Hermenegild

This article is about the saint. For the given name, see Hermenegildo (name).

For the decoration created by Ferdinand VII, see Order of Saint Hermenegild.

Hermenegild
The Triumph of Saint Hermenegild (Francisco de Herrera the Younger, 1654)
Martyr
Born	564 Medina del Campo
Died	April 13, 585 Tarragona
Venerated in	Catholic Church, Orthodox Church
Canonized	1585 by Sixtus V
Feast	April 13 (West) November 14 (East)
Patronage	Of converts, of the Spanish Monarchy (together with Saint Ferdinand), veterans of the Armed Forces and of the Guardia Civil of Spain, of Alquife

Hermenegild (from Gothic: 𐌹𐍂𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌰𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳𐍃, "immense tribute"; Medina del Campo (Valladolid), 564 – Tarragona, April 13, 585) was a Visigothic Prince and noble, son of King Liuvigild and his first wife, and brother of Reccared.

He was raised in the Arianism that prevailed among the Visigoths of the Peninsula at that time (unlike the Hispano-Romans, who were mostly Christians). His conversion to Christianity set him against his father and provoked a military conflict, which would end with his capture and death.

He was canonized in 1585 as a martyr of the Catholic Church; he is the patron of converts, and his feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, April 13.

Biography

From a very early age, Hermenegild and his younger brother Reccared were associated with their father's throne (just as their uncle Liuva I had earlier associated his brother Liuvigild with the throne). Educated under the influence of Saint Leander of Seville, whom some make out to be his mother's brother, given that mixed marriages were prohibited, at the age of fifteen he married the Catholic Frankish Princess Ingunda, daughter of Sigebert I and Brunhilda, in an attempt to strengthen the relations begun by his father's first marriage. Sent as governor to the province of Baetica after his marriage, the influence of his wife and of Leander quickly led him to conversion.

The political problems that a conversion in the royal succession could cause, and Hermenegild's suspicious diplomatic relations with the Byzantine governor of the neighboring Province of Spania, led to growing tension in his relations with his father. The difficulty between Catholics and Arians was hardened by the intransigence of Liuvigild's wife, Goswinta.

The armed conflict began in the year 581 and lasted until 584 (although Liuvigild devoted little strength to it at first, since he was occupied in the north). Hermenegild, who had the support of the Byzantines operating from Cartagena, found himself at a tactical disadvantage when the Byzantines made an alliance with Liuvigild for the sum of 30,000 gold solidi.

Liuvigild wanted to put an end to the rebellions; he subdued the resistance of Mérida and Cáceres and blocked the way of the Suebi of King Miro, who wanted to help the Catholics, but who then struck up a friendship with Liuvigild and returned home, dying days later. Hermenegild then took refuge in a series of fortresses and castles which, one after another, were conquered by his father's Arian troops. He finally reached Seville, where he settled in his residence with his wife, but as his father's troops approached, and having the fortress of Osset nearby, he decided to go there to take up position. In 583 he was besieged in the Castle of Osset, which stood where the present-day walls of San Juan de Aznalfarache are, at the gates of Seville. After a siege of more than a year the fortress fell, and Hermenegild had to flee to Córdoba, where he sought refuge in a church in 584.

According to a legend of the city of Seville, Saint Hermenegild was confined in this building, which is a gate-tower of the city wall known as the Puerta de Córdoba. To the right is the entrance to the Church of San Hermenegildo.

His brother Reccared, in the name of their father Liuvigild, offered to spare Hermenegild's life in exchange for his surrender. Once arrested, he was taken to Seville and later to Valencia. The King of the Austrasian Franks, Childebert II, his wife's brother, wanted to help him by invading Gallia Narbonensis. In view of this, Hermenegild escaped from prison to join the Frankish army, but he was captured and imprisoned in Tarragona.

Hermenegild's wife, after being used in conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Frankish kingdoms, escaped to Africa with her still-nursing son, choosing to flee to Rome, and sought asylum in Constantinople from the Emperor Maurice of Byzantium, but she died at some point on the journey to the Byzantine capital, in Sicily, in 584. Her son Athanagild was handed over by order of Maurice to her mother, against the opposition of Liuvigild himself.

The leading specialists in the history of Visigothic Hispania, such as E. A. Thompson, José Orlandis and Luis A. García Moreno, do not consider Hermenegild's conversion to have been the true cause of the revolt, but rather a pretext for it. They base this on the religious tolerance displayed during the reign of Liuvigild and on the various diplomatic attempts made before the start of the conflict. Moreover, even after the conversion of the Visigoths to Catholicism under Reccared, the chroniclers and conciliar acts make no mention whatsoever of Hermenegild, his revolt or his heroism, which seems to indicate that the Catholic Visigoths considered him merely a rebel and not a martyr.

Although no independent testimony of the event has survived, the Dialogi of Gregory I state that Hermenegild rejected his father's offer of pardon out of fidelity to the Catholic faith and that he was beheaded by his jailer, Sisbert, after refusing to receive Holy Communion from the hands of an Arian bishop on Easter Day of 585. Much less favorable to Hermenegild is the opinion of the Frankish historian Gregory of Tours, who was very well informed about the Visigothic world, and who considers it a grave fault for a son to rise up against his father, even if the latter is an Arian.

At the request of King Philip II of Spain, Sixtus V canonized him on the thousandth anniversary of his death. The following year, at the King's request and through the mediation of the Bishop of Vic, Juan Antonio de Cardona, the nuns of the Monastery of Sijena ceded the head of Saint Hermenegild, which they had kept as a relic since it was given to them in the 12th century by the convent's foundress, Sancha of Aragon, to the newly built Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where it is still preserved. Together with Saint Ferdinand, he is the patron saint of the Spanish Monarchy.

Inscription

During his reign in Baetica, Hermenegild had a church built, in which the following inscription is found; it is preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Seville under the name Lintel of Saint Hermenegild:

In nomine Domini anno feliciter secundo regni domini nostri [H]Ermenegildi regis quem persequitur genetor sus dominus Liuvigildus rex in ci[b]vitate [H]Ispa[lense] indictione tertia decima [...]

Which translates as:

In the name of the Lord, in the happily second year of the reign of our lord King [H]Ermenegild (year 582), whom his father and lord King Liuvigild persecutes in the city of Seville [... the text is incomplete and cannot be translated]

Descendants

According to the traditional genealogy, from his marriage to the Frankish Princess Ingunda was born Prince Athanagild, who in turn married Flavia Juliana, paternal niece of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice; the latter couple would be the parents of Paulus Ardabastus, whose son would be the Gothic King Erwig. On the basis of this genealogy, the kings of Asturias and León (the Astur-Leonese dynasty), the kings of Pamplona and the first kings of Aragon, as well as the counts of Castile, were considered descendants of Saint Hermenegild. However, this genealogy has been disputed.

See also

• Patronage of Seville

References

Bibliography

• Collins, Roger (2005). La España visigoda, 409–711 (in español). Barcelona: Crítica. ISBN 84-8432-636-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Orlandis, José (1988). Historia del reino visigodo español, 78–84 (in español). Madrid: Rialp. ISBN 84-321-2417-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Thompson, E.A. (2007). Los godos en España (in español). Alianza: Serie Humanidades. ISBN 978-84-206-6169-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)