Saint Hermenegild or Ermengild (died 13 April 585; Spanish: San Hermenegildo; Latin: Hermenegildus, from Gothic 𐌹𐍂𐌼𐌿𐌽𐌰𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳𐍃 *Airmana-gild, "immense tribute"), was the son of King Liuvigild of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France.

[2] His death was later celebrated as a martyrdom due to the influence of Pope Gregory I's Dialogues, in which he portrayed Hermenegild as a "Catholic martyr rebelling against the tyranny of an Arian father.

The twelve-year-old Ingund was pressured by Hermenegild's stepmother Goiswintha to abjure her beliefs, but she stayed firm in her faith.

Hermenegild's reputation as a Catholic martyr is not present in contemporary Spanish accounts, such as John of Biclaro's Chronicon continuans Victorem Tunnunensem and Isidore of Seville's Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum, which mention only his revolt and not his conversion.

As a Catholic martyr, Hermenegild rose to prominence in Spain during the period following the Reconquista, during which time there was renewed interest in the Visigothic "golden age".

[14] One example of this is El mártir del sacramento, San Hermenegildo, a Eucharistic play written in the 1680s by the Mexican nun Juana Inés de la Cruz.

[14] Another example is the Italian Cardinal Francesco Sforza Pallavicino's 1644 tragedy Ermenegildo martire, which is considered a masterpiece of seventeenth-century Jesuit hagiographical drama.

[16] Francisco de Herrera the Younger's 1654 painting The Triumph of St. Hermenegild, originally for the Church of the Discalced Carmelites in Madrid, is now in the collection of the Museo del Prado.

When he refused to take communion from the Arian bishop during the Easter service, his perfidious father ordered that he be brought down with an axe.

[19] The Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild, established by Ferdinand VII of Spain in 1814, is also named in his honor.

[21] 17th-century Spanish genealogist Luis Bartolomé de Salazar y Castro gave Ardabast's father as Athanagild, the son of Saint Hermenegild and Ingund, and his mother as Flavia Juliana, a daughter of Peter Augustus and niece of the Emperor Maurice.

[22] This imperial connection is disputed by Christian Settipani, who says that the only source for Athanagild's marriage to Flavia Julia is José Pellicer, who he claims to be a forger.