Leocadia - Leocadia's Relics

Leocadia's Relics

She was buried in the local cemetery, near the Tagus, where soon a cult sprung around her grave. It is thought that a basilica was built in the fourth century, improved upon in 618 by Sisebur. The seventh century saw a flourishing of her cult.

During the reign of Alfonso X of Castile, the prison where she is said to have been incarcerated still carried proof of her habitation. A contemporary witness records: "There still existed, and we touched it, a sign of the cross impressed in the stone because the martyr constantly touched the walls with her fingers that sign of our redemption."

During the ninth century, her relics were moved during the persecutions of Abd ar-Rahman II. They were moved to Oviedo; Alfonso the Chaste erected a basilica there in her honor. In the eleventh century, a Count of Hainault arrived in Spain as a pilgrim to Compostela. He fought alongside Alfonso VI of Castile in campaigns of the Reconquista, and received in recompense the relics of Saint Leocadia and Saint Sulpicius (Sulpicio). Thus, her relics were taken out of Spain.

Her relics were known to have been located at the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Ghislain, in present-day Belgium.

Her relics were venerated there by Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile, who recovered for Toledo a tibia of the saint. The abbey of Saint-Ghislain suffered depredations in the wars of the 16th century. Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba attempted unsuccessfully to rescue the rest of her relics. However, a Jesuit named Miguel Hernández, a native of Toledo Province, found her relics in 1583. After many travels, he brought them to Rome in 1586. They were brought to Valencia by sea, and then finally brought to Toledo from Cuenca. Philip II of Spain presided over a solemn ceremony commemorating the final translation of her relics to Toledo, in April 1587.

The small town of Leocadia, near Samaraes, between Braga and Guimarães in Northern Portugal, is named after her.

• Exterior of the holy chamber of Saint Leocadia

• Lattice window of the crypt of Saint Leocadia

• Lid of the central crypt