Vicenç de Lleó

Who they were

St. Vincent, abbot of St. Claudius in a suburb of Leon in Spain, and martyr, lived while the Visigoths ruled that country and the Arian heresy was devastating the Catholic fold. The king heard of his staunch loyalty to the Catholic faith and summoned him to appear before a council of Arian bishops. When he boldly confessed that he had rather suffer death than renounce the Nicene Creed, the King ordered him to be scourged and to be cast into prison. While suffering from the wounds inflicted upon him, he was visited and healed by an angel, and sang the praises of God in a loud and cheerful voice. Summoned before his persecutors for a second time he repeated the Creed of Nice, whereupon the King commanded him to be executed at the gate of his monastery. Vincent offered his life to God, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He shed his blood in defense of the faith in 584. The remains were first interred in the church of his monastery, but were later carried to the cathedral at Oviedo, where they repose.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

A Benedictine Martyrology (1922) remembers him on 11 March.