Hermenegild

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the given name, see Hermenegild (given name). For the Spanish military decoration, see Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild.
Saint Hermenegild
El Triunfo de San Hermenegildo by Francisco Herrera the Younger (1654)
Martyr
BornToletum, Visigothic Kingdom
Diedc. 13 April 585
Hispalis, Hispania
Venerated inCatholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
FeastApril 13
Attributesaxe, crown, sword, and cross [1]
PatronageSeville, Spain

Saint Hermenegild or Ermengild (died 13 April 585;

Latin: Hermenegildus, from Gothic 𐌹𐍂𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌰𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳𐍃 *Airmana-gild, "immense tribute"), was the son of King Liuvigild of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. He fell out with his father in 579, then revolted the following year. During his rebellion, he converted from Arianism to Chalcedonian Christianity. Hermenegild was defeated in 584 and exiled.[2] His death was later celebrated as a martyrdom due to the influence of Pope Gregory I's Dialogues, in which he portrayed Hermenegild as a "Catholic martyr rebelling against the tyranny of an Arian father."[3]

Marriage to Ingund

Hermenegild was the eldest son of Liuvigild and his first wife.[4] He was a brother of Reccared I and brought up an Arian. Liuvigild made his sons co-regents.[5]

The Baptism of Saint Hermenegild, attributed to Guercino, 17th century

In 579, he married Ingund, the daughter of the Frankish King Sigebert I of Austrasia who was a Chalcedonian. Her mother was the Visigoth princess Brunhilda of Austrasia. The twelve-year-old Ingund was pressured by Hermenegild's stepmother Goiswintha to abjure her beliefs, but she stayed firm in her faith.[6]

Liuvigild sent Hermenegild to the south to govern on his behalf. There, he came under the influence of Leander of Seville, the older brother of Isidore of Seville. Hermenegild was converted to Chalcedonian Christianity. His family demanded for him to return to Arianism, but he refused.

Around then, he led a revolt against Liuvigild. Contemporary accounts attribute that to politics, rather than primarily religious differences.[7] He asked for the aid of the Byzantine Empire, but it was occupied with defending itself from territorial incursions by the Sasanian Empire.[8] For a time, Hermenegild had the support of the Suebi, who had been defeated by Liuvigild in 579, but he forced them to capitulate once again in 583.[5]

Hermenegild fled to Seville and when it fell to a siege in 584, he went to

Córdoba. After Liuvigild paid 30,000 pieces of gold, the Byzantines withdrew and took Ingund and her son with them.[5]

Hermenegild sought sanctuary in a church. Liuvigild would not violate the sanctuary. He sent Reccared inside to speak with Hermenegild and to offer peace. That was accepted, and peace was made for some time.[4]

Imprisonment and death

Goiswintha, however, brought about another alienation within the family. Hermenegild was imprisoned in Tarragona or Toledo. During his captivity in the tower of Seville, an Arian bishop was sent to Hermenegild for Easter but he would not accept the Eucharist from him.[9] King Liuvigild ordered him beheaded; he was executed on 13 April 585.[4]

He had one son by his wife named Athanagild after his matrilineal great-grandfather king Athanagild. They both tried to seek refuge in Constantinople after his execution, but it was refused while they were already in Sicily. She then returned to the Frankish Kingdom, where her son remained under her and her mother's custody.

Reputation and legacy

Hermenegild's reputation as a Catholic martyr is not present in contemporary Spanish accounts, such as John of Biclaro's Chronicon continuans Victorem Tunnunensem and Isidore of Seville's Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum, which mention only his revolt and not his conversion.[10] The French chronicler Gregory of Tours, in his Decem Libri Historiarum, recounts Hermenegild's conversion and credits it as the cause of his rebellion; however, he judges Hermenegild harshly as a traitor.[11] Of Hermenegild, Gregory wrote: "Poor prince, he did not realize that the judgment of God hangs over anyone who makes such plans against his own father, even if that father be a heretic."[12] It is the Italian Pope Gregory I who first identifies Hermenegild as a martyr. Writing in his Dialogues, Pope Gregory states that Hermenegild was killed after refusing communion from an Arian bishop.[13] Pope Gregory credited Hermenegild's death as inspiring his brother Reccared's conversion, and thus the conversion of the Visigoth kingdom, saying that Reccared "could never have effected all this, if king Hermigildus had not died for the testimony of true religion; for, as it is written: Unless the grain of wheat falling into the earth doth die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit."[13] It is chiefly on Pope Gregory's assessment that Hermenegild's subsequent legacy rests.

As a Catholic martyr, Hermenegild rose to prominence in Spain during the period following the

Francisco de Herrera the Younger's 1654 painting The Triumph of St. Hermenegild, originally for the Church of the Discalced Carmelites in Madrid, is now in the collection of the Museo del Prado.[17]

In art and Catholic

Ferdinand VII of Spain
in 1814, is also named in his honor.

Parentage

According to the 9th-century

Byzantine Africa. In Hispania he was made a count.[21]

17th-century Spanish genealogist

Luis Bartolomé de Salazar y Castro gave Ardabast's father as Athanagild, the son of Saint Hermenegild and Ingund, and his mother as Flavia Juliana, a daughter of Peter Augustus and niece of the Emperor Maurice.[22] This imperial connection is disputed by Christian Settipani, who says that the only source for Athanagild's marriage to Flavia Julia is José Pellicer, who he claims to be a forger.[23]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Stracke, Richard (2015-10-20). "Saint Hermenegild: The Iconography". Christian Iconography.
  2. ISBN 978-0-631-20932-4
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-521-58608-5
    .
  4. ^ a b c Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Saint Hermengild." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 28 Jan. 2013
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57607-263-9
    .
  6. ^ Gregory of Tours translated by Lewis Thorpe, History of the Franks (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974,) page 302
  7. ^ "Hermenegild the Goth." Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon
  8. ^ Butler Alban. The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saint, Volume 4 by the Revereand Alban Butler, D & J Sadlier and Company, 1864
  9. ^ "Lives of the Saints: For Every Day of the Year" edited by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist, Ph.D., New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., (1955)
  10. ^ Saxer, V., and S. Heid. "HERMENEGILD, martyr (d. 585)." Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, Angelo Di Berardino, InterVarsity Press, 1st edition, 2014.
  11. ^ Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. Trans. by Lewis Thorpe. London: Penguin Books, 1974.
  12. ^ Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. Trans. by Lewis Thorpe. London: Penguin Books, 1974. pg. 375
  13. ^ a b Pope Gregory I, Dialogues, Trans. Edmund Garratt Gardner. London: Warner, 1911. Book III, Chapter 31.
  14. ^ a b c Fuller, Amy. "Rebel with a cause? From traitor prince to exemplary martyr: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's representation of San Hermenegildo", European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire Vol. 16, 2009 - Issue 6. pp. 893-910. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507480903368152
  15. ^ Goffart, W. "Saint Hermenegild." New Catholic Encyclopedia, Gale, 2003.
  16. ^ Sforza Pallavicino, Martyr Hermenegild. Ed. and trans. by Stefano Muneroni. Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2019.
  17. ^ "The Triumph of Saint Hermenegild". museodelprado.es. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  18. ^ a b Stracke, Richard. "Saint Hermenegild: The Iconography". christianiconography.info. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  19. ^ "San Hermenegildo". defensa.gob.es. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  20. ^ Collins, Visigothic Spain, 102.
  21. ^ Livermore, Twilight of the Goths, 76.
  22. ^ Luis de Salazar y Castro, Historia Genealógica de la Casa de Lara (Madrid, 1696) vol. I, p. 45.
  23. ^ Christian Settipani, Les ancêtres de Charlemagne, p. 431.

Sources

External links

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