Leandro

Biography

He had been a monk before becoming bishop of Seville in 579, and under his episcopate the religious destiny of the Iberian Peninsula was determined. The Arian Visigoths had been occupying Hispanic soil for more than a century when Leovigild decided to exterminate the Catholics in his kingdom. He unleashed a terrible persecution against them: fear spread, many apostatized and several bishops became Arian. However, Hermenegild, Leovigild's eldest son and heir, converted to Catholicism in 570, under the influence of his wife, who was a Frankish princess. As his father demanded apostasy, he took up arms against him (579-585). On the verge of being completely defeated, Hermenegild sent the bishop of Seville to ask for help from Maurice, emperor of Byzantium. But Mauricio did nothing. Furthermore, when Leovigild realized what was happening, he ordered his son to be killed as a traitor (585) and decreed the expulsion of Leander. Leovigild died a year later and was succeeded by his youngest son Recaredo on the throne (586-601), who recalled Leander, submitted to his religious instruction, renounced Arianism and in 587 proclaimed Catholicism as the religion of the kingdom. Two years later he met with a national council in Toledo, where the Hispanic bishops unanimously made a profession of Catholic faith.