Saint Hermenegild. Martyr. Feast Day 13 April.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Hermenegild.
   Martyr.
   Feast Day 13 April.

Semi-Double.

Red Vestments.

English: The Triumph of Saint Hermenegild

Español: Triunfo de San Hermenegildo (1654), por Francisco de Herrera.

Latin: Triunfo de san Hermenegildo. Ioannes de Herrera pinxit.

Polski: Triumf św. Hermenegilda (?), 1654, Prado.

Suomi: Francisco de Herreran maalaus Pyhän Hermengildin voitto vuodelta 1654. Barokin taiteessa pyrittiin luomaan voimakas koristeellinen vaikutelma.

Français: Le Triomphe d'Hermenegild, par Francisco de Herrera le Jeune (1654),

Musée du Prado, Madrid. Léovigild, le roi arien des Wisigoths conquiert le royaume

des Suèves, "catholiques" (christianisme nicéen), au Nord-Ouest de l'Espagne. Il écrase la révolte de son fils Herménégild, converti par l’évêque Léandre de Séville. Herménégild, fait prisonnier

à Cordoue et ayant refusé d'abjurer le catholicisme, est exécuté et Léandre exilé.

Artist: Francisco de Herrera The Younger

Date: 1654.

Current location: Prado, Madrid.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Hermenegild, son of the King of The Visigoths, in Spain, married the daughter of the Frankish King of Austrasia, and was converted to Catholicism, his family being Arian. His father, in his anger, threw him into a dungeon and, in the night of Easter, caused an Arian Bishop to take Communion to him.

But “God did not abandon him in his prison” (Epistle). Hermenegild sacrificed to The Love of God the love of his father, and of his own life (Gospel), and indignantly repelled the heretical Bishop.

Put to death on 13 April 586 A.D., he shared the triumph of Christ, Who "in The Kingdom of God, gave him The Royal Sceptre" (Epistle). His father died recommending the Martyr's brother, Recarede, to bring back the Nation to The True Faith. Thus, Spain became Catholic.

"Following the example of Saint Hermenegild, who preferred Heavenly Royalty to Earthly Royalty, let us despise perishable possessions and only seek the Eternal ones" (Collect).

Mass: Out of Paschaltide. In virtúte.
Mass: In Paschaltide. Protexisti.
Commemoration and Last Gospel of The Feria in Lent.