Easter lessons from San Hermenegildo.
- Roland Flores
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Ave María! May our Lady, the Immaculate Queen of Heaven, together with St. Joseph, St. Hermenegildo, and the Martyrs of Florida, pray for us! During Eastertide, the Church brings to the altar, the holy memory of St. Hermenegildo. On 13 April 585 AD, King St. Hermenegildo was beheaded by orders of his king and father for refusing to receive communion from an Arian bishop. In the life of St. Hermenegildo we can find many lessons, two of which I wish to bring up to for discussion today.
The Life of king St. Hermenegildo according to the Dialogues of Saint Gregory.
King Hermenegild, son of Leovigild king of the Visigoths, was converted, from the Arian heresy, to the Catholic faith, by the preaching of the venerable Leander, Bishop of Seville, one of my oldest and dearest friends. His father, who continued in the Arian heresy, did his utmost, both by promises, and threats, to induce him to apostatize. But Hermenegild returned him ever the same answer, that he never could abandon the true faith, after having once known it. The father, in a fit of displeasure, deprived him not only of his right to the throne, but of everything he possessed. And when even this failed to break the energy of his soul, he had him put into close confinement with chains on his neck and hands. Hereupon the youthful king Hermenegild began to despise the earthly, and ardently to long for the heavenly, kingdom. Thus fettered, and wearing a hairshirt, he besought the Omnipotent God to support him. As to the glory of this fleeting world, he nobly looked on it with disdain, the more so as his captivity taught him the nothingness of that which could thus be taken from him. It was the Feast of Easter. At an early hour of the night, when all was still, his wicked father sent an Arian Bishop to him, with this message, that if he would receive Communion from his hands (the Communion of a sacrilegious consecration!), he should be restored to favor. True to his Creator, the man of God gave a merited reproof to the Arian Bishop, and, with holy indignation, rejected his sinful offer; for though his body lay prostrate in chains, his soul stood on ground beyond the reach of tyranny. The Bishop therefore, returned whence he had come. The Arian father raged, and straightway send his lictors, bidding them repair to the prison of the unflinching Confessor of the Lord, and murder him on the spot. They obeyed; they entered the prison; they cleft his skull with a sword; they took away the life of the body, and slew what he, the slain one, had sworn to count as vile. Miracles soon followed, whereby heaven testified to the true glory of Hermenegild; for during the night, there was heard sweet music nigh to the body of the King and Martyr—King indeed, because he was a Martyr. It is said that lights were seen at the same time burning in the prison. The Faithful were led, by these signs, to revere the body, as being that of a martyr. As to the wicked father, he repented for having imbrued his hands in his son’s blood; but his repentance was not unto salvation, inasmuch as, whilst acknowledging the Catholic Faith to be the true one, he had not the courage to embrace it, for he feared the displeasure of his subjects. When in his last sickness, and at the point of death, he commended his son Reccared, a heretic, to the care of Leander the Bishop, whom he had hitherto persecuted, but from whom he now asked, that he would do for this son what he had, by his exhortations, done for Hermenegild. Having made this request, he died, and was succeeded, on the throne, by Reccared, who taking, not his wicked father, but his martyred brother, as his model, he abandoned the impious Arian heresy, and led the whole Visigoth nation to the true Faith. He would not allow any man to serve in his armies, who dared to continue the enemy of the God of hosts by heresy. Neither is it to be wondered at, that being the brother of a Martyr, he should have become a propagator of the true Faith, for it was by Hermenegild’s merits that he has succeeded in reconciling so many thousands to the great God of heaven.
Lesson 1: avoid the Liturgy of Heretics.
In Dom Prosper Gueranger's Litgrucial Year he writes: “The martyr [St.Hermenegild] knew that the Eucharist is the sacred symbol of Catholic unity: and that we are not allowed to approach the Holy Table in company with those who are not in the true Church." And it should be stressed that this is not because of an invalid consecration, as Gueranger conitnues: "A sacrilegious consecration gives heretics the real possession of the Divine Mystery, if the priestly character be in him who dares to offer Sacrifice to the God whom he blasphemes; but the Catholic, who knows that he may not so much as pray with heretics, shudders at the sight of the profanation, and would rather die than share, by his presence, in insulting our Redeemer in that very Sacrifice and Sacrament, which were instituted that we might all be made one in God." And this of course was not new the Church, the Apostle St John extorted his faithful to avoid heretics: "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as writing a new commandment to thee, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 And this is charity, that we walk according to his commandments. For this is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in the same: 7 For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a seducer and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that you lose not the things which you have wrought: but that you may receive a full reward. 9 Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house." It would seem quiet evident to anyone trying to live a Catholic life that no one should approach the liturgy or Communion of those who do not hold the Catholic faith. "Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. 18 For they that are such, serve not Christ our Lord, but their own belly; and by pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts of the innocent. 19 For your obedience is published in every place. I rejoice therefore in you. But I would have you to be wise in good, and simple in evil. 20 And the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." For within the Liturgy, which was instituted by Christ Himself and given to the apostles, "Do this for a commemoration of me," we find unity in faith. Again we hear the Apostle St. Paul reaffimring of this apolstilic unity in the Liturgy: "The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord? 17 For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread."
Lesson 2: avoid political unity with heretics.
The second Lesson St. Hermenegildo teaches us is to avoid compromising on matters of faith in order to achieve a political victory. After all, in todays secular atmosphere we all seemingly are damnded to choose the lesser of two evils or we are told that we must comprismise some things in order to attaina greater good. Our Holy faith however, does not teach this. St. Thomas Aquinas responds that you cannot use evil means to achieve Good. One could argue that if St. Hermengildo would have just reveived communion once from a heretic, he would have eventually become the first Catholic King of the Visigoths. However, our fort duty is always too God. This was stressed by Pope Urban VIII when he was composing a hymn for St. Hermengilido: “How courageously didst thou keep thy promised allegiance to God! He was dear to thee above all things else; and as to the dangerous pleasures of this world, thou warily didst reject them.” St. Hermengilido chose not to sin and lost his life, and God used this holy example for a great conversion. "You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people" (Genesis 50:20). This cruel Martyrdom converted the Kingdom of the Visigoths and eventually all of Spain. This nation which would labor so greatly for the faith, producing many of the greatest saints, becoming a buffer against the islamists, and later converting 1/3 of the entire world, including our beloved Florida. St. Hermengildo's example is clear that we should never compromise on matters of faith or morals for some earthly victory. because victory belongs to Christ alone "and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith” (I John 4).
Prayer to St. Hermenegild by Dom Prosper Gueranger.
We offer thee, O brave witness to the truth of holy Faith! our admiration and gratitude. Thy courageous death was proof of the love thou hadst for Christ; and thy contempt of earthly honors teaches us to despise them. Heir to a throne, a prison was thy abode here below. It was from thy prison that thou ascendedst to heaven, wearing on thy brow the laurels of Martyrdom-a crown far brighter than that which was offered thee on condition of thy apostatizing from the Faith. Pray now for us: the Church asks it of thee, by inserting thy name in the Calendar of her Saints. The Pasch was the day of thy triumph: obtain for us that this may be a true Pasch to us-a real resurrection, which may lead us to the heaven above,where we may enjoy, with thee, the sight of our Risen Jesus. Intercede for us, that we may be firm in the Faith, obedient to the teachings of holy Church, and enemies to every error and innovation. Protect Spain, thy fatherland, which owes to thy Martyrdom long centuries of loyalty to the true Faith. Pray for her, that she may ever continue to merit her glorious title of The Catholic Kingdom.
References:
April 13 – St Hermenegild, Martyr ~ Dom Prosper Gueranger
2nd Epistle of St John
Epistle of St Paul to the Romans, 16.
1st Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians, 10.
Summa Theologiae, Question 18. The good and evil of human acts, in general.