiography: first, that Hermenegild was willing to die rather than accept the doctrine or communion of a heretic, and second, as Saint Gregory notes, that it was by the merits of his martyred brother that Recared was imbued with the grace to conquer Arianism in Spain. It is fascinating to see how the graces gained from the penance of one person can be used by our Lord for the benefit of others. Let us never forget this and increase the violence of our spiritual warfare as we remember the souls of those who are relying upon us in this way.