Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo

Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo was a monk, an abbot, and the bishop of the capital of Visigothic Spain, an esteemed Church writer of the seventh century. He is remembered above all as a fervent devotee of Mary and a defender of the faith in her perpetual virginity. The Church commemorates him on January 23.

He came from a powerful family of Toledo and was born at the beginning of the seventh century; the exact year is not known, and a date around 607 is most often given. What is certain about him comes from his own writings and from a short notice written by Saint Julian, one of his successors in Toledo. Later lives added details that cannot be verified, for example that he studied under Saint Isidore of Seville.

As a young man he entered the monastery of Agali near Toledo, dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian. His life relates that he did so against his father’s will. He was ordained a deacon by Bishop Helladius. While still a simple monk he founded a monastery for nuns out of his family property. In time the brothers elected him abbot.

Toward the end of 657, after the death of Bishop Eugenius, Recceswinth, king of the Visigoths, called him to the episcopal see of Toledo. Julian writes that he was brought back to Toledo under pressure from the ruler. He governed the Church of Toledo for a little more than nine years. The Roman Martyrology recalls that he wrote many books in fine language and composed remarkable liturgical prayers.

His best-known work is the treatise On the Perpetual Virginity of Holy Mary (De virginitate perpetua sanctae Mariae). In it Ildephonsus defends the faith of the Church that the Mother of Christ remained a virgin before the birth of her Son, at his birth, and after it. He wrote that the honor paid to the Handmaid is referred to the Lord, and that what is given to the Mother redounds to the Son. In the apostolic exhortation Marialis cultus Paul VI quoted his prayer, in which Ildephonsus asks Mary that he may receive Jesus from the same Holy Spirit by whom she conceived him. In Zaragoza in 1982 John Paul II called this treatise the first great Spanish statement about the Mother of God.

His writings on baptism have also survived, as has a collection of short biographies, On Illustrious Men (De viris illustribus), in which he continued the work of Saint Isidore of Seville and commemorated, among others, his predecessors, the bishops of Toledo.

He died in Toledo on January 23, 667, and was buried in the basilica of Saint Leocadia. A tradition established in Toledo in the eighth century tells that Mary appeared to Ildephonsus in the cathedral and, in gratitude for his zeal, gave him a chasuble. The oldest sources do not know this story, yet it became a favorite subject of painters, among them El Greco, Velázquez, and Murillo. According to tradition, after the Arab invasion the remains of Ildephonsus were moved north; since the Middle Ages they have been venerated in Zamora. He was venerated as a saint long before canonization processes existed. He is the patron of Toledo and of its archdiocese.