The Rebel Usurper who Became a Saint ~ Saint Hermengild, prince of Visigothic Spain

Saint Hermengild with the angels in Heaven, by Corrado Giaquinto , AD 1757

On April 13, AD 585, the Visigothic prince, Hermengild, was slain while in prison. His crimes were multitudinous. To begin with, he had rebelled against his father, King Leovigild. He made alliances with his father’s enemies, the Seuvi and the Byzantines, both of whom had strong presences on the Iberian peninsula and sought gains at the expense of King Leovigild. Hermengild was subsequently betrayed by the Byzantines who made a separate peace with Leovigild in exchange for a tribute in gold. The young prince and his remaining forces were soon defeated by the king and he was made prisoner. His father forgave him, but within a year of his pardon, Hermengild rebelled again, calling forth the neighboring Franks to come to his aid against his father. This enterprise was no more successful than the first attempt, and Hermengild was again thrown into prison, this time to be killed at his father’s order.

Given this wretched story of intra-familial intrigue and political double-dealing, how did someone like Hermengild come to be recognized as a Saint of the Catholic Church? Of course, there is a religious aspect to the story that makes it even more fascinating, pathetic, and ultimately heroic. 

Similar to all of his predecessors in Visigothic Spain, King Leovigild was an Arian ruling over a predominantly Catholic kingdom. Upon taking the throne in AD 569, he also found himself surrounded by powerful potential enemies. The Byzantines and Suevi have already been mentioned above. But the most dangerous of Leovigild’s enemies was the nearby Catholic kingdom of the Merovingian Franks. In order to neutralize this threat, Leovigild did what monarchs have done throughout the centuries—he sought a matrimonial alliance, marrying his son, Hermengild, to the Catholic Frankish princess, Ingundis. This was no novel idea as Leovigild himself had been married to a Catholic princess named Theodosia. Theodosia became the mother of Hermengild and his brother Reccared, both of whom were raised as Arians but, no doubt, with strong Catholic sympathies. Theodosia later perished, and was replaced as queen by a woman named Goswintha. Unlike her predecessor, however, Goswintha was a fanatical Arian who soon came into conflict with her step-daughter-in-law, Ingundis, who utterly and steadfastly refused to abandon her Catholic faith.

The intensity of this feminine conflict eventually led to both Ingundis and Hermengild leaving the Visigothic capital of Toledo at the contrivance of King Leovigild who empowered his son as viceroy of Baetica with a court at Seville. 

There was one problem with this move, which effectively cemented Hermengild’s position as crown prince of Visigothic Spain—Seville was the see of the Leander, a zealous, brilliant and powerful Catholic bishop. Leander was also, apparently, the brother of the deceased queen Theodosia and therefore the uncle of Hermengild [See Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, Book III, Note 32). Within a short time, Hermengild publicly abandoned the Arianism of his youth and embraced the Catholicism of his wife and uncle.

When King Leovigild heard of his son’s conversion, he immediately summoned him back to Toledo. Fearing his step-mother’s fanaticism and his father’s history of severe treatment of Catholics, Hermengild refused the summons and decided to take up arms instead. In this effort, he was encouraged by Leovigild’s enemies on the Iberian peninsula who soon joined his banner. However, as mentioned above, these allies were neither trustworthy nor militarily able to resist the capable martial efforts of Leovigild who put down the rebellion in short order, besieging Hermengild in Seville for two years. When the city finally fell, Hermengild fled to Cordoba and sought sanctuary in a church. He was eventually drawn forth with promises of forgiveness from the king, transmitted to him by his own brother, Reccared.

Once in the king’s power, however, Hermengild was stripped of his royal robes and sent into banishment at Valencia. His wife Ingunthis, meanwhile, escaped to Roman Africa along with her son, Athanagild. She attempted to reach Constantinople, but perished on the journey, her young son arriving alone to be cared for by the court of the emperor Maurice. It is said that Hermengild again tried to raise a rebellion from his place of exile but was again thwarted by forces loyal to his father.

After this second attempt, it seems that Leovigild decided that his son would have to renounce his conversion to orthodox Catholicism and again become Arian. Writing in his Dialogues, Saint Gregory the Great relates the rest of the story which he likely heard from the lips of Leander himself while the two men were together in Constantinople some years later:

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The young Prince [Hermengild], upon his conversion, his father [Leovigild], being an Arian, labored both by large promises and terrible threats to draw again to his former error. But when most constantly his son answered, that he would never forsake the true faith which he had once embraced, his father in great anger took away his kingdom, and besides deprived him of all wealth and riches. And perceiving that, with all this, his mind was nothing moved, he committed him to straight prison, laying irons both upon his neck and hands. 

Upon this, the young king Hermengild began now to contemn his earthly kingdom, and to seek with great desire after the kingdom of heaven: and lying in prison fast bound, he prayed to almighty God in hair-cloth to send him heavenly comfort. And so much the more did he despise the glory of this transitory world, by how much he knew himself in that case that he had now nothing that could be taken from him.

When the solemn feast of Easter was come, his wicked father sent unto him in the dead of the night an Arian bishop, to give him the communion of a sacrilegious consecration, that he might thereby again recover his father's grace and favor. But the man of God, as he ought, sharply reprehended that Arian bishop which came unto him, and giving him such entertainment as his deserts required, utterly rejected him. For albeit outwardly he lay there in bands, yet inwardly to himself he stood secure in the height of his own soul. 

The father, at the return of the Arian prelate, understanding these news, fell into such a rage that forthwith he sent his officers of execution to put to death that most constant confessor, in the very prison where he lay. And the unnatural and bloody commandment was performed accordingly, for so soon as they came into the prison, they clave his brains with an hatchet, and so bereaved him of mortal life, having only power to take that from him which the holy martyr made small account of. 

Afterward, for the publishing of his true glory to the world, there wanted not miracles from heaven: for in the night time singing was heard at his body. Some also report that, in the night, burning lamps were seen in that place, by reason whereof his body, as of him that was a martyr, was worthily worshipped of all Christian people. But the wicked father and murderer of his own son, albeit he was sorry that he had put him to death, yet was not his grief of that quality that it brought him to the state of salvation. For although he knew very well that the Catholic faith was the truth, yet, for fear of his people, he never deserved to be a professor thereof. [Taken from, The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Book III, Chapter 31]

So it seems that the execution of Hermengild affected his father to the extent that he later regretted it. Some sources, such as Gregory the Great above, claim that though he mourned his son, Leovigild did not convert to Catholicism before his death. Others, including Gregory of Tours, maintain that he did finally renounce Arianism.

Saint Leander by Corrado Giaquinto, AD 1757

The death of Hermengild in AD 585 ended up bearing good fruit for the Catholics in Visigothic Spain. Following the death of King Leovigild the next year, Hermengild’s brother Reccared became king. Under the auspices of Bishop Leander, King Reccared accepted the Catholic faith and formally abandoned Arianism. Most of the Visigothic nobility followed his example and thus Spain became a Catholic kingdom for the next century until the arrival of the Moors.

As for Hermengild, he would be formally recognized as a saint of the Catholic Church 1,000 years after his death, canonized by Pope Sixtus V in AD 1585. A hymn to Saint Hermengild written in verse by Pope Urban VIII reads in part:

By no blandishments could thy father seduce thee
Nor wert thou captivated by the leisure of a life of affluence,
Nor by the sparkling of gems,
Nor by the desire of reigning.

The sharp edge of the sword, with dire threats,
Did not terrify thee, nor did the destructive rage of the executioner
For thou didst prefer the abiding joys
Of the Blessed to transitory ones.

[Taken from: Hymns of the Breviary and Missal, edited by Matthew Britt, 1922]