ERMENEGILDO, saint, martyr. - Son of the Visigoth king Leovigildo, he married in 579 Ingunda, daughter of Sigiberto, king of the Franks. Because of his wife's Catholic religion, his father was compelled to remove him from the court and sent him to Seville, where, through the efforts of Bishop Leandro, E. too embraced Catholicism. Strife broke out between father and son; in 582 E. was defeated and exiled to Valencia, then confined in a prison at Tarragona where, in 585, for having refused Communion from an Arian bishop, he was killed by order of his father. In 1585 Siato V granted Spain permission to celebrate his feast, which Urbano VIII later extended to the whole Church. He is commemorated on 13 April.
BIBL.: s. Gregorio Magno, Dialoghi, III, 31 (PL 77, 289-91; cf. ed. di U. Moricea, Roma 1924, pp. XXXIX-XLII); s. Gregorio di Tours, Hist. Francorum, V, 30; PL 71, 353-54; Paolo Diacono, Hist. Langobard., III, 21; PL 95, 523-24; Acta SS. Aprilis, II, Parigi 1865, pp. 135-38; Z. Garcia-Villada, Historia eclesiastica de España, II, Madrid 1932, pp. 53-57; Anal. Balland., 51 (1932), pp. 411-13; Martyr. Romanum, p. 136. Agostino Amore