Confessor
A Spanish Bishop and Confessor
Hosius, also spelled Ossius, was born around 256, probably in Corduba, the modern Córdoba in southern Spain, and became its bishop about 295. During the persecution under the emperor Maximian he confessed Christ and suffered for it, as he later reminded Constantine's son.
Around the turn of the century he took part in the Council of Elvira, a gathering of Spanish bishops whose stern canons barred some grave sinners from communion even at death, required married clergy to abstain from their wives, and forbade pictures on church walls. The western churches were already ordered by the canons of bishops rather than by the New Testament alone.
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