Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish CapitalLynch, Hannah
History
Toledo, the Story of an Old Spanish Capital
Lynch, Hannah
Toledo (Spain) -- Description and travel; Toledo (Spain) -- History
The next saint connected with the Christian history of the town, and its
real patron, is St Leocadia. She was of noble birth, beautiful, young
and gifted. She is depicted a kind of Spanish St Elisabeth of Hungary,
succouring the poor and sick, speaking words of wisdom to the weak, of
sympathy to the suffering. Her father, Leocadio, was governor under
Dacian, and her uncle was Melancius the archbishop. While yet a child
she vowed herself to maidenhood and the service of the needy and those
in trouble, and her doors like her compassionate heart were open to all.
On his arrival at Toledo, Dacian heard of the wonderful maid, and
learnt that her influence spread far and wide. He ordered her to appear
before him, and she came surrounded by friends and admirers. The Roman
in the interview is painted as brutal and inexorable, the girl-saint as
mild but firm. She would change neither her faith nor her ways, and
valiantly announced herself as ready for death. We hear of
flagellations, of chains, of torture, of every form of explosion of
Roman fury, till finally unable to invent further atrocities, Dacian
flung her into a dark dungeon, where she died a natural death, some
assert, others preferring the more ghastly version of Dacian in person
ordering her to be flung down a steep rock into the Tagus. But this, I
imagine, has been tacked on to the legend as a more picturesque
conclusion for a martyr than a natural death in a prison. Gamero does
not endorse it, and his history is admitted to be the most accurate of
any that deals with Toledo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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