c.550-c.600. Bishop of Seville. Born in Cartagena, Leander came from a family which eventually included four saints-himself, his sister Florentina, and his brothers Fulgentius and Isidore. The latter succeeded him as bishop. Leander assumed the episcopal see about 577, and as Spain's leading churchman led the country's Visigothic rulers from Arianism to Catholicism. By converting Prince Hermenegild, Leander initially incurred the wrath of King Leovigild and was forced to flee to Constantinople. Here he befriended Gregory the Great, several of whose letters to Leander are extant. Returning to Seville, he presided at the Synod of Toledo in 589. De triumpho ecclesiae ob conversionem Gothorum, his closing address to that assembly, along with a rule for nuns, constitute his two preserved writings.