Saint Leocadia
Saint Leocadia
December 9
virgin, martyr
304 A.D.
The name of St. Leocadia is highly reverenced in Spain. This holy virgin was a native of Toledo, and was apprehended by an order of Dacian, the cruel governor under Dioclesian, in 304. Her constancy was tried with torments, and she died in prison. For hearing of the martyrdom of St. Eulalia, she prayed that God would not prolong her exile, but unite her speedily with her holy friend in his glory; in which prayer she happily expired in prison.
St. Leocadia being called to the trial, exerted all heroic Christian virtues, because she had made her whole life an apprenticeship of them, and their practice had been familiar to her.
Some people say it was easy for Christians to be totally disengaged from the world, and to give themselves up to prayer and penance when they are daily and hourly expected to be called upon too lay down their lives for Christ. But we were not blinded by the world, and if the enchantment of its follies, the near prospect of eternity, the uncertainty of the hour of our death, and the repeated precepts of Christ, were equally the subjects of our meditation, these motives would produce in us the same fervent dispositions which they did in the primitive Christians.
How much soever men now-a-days are strangers to these gospel truths, for want of giving themselves leisure to consider them, Christians are bound to be totally disentangled from worldly affections, in order to unite their hearts closely to God, that they may receive the abundant graces and favours which He communicates to souls which open themselves to him.
Three famous churches in Toledo bear her name, and she is honoured as principle patroness of that city. In one of those churches most of the counsels of Toledo were held; in the fourth of these she is honorably mentioned. Her relics were kept in the church with great respect, till, in the incursions of the moors, they were conveyed to Oviedo, and some years afterwards to the abbey of St. Guislain, near Mons, in Haynault. By the procurement of King Philip II., they were translated back to Toledo with great pomp, that king, his son Prince Philip, his daughter Elizabeth, and the Empress Mary, his sister, being present at their solemn reception in the great church there, on the 26th of April, 1589.
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December 21 2009 11:27 am | The Other Saints
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