Leocadia (d. about 303)

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Leocadia (d. about 303)

Spanish saint. Died around 303.

A popular Spanish saint, Leocadia lived in Toledo when Dacian, an agent of Diocletian, arrived to enforce the Roman emperor's edicts against Christianity. A Christian, Leocadia was brought before Dacian and told to disavow her faith. She refused, and he had her beaten and thrown into a dungeon. When Leocadia heard about the tortures being endured by 13- or 14-year-old Eulalia in Mérida by the same persecutors, she prayed for God to take her from a world of such horrors. She died while in prison. Her feast day is on December 9.

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