St Leander of Seville Feast Day, Date of Birth, Country of Birth, Profession, Place of Work, Date of Death, Place of Death, Beatification Date, Canonization Date
St Leander of Seville, Monk, Bishop of Seville Profile |
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Date of Birth | 534 AD |
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Country of Birth | Spain of Europe |
Matrimony/Holy Orders | Bishops who became Saints |
Profession | Monk, Bishop of Seville |
Place of Work | Seville, Spain |
Date of Death | 13 March 600 |
Place of Death | Seville, Spain |
Feast Day | March 13 |
Beatification | Beatified by N/A |
Canonization | Canonized by Pre-Congregation |
Patron Saint of |
St Leander of Seville was the son of Severianus and Theodora. He was born on 534 AD at Cartagena, Spain. His family was known for their sanctity. They belonged to an elite family of Hispano-Roman stock of Carthago Nova.
Leander’s family moved to Seville at around 554. Their father Severianus is asserted, according to their hagiographers to be a dux or governor of Cartagena. Although this seems more of an imaginative interpretation since Isidore states he was only a citizen. The children’s subsequent public careers reflect their distinguished origin. Leander was the elder brother of Saint Isidore of Seville, Saint Fulgentius of Ecija, and Saint Florentina of Cartagena. Not only was he a Monk at Seville, Spain but also a Bishop of Seville. Their sister became Saint Florentina and was an abbess who directed 40 convents and 1000 nuns. Their third brother, Fulgentius, was appointed Bishop of Écija at the first triumph of Catholicism over Arianism, but of whom little is known about him.
St Leander of Seville Religious Life
St Leander converted Saint Hermengild and Prince Reccared, who happened to be the sons of the Arian Visigoth King Leovigild, who then exiled Leander to Constantinople from 579 to 582. While in exile he became friends with the papal legate who later on became Pope Saint Gregory the Great. Leander then recommended that Gregory write his famous commentary (Moralia) on the book of Job
When Reccared levitates the throne, St Leander was allowed to go back to Seville. He worked against Arianism and presided over the Third Council of Toledo on 589. Leander revised and unified the Spanish liturgy, and his boundless energy and steady faith led to the Visigoths back to orthodox Christianity. He wrote an influential Rule for nuns. Leander introduced the Nicene Creed to Mass in the west. Honored as a Doctor of the Faith by the Church in Spain.
Today’s St Leander Quote:
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From the top to bottom, only the Visigothic nobles and the kings were Arians. The dangers of Catholic Christianity were more political from a modern standpoint. The hierarchy of the Catholic was in collusion with the representatives of the Byzantine emperor. They had maintained a substantial territory in the far south of Hispania since his predecessor had been invited to the peninsula by the former Visigothic king several decades before. While in the north, Liuvigild fought to maintain his possessions on the far side of the Pyrenees. A place where his Merovingian cousins and brothers-in-law cast envious eyes on them.
St Leander’s Works
Of this writer, only two works remains of which are: De institutione virginum et contemptu mundi, a monastic rule that is composed for his sister, and Homilia de triumpho ecclesiæ ob conversionem Gothorum. Saint Isidore wrote about his brother stating: “This man of suave eloquence and eminent talent shone as brightly by his virtues as by his doctrine. By the zeal and his faith the Gothic people have been transformed from Arianism to the Catholic faith”.
St Leander’s Legacy
San Leandro city in the US state of California gets its name after St Leander.
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