# Matins Nocturn 2 reading for St. Hermenegild, Martyr (Apr 13).
# Sourced directly from web/www/horas/Latin/Sancti/04-13.txt,
# English/Sancti/04-13.txt (Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Book
# III, ch. 31). Lectio4-6 combined into one reading, one continuous
# account. Nocturn 3 (Lectio7-9) is a direct `@Commune/C2:LectioN`
# cross-reference to the Common of a Martyr, not transcribed here.
id: st-hermenegild
readings:
  - nocturn: 2
    isGospel: false
    source: "Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Book III, ch. 31"
    text:
      la: >-
        Hermenegildus rex, Leovigildi regis Visigothorum filius, ab Ariana hæresi ad
        fidem catholicam viro reverendissimo Leandro Hispalensi episcopo, dudum mihi in
        amicitiis familiariter juncto, prædicante, conversus est. Quem pater Arianus, ut
        ad eamdem hæresim rediret, et præmiis suadere, et minis terrere conatus est.
        Cumque ille constantissime responderet, numquam se veram fidem posse relinquere,
        quam semel agnovisset: iratus pater eum privavit regno, rebusque exspoliavit
        omnibus. Cumque nec sic virtutem mentis illius emollire valuisset, in arcta
        illum custodia concludens, collum manusque illius ferro ligavit. Cœpit ítaque
        Hermenegildus rex juvenis terrenum regnum despicere, et forti desiderio
        cæleste quærens, in ciliciis vinculatus jacens, omnipotenti Deo ad confortandum
        se, preces effundere; tantoque sublimius gloriam transeuntis mundi despicere,
        quanto et religatus agnoverat nihil fuísse, quod potuerit auferri.


        Superveniente autem Paschalis festivitatis die, intempestæ noctis silentio, ad
        eum perfidus pater Arianum episcopum misit, ut ex ejus manu sacrilegæ
        consecrationis communionem perciperet, atque per hoc ad patris gratiam redire
        mereretur. Sed vir Deo deditus, Ariano episcopo venienti exprobravit, ut debuit,
        ejusque a se perfidiam dignis increpationibus repulit: quia etsi exterius
        jacebat ligatus, apud se tamen in magno mentis culmine stabat securus. Ad se
        ítaque reverso episcopo, Arianus pater infremuit, statimque suos apparitores
        misit, qui constantissimum Confessorem Dei illic ubi jacebat, occiderent; quod
        et factum est. Nam mox ut ingressi sunt, securim cerebro ejus infigentes, vitam
        corporis abstulerunt: hocque in eo valuerunt perimere, quod ipsum quoque, qui
        peremptus est, in se constiterat despexisse. Sed pro ostendenda vera ejus
        gloria, superna quoque non defuere miracula. Nam cœpit in nocturno silentio
        psalmodiæ cantus ad corpus ejusdem Regis et Martyris audiri: atque ideo
        veraciter Regis, quia et Martyris.


        Quidam étiam ferunt, quod illic nocturno tempore accensæ lampades apparebant;
        unde et factum est, quatenus corpus illius, ut videlicet Martyris, jure a
        cunctis fidelibus venerari debuisset. Pater vero perfidus et parricida, commotus
        pœnitentia, hoc fecisse se doluit, nec tamen usque ad obtinendam salutem
        pœnituit. Nam quia vera esset catholica fides agnovit, sed gentis suæ timore
        perterritus, ad hanc pervenire non meruit. Qui, oborta ægritudine, ad extrema
        perductus est, et Leandro episcopo, quem prius vehementer afflixerat,
        Reccaredum regem filium suum, quem in sua hæresi relinquebat, commendare
        curavit, ut in ipso quoque talia faceret, qualia et in fratre suis
        exhortationibus fecisset. Qua commendatione expleta, defunctus est. Post cujus
        mortem Reccaredus rex non patrem perfidum, sed fratrem Martyrem sequens, ab
        Arianæ hæreseos pravitate conversus est, totamque Visigothorum gentem ita ad
        veram perduxit fidem, ut nullum in suo regno militare permitteret, qui regni Dei
        hostis exsistere per hæreticam pravitatem non timeret.
      en: >-
        Hermenegild, the son of Leovigild, King of the Visigoths, was turned from the
        Arian heresy to the Catholic Faith by the preaching of that most worshipful man
        Leander, Bishop of Seville, the same who was for a long season mine own familiar
        friend. Then his father, being himself an Arian, strove to bring him back to
        that heresy, first by offering him gifts, and then seeking to awe him by
        threatening. And when he answered alway that, having once had knowledge of the
        true faith, he never could forsake it, his father was wroth, and took away his
        kingdom from him, and plundered him of all his goods. And when not even so could
        he sap the manliness of his soul, he cast him into a most strait prison, having
        his neck and his hands in fetters of iron. And so that young King Hermenegild
        began to hold in little esteem an earthly kingdom, and to long exceedingly for
        an heavenly. Yea, he clothed himself in sackcloths in the prison, and as he lay
        bound therein, he poured forth supplications to Almighty God to give him
        strength. There he lay bound, having suffered the loss of all things, but his
        suffering made him but to esteem more worthless the glory of this world, which
        passeth away so easily.


        But when the day of the glad Passover came, at dead of night, the unbelieving
        father sent to his son the Arian Bishop, to offer him, as the price of his
        favour, to receive at the hands of the said Bishop the Communion which was the
        result of a sacrilegious consecration. But when the Arian Bishop came into the
        prison, the servant of God, remembering that he was not his own but God's man,
        rebuked the unbeliever as he deserved, and drave him from his presence with just
        reproaches for though he was weak and bound as touching this outer body, yet was
        he strong in the mighty castle of his soul. The Bishop, therefore, went away
        again to that Arian father. And when he came to Leovigild, he waxed exceeding
        wroth, and sent his servants to kill God's faithful witness where he lay. Which
        thing was done for as soon as they came to him into the prison, they clave his
        head with an axe, and freed him from the dying life of this house of our
        tabernacle. And so they did to him all that which they that kill the body are
        able to do, and it was a thing which now of a long season he feared not, seeing
        that when they have done that, they have no more that they can do, but fearing
        rather Him Who, when He hath killed, hath power to cast both body and soul into
        hell. But God, to make manifest the glory of His servant, was pleased to work
        signs from heaven, for of a sudden the solemn swell of singing of Psalms was
        heard at that dead hour of night from round about the place where lay the body
        of the kingly martyr, kingly now in an higher and truer sense than the sense of
        earthly kingship, since he had witnessed a good confession for the truth,
        sealing it with his blood.


        Come say, too, that lights were seen there that night. Wherefore it came to pass
        that the body of the martyr became the rightful object of reverence to all God's
        faithful people. The unbelieving father, murderer of his own child, was seized
        with remorse, and repented him of what he had done, but he sorrowed not unto
        salvation. For though he knew that the Catholic faith was true, he stood in fear
        of his people, and deserved not to attain unto it. He fell sick, and, when he
        was at the point of death, he made it his duty to recommend King Reccared his
        surviving son to the care of the Bishop Leander, whom aforetime he had grievously
        persecuted, that though Reccared was now left in heresy, the Bishop might work
        in him by his exhortations the same change that he had worked in his brother,
        which when Leovigild had said, he died. After his death, King Reccared took for
        his example not his unbelieving father but his martyred brother. He forsook the
        Arian heresy, and brought the whole nation of the Visigoths to believe in the
        true faith, so that he allowed no man in his kingdom to be an officer, who dared
        any longer range himself through heresy as an enemy of the Kingdom of God.
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }
