Saint Leander of Seville

Spain received the first lights of the faith from Rome, as we learn from the letter of Pope Innocent I to Decentius, and it is for this reason that Saint Isidore says, l. I., c. 15, Offec. ecc., that the office of the churches of Spain was instituted by Saint Peter. The ceremonies and discipline of these same churches had a Roman origin: this is a fact of which one can be convinced by reading their ancient councils. The Arian Goths substituted for the liturgy of Rome that which Ulfilas had composed based on the Eastern liturgies. It is believed that Saint Leander created a new one based on these first two and on that of the Gauls. Saint Isidore and Saint Ildefonsus subsequently gave it a new degree of perfection. Spain having passed under the domination of the Saracens or Arabs, the Christians of this kingdom were called mixti Arabes, that is to say soft Arabs, from which their liturgy took the name of Mozarabic. It g ave way to mozarabique Liturgical rite specific to the Iberian Peninsula. that of Rome in the 11th and 12th centuries. Cardinal Ximenes re-established the Mozarabic liturgy in a chapel of the Cathedral of Toledo; it is also in use in seven Tolède City of origin of Casilda and seat of her father's kingdom. churches of the same city, but only for the day of the patronal feast.

Father Florès believes that the liturgy of Saint Leander was not at all different from the Mozarabic, and that with the exception of a few rites of little importance, it had nothing in common with that of the Orientals. See his *Spagna sagrada*, vol. III, diss. de la Missa antiqua de Espagne, p. 187, 198, etc. But, although these liturgies had much conformity between them, they nevertheless had considerable differences on some points. We learn this from a letter that Father Durriel, a learned Jesuit, provided on the literary monuments found in Spain. One will draw great light on this article, as well as on several other particularities concerning the ecclesiastical antiquity of Spain, in the collection of Gothic manuscripts that Father Florès has given to the public. The curious will also consult with pleasure the new edition of the liturgies of the Christian churches, which the Messrs. Assemani provided in Rome in 15 vol. in-fol. The Mozarabic liturgy was printed in Rome, in-fol., under the care of Father Lesley, a Scottish Jesuit.

Volume LXXV of M. Migne's *Patrologia Latina*, and the following one, include the Mozarabic liturgies. There remain of Saint Leander: 1° saint Léandre Elder brother and spiritual mentor of Florentina. a letter to his sister Florentina, under the title: *On the Institution of Virgins and the Contempt of the World* (Volume LXXXII of M. Migne's *Patrologia*); 2° a *Speech on the Conversion of the Goths*: it is part of th e Third Council of Toledo, troisième Concile de Tolède Council of 589 marking the conversion of the Goths to Catholicism. in the year 589 (Volume LXXII of M. Migne's *Patrologia*).