Reccared I

Reccared was a son of Leovigild, the Arian king of the Visigoths. Isidore of Seville dates his accession to the year 624 of the Spanish era, AD 586, says that he embraced the Catholic faith at the very beginning of his reign, and gives him fifteen years as king and a peaceful death at Toledo (Isidore, History of the Goths 52–56). Gregory the Great writes that he followed the example of his brother Hermenegild, who had been put to death as a Catholic, and not that of his father (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 3.31).

At the council of 589 he presented a written profession of faith, signed it with Queen Baddo, and offered the conversion of the Goths to God as his own gift (The Visigoths Turn Catholic at Toledo) (Council of Toledo (589) tomus of Reccared). Pope Gregory later wrote to him in praise of what he called a new miracle, the bringing of the whole Gothic people from Arian error to the right faith (Gregory the Great, Letters 9.122).