Saint Leander of Seville () (
Cartagena, c. 534–
Seville, March 13, 600 or 601), brother of the encyclopedist
St. Isidore of Seville, was the
Catholic Bishop of
Seville who was instrumental in effecting the conversion to
Catholicism of the
Visigothic kings
Hermengild and
Reccared of
Hispania (the
Iberian Peninsula, comprising both modern
Spain and
Portugal).
Family
Leander and Isidore and their siblings (all sainted) belonged to an elite family of
Hispano-
Roman stock of
Carthago Nova. Their father Severianus is claimed to be according to their
hagiographers a
dux or governor of Cartagena, though this seems more of a fanciful interpretation since Isidore simply states that he was a citizen. The family moved to Seville around 554. The children's subsequent public careers reflect their distinguished origin: Leander and Isidore both became bishops of
Seville, and their sister
Saint Florentina was an
abbess who directed forty
convents and one thousand nuns. Even the third brother,
Fulgentius, appointed Bishop of
Écija at the first triumph of Catholicism over Arianism, but of whom little is known, has been canonised as a saint. The family as a matter of course were staunch Catholics, as were the great majority of the Romanized population, from top to bottom; only the
Visigothic nobles and the kings were
Arians. It should be stated that there was less Visigothic persecution of Catholics than legend and hagiography have painted. From a modern standpoint, the dangers of...
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