Rechiar

Rechiar or Rechiarius (after 415 – died December 456) was the Suevic King of Galicia from 448 until his death. He was the first Chalcedonian Christian (Catholic) Germanic king in Europe and one of the most innovative and belligerent of the Suevi monarchs. Despite his orthodox Christianity, Hydatius, the contemporary bishop and chronicler from Galicia who is the sole contemporary source for biographical details of Rechiar, established his reputation as that of a barbarian with little sense of Roman law, culture, or custom.

Rechiar was almost certainly not raised Christian, though some scholars have raised the contention that his father raised him that way in order to foster good relations with the Church and bring about the easy conversion of the Suevi. What is certain is the Rechiar had been converted (catholicus factus according to Isidore's Historia Suevorum) before reaching the throne. Rechiar's conversion to Trinitarian christianism predated that of the more famous Clovis of the Franks by half a century. The argument was even raised in the late nineteenth century that the Spanish church had primacy over the French because Rechiar's conversion predated Clovis'. Rechiar was the son of the pagan Rechila, whom he succeeded on the throne, and a daughter of the Visigothic king Wallia. The date and circumstances of Rechiar's conversion from paganism are unknown and it is possible that Roman missionaries took some part in it, since he was not converted to the Arianism which was preached by the Visigothic missionaries. Rechiar was one of the only Suevi to convert at that time; his people remained pagan. Hydatius records opposition, possibly secret, to his succession, but the basis of this opposition he does not mention. It is not inconceivable that it was religiously motivated.

Rechiar married an Arian Visigothic princess from Toulouse, the daughter of Theodoric I. The marriage of Catholic to Arian was not advantageous for the church of the former and the influence of Rechiar's queen and another later Arian queen helped bring about the conversion of the Suevi not to Catholicism, but to Arianism. If Rechiar did make any effort to convert his people to his faith, it was entirely ephemeral and "bore no detectable fruit".

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