| Type: | Bishop |
| Honorific-Prefix: | Most Reverend |
| Martín de León Cárdenas | |
| Archbishop of Palermo | |
| Church: | Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese: | Archdiocese of Palermo |
| Term: | 1650–1655 |
| Predecessor: | Fernando Andrade Castro |
| Successor: | Pietro Jerónimo Martínez y Rubio |
| Consecration: | 20 May 1630 |
| Consecrated By: | Laudivio Zacchia |
| Birth Date: | 1584 |
| Birth Place: | Archidona, Spain |
| Death Date: | 15 November 1655 |
| Death Place: | Palermo, Italy |
| Previous Post: | Bishop of Trivento (1630–1631) Bishop of Pozzuoli (1631–1650) |
Martín de León Cárdenas, O.S.A. (1584 – 15 November 1655) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Palermo (1650–1655),[1] Bishop of Pozzuoli (1631–1650),[2] and Bishop of Trivento (1630–1631).[3]
Martín de León Cárdenas was born in Archidona, Spain, and ordained a priest in the Order of Saint Augustine.[4] [5] On 13 May 1630, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Urban VIII as Bishop of Trivento.On 20 May 1630, he was consecrated bishop by Laudivio Zacchia, Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli. On 7 April 1631, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Urban VIII as Bishop of Pozzuoli.On 27 August 1650, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Innocent X as Archbishop of Palermo.He served as Archbishop of Palermo until his death on 15 November 1655.
Between 1608 and 1615 Cárdenas wrote a picaresque novel, The Orphan's Story, describing a young boy's travels in the Spanish Empire, with locations including Lima, Potosi, Puerto Rico and Cadiz, and accounts of Sir Francis Drake's attack on Puerto Rico and the sacking of Cádiz. The Puerto Rico account includes a letter from one of the generals who fought Drake there.[6] Cardenas arranged for the novel's publication in 1621 under the nom de plume of Andrés de León, but it remained unpublished, and the manuscript was only rediscovered in 1965.[6]
While bishop, he was the principal co-consecrator of: