Feastday: April 9
Death: 1050
A Spanish martyr. A native of Toledo, Spain, of Moorish parentage, Casilda became a Christian and a hermitess near Briviesca, Burgos. Casilda is venerated in Burgos and Toledo.
 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (March 2020) |
Saint Casilda of Toledo (Spanish: Santa Casilda de Toledo) (b. 1007<1050 - d. 1050<1107) is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church. Her feast day is April 9.
Life
According to her legend, St. Casilda, a daughter of a Muslim king of Toledo (likely Ismaíl al-Záfir or his son Yahya ibn Ismail Al-Mamun), showed great compassion for Christian prisoners by frequently sneaking bread into the prison, hidden in her clothes, to feed them. Once, she was stopped by her father and his Muslim soldiers, and asked to reveal what she was carrying in her skirt. When she began to show them, the bread turned into a bouquet of roses.
She was raised a Muslim, but when she became ill as a young woman, she refused help from the local Arab doctors and traveled to northern Iberia to partake of the healing waters of the shrine of San Vicente, near Buezo, close to Briviesca. When she was cured, she was baptized at Burgos (where she was later venerated) and lived a life of solitude and penance not far from the miraculous spring. It is said that she lived to be 100 years old.
Images
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Saint Casilda, by Francisco de Zurbarán
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Saint Casilda, by Juan Rizi
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St. Casilda Apprehended with her Basket, Burgos Cathedral
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The Miracle of the Roses; by José Nogales Sevilla
Painted between 1638 and 1642, Zurbarán's Santa Casilda used as its model a lady of the Spanish court. She wears the fashions for courtiers of the time.
Bibliography
- Concha Espina, Casilda de Toledo (Madrid: Biblioteca nueva, 1940)
