Singing to the tomb of Leocadia: a unique procession in the Old Hispanic rite

ABSTRACT The only record we have of a procession for a saint in the entire Old Hispanic tradition is a chant sung on the feast of Saint Leocadia, on the way to her tomb (ad sepulcrum). Copied in the tenth-century León Antiphoner, this chant resonates with additional references to rituals around Leocadia’s tomb which may be traceable to the Visigothic capital of Toledo, her place of burial. This article explores the evidence for processional activity connected with Leocadia, what it might have looked like in different periods, and how it may have ended up being celebrated as far away as León. Correcting certain misconceptions about the translation of her relics northwards – they were not moved to Oviedo, as is often upheld – we are yet left with open questions as to the inclusion of the ad sepulchrum chant in the León manuscript. It may be that reproducing key rituals connected with Toledo’s patron saint was a way of capturing the spiritual authority of Toledo as the former capital of the Visigothic kingdom and the imagined source of the Old Hispanic liturgy.


Introduction
There is only one surviving example in the entire Old Hispanic liturgical repertoire of a procession carried out in direct connection with a saint. 1 This unique example of a procession performed on a saint's feast consists of a single chant sung ad sepulcrum on 9 December in honour of Saint Leocadia. 2 The rubric appears in the tenth-century León Antiphoner (henceforth L8) and refers to a chant sung either in procession to or at the tomb of the saint; the latter possibility still implies movement to the tomb. 3 The fact that this is the only surviving reference to saint-related processional practice does not mean that there were no other processions on saint's feasts, just that we have no other recorded instances. We therefore cannot use other parallel practices to illuminate this one enigmatic witness in order to gain better insight into what precisely occurred during a procession for a saint in the Old Hispanic liturgy.
This article seeks to place the Leocadia processional chant in dialogue with other sources that hint at the existence of liturgical activity around Leocadia's tomb. Examining the L8 chant in its liturgical context and supplementing this information with a prayer in the seventh-century Verona Orational, as well as considering the material remains of early saints' tombs in Iberia, will potentially shed light on the wider ritual in which the chant may have been included. It is not straightforward to bridge the gap between the earliest and latest evidencefrom the seventh to tenth centuriesand the scarcity of the sources makes it difficult to come to definitive conclusions. Even a speculative exploration nevertheless can help us to understand the role of processional movement and the cult of saints in Iberian Christian culture in the early Middle Ages. Here I suggest that the recording (if not necessarily the performance) of rituals originally designed for Visigothic Toledo may have been a way for Christians in tenth-century León to inscribe themselves in a long liturgical history, claiming legitimacy and authority through liturgical appeal to Leocadia's legacy. 4 The ad sepulcrum chant Sit nomen Domini is the chant found among the materials for the celebration of the feast of Leocadia on 9 December in L8. 5 The chant is preceded by the rubric ad sepulcrum written in red letters. The rubrics indicate that the chant was sung either at the tomb or on the way to the tomb, thereby raising the possibility that it was performed with (or after) ritual movement. It is the last item listed for the liturgical day, following directly on from the sacrificium chant of the mass, Munera acceptae sunt. 6 The ad sepulcrum chant has various parts to it, as can be seen in Figure  VR. Exelsus super (Ps. 112:4) I to noma kiriu eologimenon alleluia apo to nin che os tu eonas alleluia [G] [+ another unidentifiable mark] alleluia (Ps. 112:2) The chant is in itself short, comprising a phrase from Ps. 112:2, after which the verse incipit is the beginning of Ps. 112:4. The version of Ps. 112:2 is that of the so-called 3 León, Biblioteca de la Catedral MS 8,f. 49v. 4 Leocadia's cult is discussed in García Rodríguez, Culto de los santos, 246-53. 5 For a general discussion of these liturgical materials, see Ferrer Grenesche, Contribución al estudio. 6 On which, see Maloy,Songs of Sacrifice. 7 Legend: % = subscript marking that indicates a repetition of the chant starting at this point (after the verse) G = subscript marking that indicates a repetition of the chant starting at this point (after the doxology) Mozarabic Psalter, a version distinct in many places from the Vulgate text, as is the case here (see Table 1). 8 We cannot know whether the entirety of Psalm 112 was sung as the chant's verse; the complete psalm is a relatively short text of only nine verses. 10 Repetition of certain parts of the chant following the verse would have lengthened the time to sing the entire chant complex, as would singing of the Graecus, a Greek version of the Latin chant, and to which we will later return. The entire chant may therefore have granted sufficient time for the singers to process from the choir, where they would have been performing the mass, to a place designated as the tomb. Another possible interpretation of this rubric is that the chant was meant to be performed around the tomb, after the singers had already processed there. 11 At first glance, the text of the ad sepulcrum chant bears little explicit connection to Saint Leocadia herself. 12 It involves general praise of God, with important Christological images, but nothing particularly saint-related. The praising theme nevertheless dominates Leocadia's feast day. Leocadia is framed in the Old Hispanic liturgy, unusually for a woman, as a confessor saint. 13 The origins of this attribution may lie in the fact that, according to her vita, she did not receive death at the hands of an executioner, but in answer to her prayers while in prison. The late antique meaning of "confessor" was "near-martyr." 14 The liturgy for Leocadia was most likely composed in the  10 The assumption is generally that by this point in the rite's development, only the psalm verse signaled by the verse incipit would have been sung, rather than the entire psalm, but given the potential processional nature of the chant, the singing of a full psalm remains a possibility. See Hornby et al., Understanding the Old Hispanic Office. There is a similar example in Silos 4, 110r within the ceremony when a king departs for war. In that case, the manuscript provides only an antiphon; however, since this antiphon would have been sung at least weekly with the whole of Psalm 139 within the cyclical psalmody of the cloistered liturgy, Hornby et al.,"Processional Melodies,[8][9], have hypothesised that the antiphon would have triggered the singing of the entire psalm during this special ceremony. 11 The preposition ad comprises the two meanings, "towards" and "at" or "near by." 12 For discussions of Leocadia's passio, which is generally dated to the seventh century, see Fábrega, Pasionario hispánico, I:67-78; Castillo Maldonado, "Angelorum Participes," 55-60. 13 On which, see Hornby,Ihnat and Maloy,"Virgin Confessor." 14 For the late antique definition of confessor as "near-martyr," see for example Carmen IV, Prudentius,Crowns of Martyrdom, seventh century, at a time when the concept of a confessor saint had already shifted to describe bishops and ascetic saints, the most famous of whom was Martin of Tours. 16 Differing from Martin's liturgy in ignoring the question of good works and preaching, Leocadia's liturgy frames her first and foremost as a saint who "confesses," meaning one who professes and praises, according to the definition set out by Isidore of Seville. 17 The chant Sit nomen domini provides a fitting conclusion to her feast day by allowing for one last opportunity to praise the Lord as Leocadia herself is thought to have done. Verses of Psalm 112 were used at other moments in Leocadia's liturgy, raising the possibility that it played a purposeful role in the liturgical construction of her saintly identity (see Table 2 below). Psalm 112 was possibly the basis of a now-lost chant for Leocadia that would have accompanied a matutinum oration found in the late-seventhor early-eighth-century Verona Orational (henceforth OV) (see Table 2). 18 Normally, these orations have chant incipits noted in the margins, but a series of orations for the feast of Leocadia do not and are marked only as Alia. 19 The content of an oration sometimes makes it possible to reconstruct the biblical source of the original corresponding chant text. In the case of the OV matutinum oration, that chant may well have been derived from Psalm 112: the first line of the oration is from Ps. 112:4, and we see Leocadia described later in the same prayer with language from Ps. 112:9, as indicated by the bold passages in Table 2. Psalm 112:2 also appears in connection with a moment in Leocadia's mass in L8 (f. 49r). The incipit Sit nomen domini (with the rubric AL for alia) is added in a space after the rubric for the mass psalmus chant on Leocadia's feast day. The hand that wrote this particular incipit does not match the main scribal hand, however, and the actual psalmus text (in the same hand as the ad sepulcrum chant) is Confitebor tibi domine. If the Sit nomen domini incipit did, therefore, mark an alternative psalmus for Leocadia's mass, it must have been added by a later scribe, one who was perhaps inspired by the ad sepulcrum chant. 20 The frequent use of Psalm 112 to provide the verses of Old Hispanic chants complicates the picture, however. As an alleluiatic psalm (that is, it includes alleluias within), Ps. 112:1 appears often as a verse following alleluiaticia subgenre of office antiphons containing many alleluiasand also following praelegenda in the mass, for a variety of liturgical moments including: saints' feasts, during Advent, Lent, in quotidian time and for occasional rituals, such as the dedication of a church. 21 The ubiquity of the psalm attests to its general praising tenor, fitting for almost any occasion, an observation that must be taken into account when considering its use in relation to Leocadia.

The Graecus
Beyond its unique status as a processional chant for a saint's feast, the Leocadia ad sepulcrum chant further stands out for having a Graecus immediately following the Latin chant. Graeci are chants in Greek that appear in a variety of contexts in the Old Hispanic rite, in both mass and office. 22 They have been subdivided into Graeci for the office (five extant examples) and Trisagi or Greek chants for the mass (nine extant examples). 23 Most of the Trisagi are associated with the major feasts of the Temporale (Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Easter Monday, Easter Octave, Ascension and Pentecost); the exception is a Trisagion for the feast of Mary, which is closely tied in the Old Hispanic tradition to Christmas. 24 Apart from Leocadia, two of Iberia's oldest and most popular saints have Graeci in the office. 25 Eulalia of Merida's feast day features Riseme apo andro, following and corresponding textually and melodically to the (Latin) Psalm 50 antiphon at the end of the office of matutinum (f. 51r). The feast of Vincent includes Tachima tusu kirie, following and corresponding textually and melodically to the canticle antiphon (f. 98v). Based on all the instances in which we find chants in Greek, it is safe to say that these were connected only to the most important feast days, and were intended to intensify the solemnity of the feast.
Given the prominence of the days to which Graeci were assigned in the Old Hispanic tradition, it must be significant that the feast of Leocadia is the only day we know of to feature two such chants. The first of these (Rantis me kirrie) is found in the same position as Eulalia's (just after, and corresponding to, the Psalm 50 antiphon, Adsparsit me dominus Deus), and the second is in the ad sepulcrum chant. 26 The Greek in the latter case is a garbled, transliterated version of Psalm 112:2, corresponding to the Latin 20 The only other occasion in the Old Hispanic rite in which we find Sit nomen domini used as a chant text is as an alleluiaticus for vespers on a quotidian Sunday (Dom. XVI) in the much later manuscript, Toledo, Biblioteca Capitolare MS 35-4, which is dated to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century by Mundó, "La datación," 10, and attributed to Toledo. 21 The "alleluiatic psalms" are Psalms 103-106, 110-126, 136-138 and 145-150. See Hornby et al., Understanding the Old Hispanic Office, 78-79. 22 On the genre, see especially Janeras, "Una antifona grega oblidada," and "Elements orientals." 23 A list can be found in Randel,An Index,413. 24 For a very brief treatment of the Trisagion, see also Pinell,Liturgia hispánica,153. 25 Christmas and Epiphany also feature office Graeci after and corresponding to the canticle antiphon. On these see Brou, "Le joyau des antiphonaires latins," 43-44; Janeras, "Elements orientals," 93-94, and "Una antifona grega oblidada." 26 The imitation of the liturgy of Eulalia of Mérida is striking here and helps support the idea that Leocadia was "invented" on the model of Eulalia, her cult being developed in response to and in competition with Eulalia's in Mérida. Díaz y Díaz, "Cuestiones en torno," 52-53, goes so far as to say that the appearance of Leocadia's Graecus chant was in imitation of Eulalia's. This comparison may be overplayed in the scholarship, and is largely dependent on a strongly-coloured account of King Leovigild's attempts to take Eulalia's relics to Toledo, as described in the VPE, VI:12-23, 84-85. chant that directly precedes it. 27 Despite the fact that the syllable count of the text differs in each language, the melody appears to have been kept almost identical in both Latin and Greek versions of the chant, as is typical of the Graecus genre. From the arrangement on the page and the appearance of (difficult to read) repetition cues under the Graecus, it was likely performed in the following way: Alleluia I to noma kiriu eologimenon alleluia apo to nin che os tu eonas alleluia alleluia

Alleluia
The rubrics under the Graecus are blurred and almost impossible to read. 28 It does seem, however, that they signal a doxology and a repetition of the final alleluia to follow the Greek chant. 29 This creates a combined impression of one unified chant unit: the Greek version of Psalm 112 following on directly from the Latin version, with the same melody, interrupted only by the doxology that was sung twice in total. Ending Leocadia's feast with a Graecus sung to/at her tomb could well have been intended to enhance this part of the ritual, infusing it with an even greater solemnity. 30 Use of the Greek would no doubt have lent the proceedings an almost other-worldly atmosphere, giving it "a note of mysterious exoticism" since few in attendance would have understood the text. 31 As a result, the actions around the tomb would have been further heightened.

The OV prayer
Trying to understand what precisely happened ad sepulcrum before or during the singing of the Sit nomen domini chant is helped by one further indication of a tomb-related ritual. It appears in a much earlier text, the late seventhor early eighth-century Orational of Verona (OV). On the feast of Saint Leocadia, one of the matutinum orations appears to refer to a ritual at the saint's tomb (see Table 3). 32 27 The Septuagint version reads: εἴη τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου εὐλογημένον ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν καὶ ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος· 28 Access to the manuscript is severely restricted, and COVID regulations prevented viewing it in person; however, excellent digital images are available at https://bvpb.mcu.es/es/consulta/registro.cmd?id=449895 29 On the doxology, see Hornby et al., Understanding the Old Hispanic Office. 30 There is little to indicate that this was inspired by Byzantine practice. Janeras, "Una antifona grega oblidada," 12, among others, noted that the same verse of Psalm 112 was sung in the Byzantine rite at the beginning of the little office of the antidoron, which generally precedes another office. The difference in this case is that the Leocadia Graecus concludes the mass rather than opens the office. It is difficult to conclude that its use here was consciously borrowing from Byzantine tradition. 31 This has been suggested equally of the Greek creed's presence in Carolingian manuscripts recording Roman rituals by Westwell, "The Ordines Romani," 69. 32 Other manuscripts contain the same prayer, including Madrid Real Academia de la Historia Cod. 30, f. 63-63v (Gros i Pujol, "El 'Liber misticus'," 145) and London, British Library Add. MS 30852 f. 5r. Oh Christ Son of God, the Virgin Leocadia is beautiful in the eyes of the faithful, and is seen in a certain sense every coming year when the honour of her tomb is presented to the human gaze, and allows itself to be opened with great honour. Sweetly smoulders the perfume of her vestments above all other spices, because the signs of her virtues blossom with a swelling brightness. Bestow on us that the perfume of her virtues might stir our sleeping hearts and senses to penitence, that we who now receive joy from the odour, may later receive neverending glory from our penitence. The oration follows on from the alleluiaticus Speciosa facta es, which takes its text from Cant. 4:10-11, and whose incipit is noted in the margins of OV. 34 As is typical of the Old Hispanic tradition, the oration glosses the chant text that precedes it and explains why it is appropriate for the liturgical occasion. In this case, the beauty of the bride described in the chant is interpreted as that of Leocadia, from whose vestments emanates a sweet perfume that moves the congregation to penitence and prayer. The entire missathe building block of Old Hispanic matutinum, or dawn office, comprising a unit of three antiphons and a responsory, with corresponding orations (see Table 3)constructs the image of Leocadia progressively. In the first antiphon, she is called on to rise, and is praised for her beauty (Cant. 6:9). In the second antiphon, she is urged to rise like Syon and put on the garments of glory (Is. 52:1 and 62:12), these garments then praised for their sweet smell in the alleluiaticus. In the responsory, her perfume is compared to balsa wood (Ecclus. 24:21), and she is compared to the rising sun (Judges 53:1), in a centonized biblical quotation that ties back to both the alleluiaticus and the first two antiphons. 35 The entire missa, therefore, evokes an image of Leocadia arising in shining garments that exude the sweetest of smells.
The oration following the alleluiaticus hints that these sensual delights may have been meant to be experienced literally. In glossing the biblical text, the oration appears to refer to a ritual in which Leocadia's tomb was annually opened: when the honour of her tomb is every year presented to the human gaze, in some sense, and allows itself to be opened. 36 The ceremony alluded to here seems to have involved the revelation of Leocadia in her tomb, although only "in some sense" (quodammodo). Of course, perfumes wafting out of saints' tombs as proof of their holiness (odor sanctitatis) is a hagiographic trope. 37 Yet use of the stock image does not rule out the possibility that the oration captures something of the experience of participants in their commemoration of Leocadia. In referring to a ritual, the oration may reflect the actual release of odours from Leocadia's tomb as it was made visible, emanating perhaps from aromatic plants or incense. 38 If a ceremonial opening of Leocadia's tomb really did take place every year on her feast day, such an event would be unique in the Old Hispanic tradition and in the wider early medieval context to our knowledge thus far. 39 So how can we imagine it being performed? 34 Vives,Oracional,no. 137,45 (from Verona,Bibliotheca Capitolare Cod. LXXXIX,f. 16v). 35 Centonization involves the combination of different biblical verses in one chant text. On this process in the Old Hispanic rite, see Maloy, "Old Hispanic Chant." 36 Fabrega, Pasionario hispánico I:76, links this part of the oration to a prayer used in the mass of Eulalia of Barcelona: "Adest, dilectissimi fratres, famosum illud beatae Eulaliae festum quod annuis recursibus suscipimus incolendum: … honore etiam inlustravit sepulchrum." Eulalia text from Janini, Liber missarum, 104. Fabrega noted that the expression honore sepulchri is found also in the hymn for Eulalia attributed to Quiricus of Barcelona ca. 656. These connections appear to me potentially tenuous, because of the universality of the ideas about saint veneration they involve. If any borrowing did occur, it may also have gone in the other direction, as the Leocadia prayers may date to as early as 633 (on which, see further below). Whatever the relation between these prayers, the one for Eulalia nevertheless does not indicate an equivalent tomb-opening moment; the tomb is mentioned, but not as the centre of ritual movement in the way Leocadia's is treated. 37 This was less common in the early Middle Ages compared to later periods, according to the exhaustive analysis of Roch, L'intelligence d'un sens, "The 'Odor of Sanctity'," and "Inenarrabiles odores." 38 Roch, "Inenarrabiles odores," indicates that accounts of perfume could be based on the efforts made by clerics to perfume church interiors, especially around saintly relics, for example, by covering translated relics in perfume or fragrant plants. 39 So far, no parallel ceremony has come to my attention. My thanks to Caroline Goodson, Julia Smith, Isaac Sastre de Diego, David Addison, Robert Wisniewski, and Jessica Barker for their help in this. The only parallels are fifteenth-century royal tombs that were opened on high feast days and anniversaries to reveal an effigy. The tomb of Thomas Beckett was also opened with a pulley system. Nothing comparable has yet been identified for the earlier Middle Ages.

Leocadia in Toledo
A ritual involving a visit to and opening of Leocadia's tomb, if it did occur, would have been performed most logically at her burial site. 40 The tomb of Leocadia was probably located at a church dedicated to the saint in the suburbs of Toledo, beginning life as a martyrium or non-eucharistic chapel, but becoming a basilica at least by the early seventh century. 41 Some structure already existed when the Visigothic king Sisebut (ca. 565-621) renovated the building, according to a mid-ninth-century account by Eulogius of Córdoba. 42 Although we do not know exactly what was involved in this remodeling, the church must have been grand enough by the year 633 to host some of the most important ecclesiastical councils held in the Visigothic kingdom. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventeenth Councils of Toledo convened there, with dozens of bishops, magnates and the king himself in attendance. As described in the De Viris Illustribus, the church was also important enough to become the resting place of a number of prominent Toledan bishops, including Eugenius II, Ildefonsus and Julian. 43 Archaeological surveys have identified a late antique structure in the Cristo de la Vega area of Toledo, just outside the city walls, that was at one point provisionally identified as the site of Leocadia's church. 44 In a more recent study, the structure was (equally tentatively) identified as the initial martyrium built over her tomb, which would have been rebuilt as a basilica close by but not on the same site. 45 There is no evidence, least of all an identifiable martyrial tomb, to confirm either of these identifications, and other locations for Leocadia's church and tomb have also been put forward. 46 Late antique churches excavated in Iberia present two options in terms of the placement of martyrs' tombs: directly under the altar in the eastern apse, as in the basilica of Eulalia in Mérida, or in an area of the church other than the sanctuary, for example a western counter-apse. 47 In each of these cases, the tomb would have been placed under an altar in one of two ways: in a crypt underground or in an elevated structure built on the church floor, the latter being apparently the case in the basilica of Eulalia of Mérida. 48 If the tomb of Leocadia stood above ground, revelation of the relics could conceivably have occurred through a fenestellaa small window onto the tomb, through which it could be viewedalthough no such structures have been discovered on the 40 On relics in Visigothic Iberian culture more generally, see Castillo Maldonado, "Reliquias y lugares santos." 41 On the distinction, see Godoy Fernández, 44 Palol, "Resultados de las excavaciones." 45 Gurt i Esparraguera and Diarte Blasco, "La basílica de Santa Leocadia." 46 Barroso and Carrobles, "El paisaje urbano de Toledo." A fragment of a creed inscribed on stone suggests that the excavated building served a religious purpose, but nothing links it firmly with Leocadia. 47 Sastre de Diego, "El altar en la arquitectura cristiana hispánica," 390. Godoy, Arqueología y liturgia, 66-85, and "Archaeology and the Cult of Saints," 486-88, considers the purpose of counter-choirs and counter-apses found in late antique Iberian churches as having a martyrial function separate from eucharistic celebration. 48 Determined by the mausoleum in which Eulalia was originally buried, and around which the basilica was built. Mateos Cruz, La basílica de Santa Eulalia de Mérida, 145, 162-63, argued that the bishops of Mérida who are said to have been interred "in one and the same cell close to the altar of the most holy virgin Eulalia" (VPE 15.1, 104) may have been buried in a crypt below the southern end of the transept.
Iberian peninsula. 49 An unveiling may also have been achieved by drawing open the curtains that separated the sanctuary from the nave, a practice illustrated in later manuscripts. 50 If the tomb rested below ground, perhaps it was accessed via a small window or hole onto the confessio (oratory containing the tomb) under the altar, as is the case in a number of Roman churches such as Saint Cecilia and Saint Peter's. 51 This small window or hole would grant access to clergy and pilgrims, but again, there appear to be no such examples on the Peninsula. In either case, above or below ground, the tomb of Leocadia could have featured a hole through which clergy could pour oil, allowing it to flow over the relics and out the other side for collection, a practice already taking place in fourth-century Nola (southern Italy) and in many other places in early medieval Byzantium. 52 Although better archaeological evidence would be needed in order to decide which option is the most likely for Leocadia's basilica, any one of the above arrangements may somehow have made her remains visible to the congregationpresented in some way to the human gaze, as the oration has itevery year on her feast day.
One text gives us a clue as to the potential origins of this ceremony in a famous instance of the opening of Leocadia's tomb. Most recently re-attributed to the mideighth century, the Vita Ildefonsi describes the life and deeds of Ildefonsus, bishop of Toledo between 657 and 667. 53 Ascribing a number of liturgical works to him in honour of saints with a special connection to Toledo, including Cosme and Damian and the Virgin Mary, the text states that he specifically composed the fourth missa for the feast of Leocadia: the one included above in Table 3. 54 Ildefonsus's involvement in embellishing Leocadia's liturgy would be understandable as part of his attempt to raise Toledo's profile as metropolitan see, evinced also by his addition of a number of Toledan bishops to the hagiographical biographies found in the De viris illustribus. 55 As described in the Vita Ildefonsi, Ildefonsus not only had himself buried in Leocadia's church, but was attributed a miracle from the saint herself as a reward for his devotion. On one occasion, Leocadia's tomb is said to have opened before him, with her body rising out of it, prompting the clerics assembled to sing for joy the chant Speciosa facta es, alleluiathis is the chant whose corresponding oration mentions the tomb-opening. Grabbing a knife from King Recceswinth, also present, Ildefonsus manages to cut off a piece of her veil which he then puts in a reliquary together with the knife. 56 The text must of course be read as a piece of hagiography that either seeks to promote Ildefonsus himself on the basis of his privileged relationship with the Toledan saints, 57 or to 49 Sastre de Diego, "El altar en la arquitectura cristiana hispánica," 238. 50 Álvarez Martínez, "Vestigios iconográficos de la liturgica," 302. 51 Goodson, "Archaeology and the Cult of Saints," 11, and "Material Memory," 23-24; Hahn, "Seeing and Believing," 1098.
Such a structure was attributed to La Alberca, a late antique Iberian martyrium, by Palol, Arqueología paleocristiana, 10, but for which no archaeological evidence remains; this is questioned by Sastre de Diego, "El altar en la arquitectura cristiana hispánica," 247. 52 Roch, "Inenarrabiles odores;" Caseau, "Parfum et guérison," 5; Sastre de Diego, "El altar en la arquitectura cristiana hispánica," 447. My thanks to Isaac Sastre de Diego for the suggestion. 53 The text had been dated by its previous editor to the eleventh century (Yarza Urquiola, "La Vita vel gesta sancti Ildefonsi") but has since been re-attributed to the mid-eighth-century Toledan bishop Cixila by Thomas Deswarte, to whom I offer sincere thanks for sharing his unpublished work. 54 Yarza Urquiola, "La Vita vel gesta sancti Ildefonsi," 318. Ildefonsus' authorship of this missa has been argued by Ferrer Grenesche, Contribución al estudio del oficio festivo, 35; Rivas García, "La santa, el rey y el obispo," 299. 55 Ildefonsus, De viris illustribus. On which see also Fontaine, "El De viris illustribus;" Kelly, Isidore of Seville. 56 Yarza Urquiola, "La Vita vel gesta sancti Ildefonsi," 318-20. On this tradition, see also de Gaiffier, "Les sources latines." 57 The interpretation of Yarza Urquiola, "La Vita vel gesta sancti Ildefonsi." introduce the liturgical materials for Leocadia that often accompanied the vita and give them a historical basis. 58 The chants and orations of missa 4 for Leocadia are indeed all strikingly evocative of the episode of the tomb-opening: two chants seem to suggest Leocadia rising from her tomb (Egredere quasi aurora consurgens; Syon consurge), one pictures her putting on "the garment of her glory," which could refer to the veil (induere vestimentis glorie tue), and a third refers to the sweet smell of this garment (hodor vestimentorum tuorum super omnia aromata). 59 The alleluiaticus oration is perhaps the most tantalizing evidence that the liturgy was connected to the legend of Ildefonsus' tombopening, suggesting that something may have happened around Leocadia's tomb during his lifetimeif not quite the way describedthat went on to inspire a yearly commemorative ceremony (annuis recursibus). If so, images of processions to Leocadia's extra-mural church from the early modern period could indicate that the practice well outlasted the Visigothic period. 60

Leocadia in Oviedo and León
The tomb-opening ceremony on Leocadia's feast day may have transcended not just time but also geography, coming to be known and even celebrated outside of Toledo. OV is not attributed to Toledo, but to Tarragonacapital of the Roman province Tarraconensisindicating that knowledge of the ritual traveled with the oration that described it. 61 Because the oration only refers to the tomb-opening ceremony, it would not have needed the presence of the actual tomb for its performance. 62 The same is not the case, however, for the ad sepulcrum chant in L8. Here, we might expect that a tomb was required; the rubric "to/at the tomb" is a stage direction, not performed content, and would not be relevant without the requisite tomb to which one was meant to process.
Was there therefore a tomb of Leocadia at the institution for which L8 was created? The most recent thinking has supported the idea that L8 dates to the mid-tenth century, with iconographical and palaeographical research suggesting an association with the school of Florencio at Valeránica. 63 A title page indicates that it was made at the behest of an abbot Totmundus for Ikila, abbot of the monastery of San Cipriano on the river Porma, some twenty kilometres from the city of León. This Totmundus may have been the bishop of Salamanca of that name who was active between 936 and 967. He and the abbot Ikila are featured in a dedicatory image that suggests a close relationship between these high status individuals. Ikila's aristocratic background is further indicated by his appearance in many charters in the León area in the tenth century. He likely inherited a private monastery on family land, which was served by a double community of men and women. In 917, he appears to have moved the women 58 The interpretation of Henriet, "Heurs et malheurs." 59 The biblical bases for these chants are all shared with the liturgy for the Virgin Mary, which is another potential sign of Ildefonsus's authorship, as he is closely connected to the elaboration of a new Marian feast in Iberia, on which see Ihnat, "Liturgy against Apostasy." 60 Carrero Santamaría, "Las procesiones," 146-47; López Torrijos, "La iconografía." 61 Díaz y Díaz, "Consideraciones," 24-26, with reservations. 62 The presence of the alleluiaticus oration in other manuscripts suggests how widely it was transmitted: Madrid Real Academia de la Historia Cod. 30, f. 63-63v (Gros i Pujol, "El 'Liber misticus'," 145), London, British Library Add. MS 30852 f. 5r, and Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College, MS Acc 434, f. 15r. 63 Gutiérrez, "Librum de auratum." My thanks to Thomas Deswarte for letting me read his unpublished work on this matter.
to a new site in the centre of León, founding the monastery of Santiago de León, to which he donated a number of properties and an antiphoner. It was long considered that the antiphoner listed in his donation was L8, but stylistic features seem to speak against this. Carmen Julia Gutiérrez has ventured that this donation references an earlier antiphoner that may have acted as the model for L8. L8 may nevertheless have been moved to Santiago de León at some point in the later tenth century and from there to León Cathedral, possibly during the raids of Al-Mansur in 986-988, where it came to be inscribed with the names of bishops and kings in the eleventh century. None of these institutions -San Cipriano, Santiago de León or León Cathedralappear in any way connected with Leocadia, however. 64 The body of the saint certainly appears to have remained in Toledo, as indicated by the so-called Cordoban Calendar, dated generally to 961, which records that Leocadia was (still) buried in Toledo. 65 What then explains this reference to a tomb of Leocadia in a Leonese manuscript? One possible answer to the puzzle of L8's rubric is that relics of Leocadia were moved not to León, but to another royal capital: Oviedo. Numerous studies have assumed that the crypt in the Cámara Santa in Oviedo Cathedral, now dedicated to Leocadia, had housed her relics since the time of . 66 The tradition can be traced back to twelfth-century sources, for example the Liber Testamentorum, the work of Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo, which explains that under the basilica built by Alfonso II for Saint Michael was a crypt that held the remains of Leocadia. 67 The Historia Silense likewise declares that Alfonso II had a church constructed for Leocadia in which the faithful could worship the arca santa. 68 This object was a large reliquary, and it has often been assumed that it went on to contain her relics among those of other saints brought from Toledo. 69 These mentions appear to be confirmed in a donation charter made by Alfonso III (c. 848-910) ad altare Sanctae Leocadiae and dated to 10 August 908. The last of these documents is nevertheless only preserved in a thirteenth-century copy, whose authenticity remains in doubt. 70 Given the infamy Pelayo of Oviedo has since gained thanks to his prolific forgery work, we should also doubt the other two accounts: the one written by Pelayo himself, and the other probably based on his narrative. 71 There is no supporting evidence in the intervening centuries that Leocadia was ever translated to Oviedo, nor does she feature in later relic lists of the Cámara Santa. 72 The alleged move north of Leocadia's remains is therefore in all likelihood a twelfth-century invention designed to support Oviedo's claim for independence from Toledo. 73 The seeming absence of Leocadia's body in the north leaves us once again with the question of the ad sepulcrum chant in L8: to which tomb does it refer?
We first must recognize the variety of meanings the term "sepulcrum" could carry. It could mean tomb, but it could equally refer to a lipsanotheca, a small container for relics that was frequently placed in an altar (either primary or secondary) or even inserted in a church wall during the consecration of the building. 74 Starting in the eighth century, these structures appeared all over Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, and we have textual descriptions that match the archaeological findings. 75 Leocadia is herself mentioned in an inscription from mid-seventh-century Guadix, indicating the presence of her relics within an altar, possibly in a structure such as a lipsanotheca. 76 We have no more record of relics of Leocadia in a Leonese church than we have reference to her tomb, but this is not to say that there were no partial or secondary relics of which we simply have no remaining trace. 77 Absence of relics also does not rule out a special veneration to the saint. The twelfth-century Latin translation of the Cordoban Calendar adds to the original Arabic text that Leocadia was venerated in Córdoba at the church of Saint Cyprian, meaning churches with no dedication to Leocadia could still claim a special association with her. This version of the Cordoban Calendar points to a stational liturgy in Córdoba, in which different feasts were (primarily) celebrated at different churches in the city. 78 Perhaps the church of Saint Cyprian had a secondary altar dedicated to Leocadia, and may even have possessed a partial relic. We cannot therefore discard completely the idea that either relics or special forms of veneration existed outside of Toledo, which may have influenced what appears in L8.
Another scenario explaining the ad sepulcrum chant has more to do with the model on which L8 was based than the presence of relics. There is some evidence that L8 had a Toledan connection. We find, for example, an elaborate office for the anointing of a king on ff. 271v-273v. Certainly the ritual could have been performed in León, the capital of the Asturian-Leonese kingdom, and at the cathedral where the antiphoner ended up at the end of the tenth century. But León Cathedral was not where the manuscript was first destined for use. We might wonder what such an office is doing in a manuscript made for the monasteries of San Cipriano or Santiago de León, both relatively small if rich institutions, which would presumably not have been involved in elaborate royal ceremonies. 79 An answer is provided by thinking about L8 as modeled on a Toledo-based rite. 80 Just as the pontifical Liber ordinum, S4, a northern (possibly Silos) 73 Carrero Santamaría, Conjunto catedralicio, 43-67; Ward, "Constructing the Cámara Santa," 57-59; Alonso, "Patria vallata," and "Royal Power and the Episcopacy." 74 My thanks to Eduardo Carrero Santamaría for this information. 75  manuscript, includes prayers for a king departing to war from the Toledan church of Saints Peter and Paul, Toledo may have provided the source for the rites included in L8. 81 In other words, manuscripts that were not intended for use in Toledo may still have collected instructions for practices with a special connection to Toledo. It is worth remembering that a feast commemorating the dedication of the church of Leocadia in Toledo is found in only two surviving Old Hispanic calendars: L8 and S4. Justo Pérez de Urbel also noted that L8's calendar lacks feasts associated with local Leonese saints, including Facundus and Primitivus, Marcellus and Claudius of León, not to mention Santiago, and includes obits of Toledan bishops, including Ildefonsus and Eugenius. There is also mention in a marginal note of Julian of Toledo as originator of a particular ordo. 82 We may not need to resort to the theory of Totmundus's origins in the south to explain these features. Instead, they may reflect a desire in León for an authoritative liturgical codex based on a Toledan model. 83 An instructive parallel for this process of liturgical anchoring is found in the many Carolingian manuscripts that preserve reference to the Roman stational liturgy. Many of the institutions that produced them sought to replicate the same stational forms in other locations, as was the case in Worms, Metz and Regensburg. Here, it seems that there was an attempt to recreate the patterns of movement between Rome's titular churches, transferred to churches with the same dedications in the respective Frankish city. 84 At these institutions, performing the processional liturgy associated with Rome was a way to declare the authenticity of that liturgy as "Roman." 85 Such an appeal lent their own practices an apostolic authority derived from the spiritual authority of the city of Peter, Paul and the popes. 86 Other scribes and patrons may have recorded these rituals for other reasons, for example, to capture traditions experienced in Rome that could then be recollected far away in an antiquarian and almost touristic sense. Copying such texts could therefore recreate the apostolic city in the minds of those who had never been there, including not just celebrants but also interested observers. 87 Through these sources, Rome became "a liturgical map on which ceremonies unfolded," a liturgical topography that served as idealised models of ceremonial practice. 88 These books did not just function as guides to actual liturgical activity, but as repositories of authoritative ritual associated with Rome, the spiritual centre.
In the case of L8, either of the above Carolingian scenarios could be possible. On the one hand, the institution for which L8 was made may have attempted to reproduce the ritual movement that would only really have been possible at the church that housed Leocadia's tomb. Either a secondary altar or a reliquary may have stood in for the saint's sepulchre, perhaps in a counter-apse or chapel adjacent to the sanctuary. The idea would have been to perform the Toledan ritual in a new location. Equally possibly, however, L8 may have served to remind its owner and his/her community of the roots of the liturgy that it contained. L8's comprehensive coverage of the entire liturgical year makes it a repository of chant and ritual. It is as much a reference work as one that shaped practice in the church that housed it. Its inclusion of Toledan rituals could well speak to the authority that Toledo still held for Christians in the northern Christian kingdoms. Remembering those rites would have been a way of anchoring the religious tradition practiced in the growing northern kingdoms in an imagined illustrious past. The same premise has been emphasized for the ninth-and tenth-century chronicles that frame the history of the Astur-Leonese kings as a continuation of the Visigothic past, a past perceived as a golden age of religious unity centred in Toledo. 89 Toledo seems to have remained an important point of reference in terms of religious practice, too. The prologues of L8, contemporary to the main antiphoner but likely added to it later, exalt the traditio Toletana and lament its decline, reflecting the same sentiment that possibly dictated the inclusion of so much Toledan material in the antiphoner. 90 Nils Holger Petersen has described how "the processional liturgy of a monastic or episcopal city constituted a symbolic Rome, Jerusalem or even City of God," to which, in an Iberian context, we might now add Toledo. 91 Memory of its status, the once metropolitan capital of the Visigothic kingdom, could have been consciously preserved in liturgical manuscripts such as L8, to vicariously lend authority to the liturgy performed at these northern institutions.

Conclusion
Although this study of the one surviving reference to a saint-related procession in the Old Hispanic rite is hampered by scant evidence, it has broader implications. Much has been made of the conflict between ecclesiastical authorities in the kingdom of Asturias-León with those based in Muslim-ruled Toledo, on the basis of the Adoptionist controversy. The struggle to disassociate the north from religious authority in Toledo has been used to explain the virulent condemnation by figures such as Beatus of Liebana of what is fairly anodine theology coming from the pen of Elipandus of Toledo. 92 Elipandus's reliance on texts of the Old Hispanic liturgy to support his position nevertheless does not seem to have harmed the status of the rite as a whole. The continued presence of Toledo and Toledan-based rites in manuscripts such as L8 appears to suggest that whatever rivalry there was between regions and ecclesiastical centres did not necessarily include severing ties with Toledo as a source of spiritual authority. This spiritual authority could be tapped through the performance of various rituals, not least those involving Toledo's patron saint, Leocadia. Whether by celebrating the feast of the dedication of her church, which stood in far-away Toledo, or by processing through a non-Toledan church to a reliquary on her feast day, it would have been possible to recreate Toledo 89 Noted with respect to Leocadia (although still assuming her relics were moved to Oviedo) by Ferrer Grenesche, Contribución al estudio, 36. See more generally Hillgarth, The Visigoths in History. 90 Gutiérrez, "Librum de auratum," 24; Zapke, "En torno;" Díaz y Díaz, "Los prologos;" Huglo, "Les prologues;" Deswarte (forthcoming). 91 Petersen,"Composition and Local Planning," 261. 92 For which see the study of Cavadini, The Last Christology.
wherever Leocadia was venerated. Saints such as Leocadia may have acted as metonyms for their institutional and civic homes, allowing those elsewhere to capture the spiritual power of her place of origin and the prestige and authority that came with it. 93

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding
This work was supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council: [Grant Number AH/ S006060/1].

Notes on contributor
Kati Ihnat is Associate Professor of History at the Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands), where she specializes in the religious and cultural history of medieval Iberia. She is particularly interested in the cult of saints and their role in defining identities in multicultural contexts.

Works Cited
Primary Sources