Pelayo, King of Asturias

Pelayo is the hero who led the remnant of the Catholic Visigoths into battle against the Moslem invaders of Spain. He was confronted by an adversary so deadly and potent that it seemed useless, and perhaps even unreasonable, to resist. Yet hope and great faith remained with him. Everything else had already been taken away, and resistance was all he had left - even though his defiance seemed foolhardy and certain to lead to his utter ruin. Pelayo's tenacity was nothing short of amazing, and what he went on to achieve went so far beyond what a man could ordinarily hope to accomplish that one is left to conclude that either the entire undertaking was proof of an outrageous and irrational audacity which would flow from generation to generation, or was nothing less than the result of Divine Intervention. Pelayo is the source of the Spanish monarchy, and all of Spain's mighty achievements, all of the pageantry and glory of Spain, whose presence was so strongly felt at various turning points in history throughout the ages, depended upon Pelayo and his victory at Covadonga. Pelayo's resistance initiated the nearly 800-year-long Reconquista to take back his country from the ruthless invader who had conquered his homeland and sought to erase his culture and his faith. His actions would lay the foundations of a Kingdom for Christ that would eventually reach around the world and spread the Catholic faith to millions of souls.