Leocadia

The Holy Leocadia is a Spanish saint. Tradition holds that they probably on 9 December of the year 304, suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Christians of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

Biography

About the life of St.. Leocadia is virtually nothing is known; probably they came from Toledo or its environment. Your name indicates a Greek origin of their family. The Roman governor, a man named Decianus undertook according to tradition, the attempt to move through torture and threat of death to recant their faith; following the example of St.. However Eulalia she remained steadfast and died in prison from the effects of torture.

Worship

The name of the martyr does not appear in the various martyr hymns of the late antique Spanish poet Prudentius ( 348-405 ), but it was early on a Holy Sepulchre in Toledo dedicated to her, in the three councils of Toledo ( 633, 636 and 638 ) were held. Your Remembrance Day, the The December 9 appears in spanish martyrologies of the ninth century.

The hl. Leocadia was buried in a cemetery near the Tagus, where it soon developed a cult. In the 9th century her relics were brought because of the attacks Abd ar- Rahman II in Oviedo, where was Alfonso II of Asturias build a church dedicated to her. In the 11th century was a Count of Hainault, who had set out as pilgrims to Spain and there at the Alfonso VI page. fought against the Muslims, as a reward for his military services, the relics of St.. Leocadia and Saint. Sulpicius, he made the Benedictine Abbey of Saint- Ghislain to the present, however, where they led a shadowy existence. Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile brought on a visit ( in 1500 ) a shin bones of the saints back to Spain.

During the Spanish- Dutch Wars of the 16th century, the abbey was affected. In 1583, the relics were discovered by a Jesuit and brought to Rome three years later; from there they came by ship to Valencia and then to Toledo. King Philip II was present even when the relics translation in 1587.

The hl. Leocadia is the patron saint of the city of Toledo. Although the Saints in Spain is well known, none of the great Spanish painter of the 16th and 17th century has left a representation of her or her martyrdom.

Window

Crypt

Ornamented plate