St. Leander of Seville

St. Leander of Seville (c. 534 AD – 13 March 600 or 601) was the Bishop of Seville. He was instrumental in effecting the conversion of the Visigothic kings Hermengild and Reccared to Catholicism. His brother (and successor as bishop) was the encyclopedist St. Isidore of Seville. Leander introduced the recitation of the Nicene Creed at Mass, as a way to help reinforce the faith of his people against Arianism. In 589, he convoked the Third Council of Toledo, where Visigothic Hispania abjured Arianism. Leander delivered the triumphant closing sermon which his brother Isidore entitled Homilia de triumpho ecclesiae ob conversionem Gothorum (“a homily upon the triumph of the Church and the conversion of the Goths”).