II, Eighth Visigoth King from 453 to 466 AD, lead an army into Spain and defeated Rechiar, Suebic King of Galicia from 488 to 12/456. During the waves of invasion of the peninsula by the Germanic tribes, one bishop was the noted Turibius. He documented the conversion of the Suebic King Remismund to Arianism, and worked to restore the churches destroyed by the Visigoths. The bishop was able to travel to Rome, from which he brought back what is believed to be a relic of the True Cross, for which he founded the Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana, where it is still preserved. Because Romans had control of the city, Christianity became very popular in this area during the early church. There is a legend that St. James (Santiago) and St. Paul both preached in Astorga and there is proof that there was a bishopric around the 3rd century. At the very beginning of Leo I's pontificate, in the years 444-447, Turibius, the bishop of Astorga in León, sent to Rome a memorandum warning that Priscillianism was by no means dead, reporting that it numbered even bishops among its supporters, and asking the aid of the Roman See. The distance was insurmountable in the 5th century. Germanic tribes, the Visigoths, took control over Astorga and destroyed the Roman city. However, it prospered with the help of Saints Turibius, Fructuosus, and Valerius. After the Berbers' withdrawal to join the blazing Berber rebellion (739-742) and the campaigns of Alfonso I of Asturias (742-757) against the Andalusians, the city was abandoned, being in the largely empty buffer zone between Moors and Christians known at the time as "The Desert of the Duero," and was part of the Repoblación ("repopulation") effort carried out a century later during the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias (850-866). Astorga suffered from decadence until the 11th century, when the city became a major stop on the French route for the pilgrims to the tomb of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela. Construction of the cathedral began in the 15th century and finished in the late 18th century. Jews were living in the fortified section of Astorga as early as the 11th century. Later they inhabited two quarters in the city. A street called the Garden (Paseo) of the Synagogue formerly ran beside the old city wall. Many Jews in Astorga were forcibly converted to Christianity in 1230–31.