The Seventeenth Council of Toledo (central Hispania) in 694 is held in the church of *Leocadia (virgin and confessor of Toledo, S01367), in the suburbs of the city; all according to the Latin acts of the council.
E07487
Canonical and legal texts
Acts of the Seventeenth Council of Toledo in 694
Dum in ecclesia gloriosae uirginis et confessoris Christi sanctae Leocadiae, quae est in suburbio Toletano ubi sanctum eius corpus requiescit, plerique Hispaniarum et Galliarum pontifices convenissemus, debitis nobis in locis residentibus adfuit idem gloriosissimus princeps fervore sanctae devotionis accensus sanctique Spiritus munere plenus, et in medio nostri consistens, inclitum caput reclinans sese a nobis benedici poposcit et orationum nostrarum effusione Domino commendari optavit.
'When we, many bishops of Spain and Gaul, had gathered in the church of the glorious virgin and confessor of Christ, saint Leocadia, which is in the suburbs of Toledo where her holy body rests, as we took the places appropriate for us, the most glorious king, inflamed with the fervour of holy devotion and full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, was also present. He stood in the midst of us, he bent his illustrious head and asked to be blessed by us and desired to be entrusted to God by the flow of our prayers.'
Text: Vives 1963: 522.
Translation: M. Szada.
Cult building - independent (church)
Activities accompanying CultMeetings and gatherings of the clergy
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
The Seventeenth Council of Toledo gathered on 9 November 694 during the reign of King Egica and was presided over by Bishop Felix of Toledo. It is the last council of Toledo of which records survive. See Collins 2004: 110.The council gathered in the church of Leocadia just as the Fourth Council of Toledo in 633 (E3013), the Fifth in 636 (E03083) and the Sixth in 638 (E03084).
Discussion
The date of foundation of this church of Leocadia is unknown. The acts of the Fourth Council of Toledo (see E03013) provide the earliest mention of it; however, it is usually dated back to the reign of King Sisebut (612-621). This assumption is based solely on the account in the so-called Prophetic Chronicle written in 883 that says that during the reign of Sisebut the basilica of Leocadia 'was enlarged with a high roof of wonderful workmanship' (trans. Wolf 2008).The church was located outside the walls of Toledo, to the north-west. In the 1990s Pedro de Palol excavated the remains of the basilica. The excavations have shown that the church was built on a site where late Roman or Visigothic buildings were founded in the area of the circus. Although the preface to the acts of the Seventeenth Council show that there was a tradition that the basilica was built over the tomb of Leocadia, there is no material evidence of a tomb or cemetery below it. The basilica of Leocadia is sometimes called 'in praetorio toletano'. It is possible that the Roman building excavated by de Palol was a praetorium, in which the church was later founded (see de Palol 1991; Martin 2003, 231-232).
Bibliography
Edition:J. Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, Barcelona 1963.
Further reading:
Collins, R., Visigothic Spain, 409-711 (Oxford, 2004).
Gurt i Esparraguera, J.M., and Diarte Blasco, P., "La basílica de santa Leocadia y el final de uso del circo romano de Toledo: una nueva interpretación," Zephyrus 69 (2012), 149–63.
Martin, C., La géographie du pouvoir dans l'espace visigothique (Lille, 2003).
Palol, P. de, "Resultados de las excavaciones junto al Cristo de la Vega, supuesta basílica conciliar de Sta. Leocadia de Toledo: algunas notas de topografía religiosa de la ciudad," Concilio III de Toledo: XIV Centenario 589-1989 (Toledo, 1991), 787-832.
Wolf, K.B. (trans.), "Chronica Prophetica," Medieval Texts in Translation, 2008. Web 22 May 2009.
https://sites.google.com/site/canilup/chronica_prophetica
Marta Szada
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01367 | Leocadia, virgin and confessor of Toledo | Leocadia | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Marta Szada, Cult of Saints, E07487 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07487