Saint Hermenegild, Martyr
S. Hermenegildi Martyris
Saint Hermenegild was a prince of the Visigoths in Spain who, having embraced the Catholic faith, chose to suffer death rather than receive Holy Communion from an Arian bishop. He is honoured as a martyr who preferred the kingdom of heaven to an earthly throne, and died about the year 585.
Saint Hermenegild was the elder son of Leovigild, king of the Visigoths in Spain, a people then largely held in the Arian heresy, which denied the true divinity of the Son of God. The memory of Saint Hermenegild has come down to us chiefly through Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who recounted his story in the Dialogues not long after the events, having heard it from those who came from Spain. Through Gregory’s telling the Church received and has long kept the witness of this royal martyr.
Conversion and conflict
Hermenegild was brought to the Catholic faith through the influence of his wife, a Catholic princess, and the instruction of Saint Leander, bishop of Seville. His profession of the true faith set him at odds with his Arian father, and a bitter conflict followed, in which Hermenegild was at length defeated and taken captive. The particular political circumstances of that struggle are reported variously by the historians of the age; what the Church holds before us with assurance is the manner of his death and the cause for which he gave his life.
A crown preferred to a crown
According to Saint Gregory, while Hermenegild lay imprisoned, his father sent to him, on the night of Easter, an Arian bishop, that the prince might receive Communion from his hands and so be restored to favour. Hermenegild refused with constancy, unwilling to take the Sacrament from one severed from the unity of the Faith. For this refusal he was put to death by his father’s order. The Church venerates him as a martyr who valued the kingdom of heaven above an earthly crown, and his example is set before the faithful as a summons to despise things passing and to seek the things that are eternal. His brother Reccared afterward embraced the Catholic faith and led the Visigothic people into the unity of the Church.
The Collect
O God, who didst teach blessed Hermenegild, Thy Martyr, to set the heavenly kingdom before an earthly one: grant, we beseech Thee, that by his example we may despise the things that pass away and seek after those that are eternal. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Deus, qui beátum Hermenegíldum Mártyrem tuum cælésti regno terrénum postpónere docuísti: da, quǽsumus, nobis; eius exémplo cadúca despícere, atque ætérna sectári. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
Patronage
Saint Hermenegild is venerated as a patron of converts and is honoured especially in Spain.
In the Modern Calendar
Saint Hermenegild is no longer inscribed in the modern General Roman Calendar; he continues to be honoured in the Roman Martyrology on this day.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Hermenegild?
In the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 13 April as a Third-Class feast.
Who was Saint Hermenegild?
He was a sixth-century Visigothic prince of Spain who embraced the Catholic faith and was put to death by his Arian father after he refused to receive Holy Communion from an Arian bishop. He is honoured as a martyr.
How do we know his story?
It is recorded by Pope Saint Gregory the Great in his Dialogues, written not long after the events, which has been the chief source of the Church’s memory of this saint.
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