Leander (c.550–600), bishop of Seville. The son of Severian, duke of Carthagena, and the older brother of Isidore, Leander became a monk at Seville and was consecrated bishop c.584 after having been on an embassy to Constantinople, where he met Gregory the Great and suggested to him that he should write his famous Moralia on Job.
On his return he started his life-work of propagating Christian orthodoxy against the Arians in Spain. His arduous labours were eventually crowned with success. The third Council of Toledo (589) declared the consubstantiality of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity and initiated moral reforms also. By his wisdom and reasoning he obtained the conversion to orthodoxy of both the Visigoths and the Suevi and was rewarded by Gregory both with affectionate congratulation and with the pallium.
Leander also wrote an influential Rule for Nuns and introduced into the West the custom of singing the Nicene Creed at Mass, later adopted by Rome and other Western centres. Feast: 27 February.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Mar. II (1668), 275–80; works in P.L., lxxii, 869–98; modern edn. of his Rule by A. C. Vega (1948); J. Madoz, ‘Libellus de Institutione Virginum’, Anal. Boll., lxvii (1949), 407–24
