Feast Day ~ April 13
As the Psalmist says, How good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. [Ps. 133:1] But how bad and unpleasant – sinful – it is when those who should be brethren fight and even kill each other in the name of Christ. St. Hermenegild, whose feast day is April 13, was one who was caught in just such a crisis of family and faith.
Hermenegild was born into a divisive family. His father, King Liuvigild of the Visigoths, embraced the version of Christianity which held the Arian view that our Lord had only one nature – human and not divine. However, his mother, Princess Theodosia, was an Orthodox Christian. The Ecumenical Council of Nicea (325) had rejected the heresy of Arius and proclaimed that Christ had been revealed to man as both God and man. In this divided household, Hermenegild and his brother, Reccared, were brought up as Arians and this was more firmly upheld when King Liuvigild married Goiswinda, another Arian, after the death of his first wife.
The two sons were made co-regents with their father and given parts of the Visigothic kingdom to rule on his behalf. When Hermenegild moved to the southern part of the kingdom, he came into contact with St. Leander of Seville. Through the bishop’s influence and that of his wife, the Frankish princess Ingund, who was also an Orthodox Christian, Hermenegild began to see the error of Arian beliefs and was brought into the fold of the Church through Chrismation.
When he heard of this, Liuvigild was furious and demanded that his son return home so that he could be reprimanded and stripped of his royal duties. Hermenegild refused and now the family descended into further sin. Hermenegild waged war against his father, seeking assistance first from the Emperor in Constantinople (who was at the time defending his armies against the Persians) and then from Roman soldiers who agreed but then betrayed him to his pursuers. Hermenegild was forced to flee to several cities before claiming sanctuary in a church. King Liuvigild would not violate the protection which the church provided his son but instead, sent his younger son, Reccared to offer peace. Trusting in his father’s honesty and mercy, Hermenegild left the church and was immediately put in chains and taken to prison in the tower in Seville.
King Liuvigild made one last effort at drawing his eldest son away from the Catholic faith. At Easter, he sent an Arian bishop to the prison, who offered to give Hermenegild Communion with the promise of his freedom if he would receive the Sacrament from him. Hermenegild had spent much time in this prison thinking clearly about the teachings of the Church and he knew that he could not deny Truth in exchange for his release. He sent the heretical bishop away and the king ordered his son to be beheaded on Easter Eve, April 13 in the year 585.
There is much that is bad, unpleasant, and sinful about this story. Historians have determined that King Liuvigild used religion as a weapon in a political battle with his son, compounding his sin in holding heretical beliefs and of having his own son killed.
In his Dialogues, St. Gregory the Great says that the martyrdom of St. Hermegild was like the grain of wheat which our Lord said must fall into the ground and die but would then yield rich fruit. All the Orthodox catholic Christians in the Visigothic kingdom who had been severely persecuted by the king now had a faithful witness to the true faith, and many Arians were now converted. On his deathbed, remorse for his sins led Liuvigild to ask Recarred to seek the same instruction from St. Leander that his brother had received. When Recarrred’s reign began, he reversed his father’s policies of persecution and, eventually, the entire Visigothic kingdom gave up the Arian heresy and became Orthodox.
May St. Hermenegild intercede for all those who are born into families of unbelievers or those who hold heretical beliefs. On Good Friday, we will join him in our prayers as we pray for deliverance from error for the heretics and schismatics. May we strive to know the faith and be able to articulate it to others. St. Hermenegild, pray for us.
Resources: Rev. Alban Butler, Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Saints; St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues; St. Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks; Wikipedia article.