Saint Leander of Seville

Saint Leander, the Bishop of Seville, teacher of the Church, and enlightener of Spain, lived in the VI century, and was the scion of an aristocratic family. his father Severian was a duke and belonged to an illustrious Byzantine clan, while his mother was the eldest daughter of the Visigoth King Levigid, who reigned in Seville, the capital of the Visigoth Kingdom. At a young age he entered a monastery, and was distinguished for his education and virtues. Therefore, the Church made him a Bishop in the year 579.

He founded a theological school with the aim of spreading Orthodoxy, but also for cultivating the sciences and the arts in general, for the people of that barbaric kingdom. The two royal children Hermenegὶld and Rekared, his nephews on his mother's side, were among the disciples of Saint Leander. Hermenegild was raised in the wellsprings of Orthodoxy. His faith in the Church was strengthened, thanks to his pious wife Ingard, the daughter of Sigebert, the King of the Franks. When his father transferred his capital to Toledo, he chose Seville as his home when a persecution of the Orthodox broke out. The heretic Levegild came into conflict with the Orthodox son of Hermenegild. Such was the intensification of the persecution and the fury of the heretics, as it has been written, that it did not leave anyone free anywhere. Both men, and the land itself, lost their former fertility. The heretical king besieged Seville and threw his son into a dark prison, where he strangled him on the Feast of Pascha in 586.

During this time, shortly before he was exiled along with other confessors of Orthodoxy, Saint Leander fled to Constantinople seeking the Emperor's help. It was there that he met Saint Gregory Dialogus (March 12) and was united to him by strong ties of friendship. When the persecution of the Orthodox reached its peak, King Levegild, afflicted with a fatal illness, changed his attitude, inviting Saint Leander to his deathbed and after he repented, he begged him to bring his successor Rekarὲd to the true Orthodox Faith. The new king, who heeded his former teacher, was converted and immediately undertook to convene the Third Council of Toledo, where he read to everyone the confessions of faith and the decisions of the Ecumenical Synod of Nicaea, and announced that the united peoples of the Goths and Suevians were returning to the unity of the Church. Saint Leander, who presided at the Council of Toledo, then decided to devote the remainder of his life to instructing his flock, first by his own example, and also through his inspired writings. He also prepared his brother, Saint Isidore, to succeed him as Bishop of Seville, and the Church of Spain. He even helped his sister, Saint Florentia, to become the founder and Igoumeness of forty monasteries and thousands of nuns, composing for them a monastic Typikon which was called "The Canons of Saint Leander." He also organized the Divine Services of the Church of Spain, which were called "Mozarabic."

The Holy Bishop of Seville, after enduring many adversities and trials, surrendered his holy soul to the Lord on February 27, 600 (or 601). His scroll reads: "The Orthodox Faith defined by the Council of Nicea is the weapon of the Church against the thorns of heresy."