Confessor, King of Leon and Castile, born near Salamanca, Spain, 1198; died Seville, Spain, 1252. He succeeded to Castile in 1217, and Leon in 1230, and married Beatrice of Swabia in 1219. His efforts to save the Christians of Spain from the Saracen yoke were quite successful; Granada and Alicante alone remaining in the Moorish power when he died. He converted the great mosques of Córdova and Seville into cathedrals, and founded the University of Salamanca. A Franciscan tertiary, he led a life of great sanctity. Patron of the engineers of the Spanish army. Canonized, 1671. Relics in the cathedral, Seville. Feast, May 30,.