ictin Order, and is still possessed of this sacred treasure. At the
request of these monks, St. Bernard composed an office of St. Victor,
extant in his works, (ep. 312, vet. ed. seu 398, nov. edit.) See the two
sermons of St. Bernard on St. Victor, and his ancient life in
Henschenius and others: from which it appears that this saint never was
a monk, never having professed any monastic Order, though he led an
eremitical life.

Footnotes:
1. Serm. 2, p. 966.
2. Ps. cxii. 8.

FEBRUARY XXVII.

ST. LEANDER, BISHOP OF SEVILLE, CONFESSOR.

From St. Isidore of Seville, St. Gregory the Great, and St. Gregory of
Tours, hist l. 5. See Fleury, b. 34, 35, 38. Mabillon, Saec. Ben. 1.
Ceillier, t. 17.

A.D. 596.

ST. LEANDER was of an illustrious family, and born at Carthagena in
Spain. He had two brothers, St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ecija and
Carthagena, and St. Isidore, our saint's successor in the see of
Seville. He had also one sister, Florentia by name, who had consecrated
herself to God in the state of virginity. He set them an example of that
piety which they faithfully imitated. He entered into a monastery very
young, where he lived many years, and attained to an eminent degree of
virtue and sacred learning. These qualities occasioned his being
promoted to the see of Seville: but his change of condition made little
or no alteration in his method {479} of life, though it brought on him a
great increase of care and solicitude for the salvation of those whom
God had put under his care, as well as for the necessities of the whole
church, that of Spain in particular. This kingdom was then possessed by
the Visigoths, or Western-Goths; who, while Theodoric settled the
Ostrogoths, or Eastern-Goths, in Italy, had passed the Alps, and founded
their kingdom, first in Languedoc, and soon after, about the year 470,
in Spain. These Goths, being for the generality all infected with
Arianism, established this heresy wherever they came; so that when St.
Leander was made bishop, it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This
was his great affliction: however, by his tears and prayers to God, and
by his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, both at home and abroad, he
became the happy instrument of the conversion of that nation to the
Catholic faith. But he suffered much from king Leovigild on this
account, and was at length forced into banishment; the saint having
converted, among others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir