Vita
et miracula sancti Leonardi, Confessoris, Bibliothèque nationale de France,
manuscrit Latin 5134, XIIIe siècle
Saint Léonard de Noblat
Ermite en
Limousin (VIème s.)
Ermite au diocèse de
Limoges, son culte se répandit en particulier dans les pays anglo-saxons et en
Ile-de-France car son sanctuaire était sur le chemin des pèlerinages de saint
Jacques de Compostelle. Les échoppes se multiplièrent comme les auberges. Il en
naquit une petite ville: Saint Léonard de Noblat - 87400. Le Moyen Age éprouva
le besoin de lui donner quelques détails pour lui 'faire une vie': il aurait
été filleul de Clovis et saint Remi en fit un clerc
de l'Église. Il aurait aidé par sa prière la reine d'Aquitaine lors de la
naissance difficile de son petit prince et ce serait la raison de la création
de ce monastère.
Saint Léonard, issu d’une
famille noble franque, quitte la cour et vient s’établir finalement en Limousin
dans une forêt qui domine la rive droite de la Vienne. Il y fait construire une
chapelle, s’entoure de prisonniers qui défrichent la forêt, commencent à cultiver.
Un village naît et de nombreux pèlerins viennent s’installer.
-
Ostension 2016 diocèse de Limoges
"D'après la
tradition, Saint Léonard doit son nom à un ermite du VIe siècle, disciple de
Saint Rémi, évêque de Reims et contemporain du roi Clovis. Saint Léonard est le
protecteur de la Cité où ses restes reposent, le libérateur des captifs de
toutes guerres et de toutes oppressions, l'ami des faibles avides de justice et
de dignité, le soutien des malades, des isolés, des abandonnés, le protecteur
des mères dans l'attente de l'enfant qui va naître. C'est à lui qu'on confie en
certains pays, les animaux (chevaux, bœufs...). Mais il est surtout
intercesseur auprès de Dieu, de tous les hommes qui veulent se libérer de
l'égoïsme et de l'orgueil." (Paroisse
Saint Léonard en Limousin - diocèse de Limoges)
À Noblat dans le
Limousin, saint Léonard, ermite.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/53/Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat.html
Vincent
de Beauvais, Speculum historiale - Miniature représentant saint
Léonard entre deux prisonniers - vers 1370-1380 - Bibliothèque nationale de
France, manuscrit NAF 15944, feuillet 37v
Saint Léonard
Ermite, Patron des
Prisonniers
(† 559)
Parmi les jeunes
seigneurs de la cour de Clovis qui abjurèrent le paganisme après la bataille de
Tolbiac, il y avait un brillant officier nommé Léonard Pour des hommes de cette
trempe, la vertu commune ne suffit pas : il faut tirer toutes les conséquences
de l'Évangile, et aux préceptes ajouter les conseils.
Léonard, devenu chrétien,
eut la sublime ambition d'être tout à DIEU sans partage et sans réserve : il se
fit moine. A l'école de saint Rémi, près duquel il se fixa, il fit de rapides
progrès dans la vertu. « II était, dit son historien, affable dans ses entretiens,
fidèle à ses promesses, prodigue par ses aumônes, modeste en ses paroles, si
humble et si simple en tout ce qu'il faisait, qu'on lui aurait donné une
origine pauvre plutôt que seigneuriale. »
Clovis, informé par la
voix publique de sa sainteté et des merveilles que DIEU opérait par ses mains,
voulut le faire évêque; mais Léonard, qui avait abandonné les honneurs, refusa
de les retrouver : « Eh bien! lui dit le roi, demandez-moi quelque grâce, je
vous l'accorderai. — Ô prince! dit Léonard, accordez-moi le pouvoir de visiter
les prisons et de délivrer les prisonniers que je jugerai dignes de cette
faveur. »
Clovis fut heureux d'y
consentir. Le saint moine passa quelque temps à Orléans, près de saint Mesmin,
abbé de Mici, pour se former aux règles de la vie monastique, puis il traversa
le Berry, où il prêcha la foi à des populations encore païennes et obtint un
succès immense par sa parole et par ses nombreux miracles.
De là il se rendit en
Aquitaine et chercha un lieu solitaire pour se livrer à la prière et à la
contemplation des choses célestes. Il trouva cette retraite dans une forêt,
près de Limoges, et y mena, pendant vingt ans, une vie plus angélique
qu'humaine, dont DIEU seul a le secret, mais que nous pouvons nous représenter
en nous reportant à la vie des plus illustres anachorètes.
Un miracle le fit
connaître. Il fut inspiré d'aller rendre la santé à l'épouse du roi Théodebert,
qui était mourante. En récompense de ce bienfait, le prince donna à l'humble
moine toute la forêt ; mais il n'en accepta qu'une partie, pour y bâtir une
église. A sa parole, une source d'eau vive sortit de terre pour alimenter son
ermitage.
La solitude de ces lieux
autrefois sauvages fut bientôt envahie. Une infinité de malades se faisaient
transporter auprès du saint et obtenaient leur guérison; d'autres venaient
entendre sa parole et recevoir ses avis. Mais surtout, les prisonniers échappés
de leur cachot par l'effet de ses prières venaient lui présenter leurs fers en
hommage, et recevoir de lui les leçons de la pénitence et de la vie chrétienne.
Saint Léonard mourut le 6 novembre 559.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://je-n-oeucume-guere.blogspot.ca/2011/11/6-nov-saint-leonard-ermite-patron-des.html
Maître
de Fauvel. Saint Léonard. Vies de Saints. XIVe.
SAINT LÉONARD *
Léonard veut dire odeur
du peuple, de Leos, peuple, et nardus, nard, herbe odoriférante, parce que
l’odeur d'une bonne renommée attirait le peuple à lui. Léonard peut encore
venir de Legens ardua, qui choisit les lieux escarpés, ou bien il vient de
Lion. Or, le lion possède quatre qualités : 1° La force qui, selon Isidore,
réside dans sa poitrine et dans sa tète. De même, saint Léonard posséda la
force dans son coeur, en mettant un frein aux mauvaises pensées, et dans la
tête, par la contemplation infatigable des choses d'en haut. 2° Il possède la
sagacité en deux circonstances, savoir en dormant les yeux ouverts et en
effaçant les traces de ses pieds quand il (193) s'enfuit. De même, Léonard
veilla par l’action du travail ; en veillant, il dormit dans le repos de la
contemplation, et il détruisit en soi les traces de toute affection mondaine.
3° Il possède une grande puissance dans sa vois, au moyen de laquelle il
ressuscite au bout de trois jours son lionceau qui vient mort-né, et son
rugissement fait arrêter court toutes les bêtes. De même, Léonard ressuscita
une infinité de personnes mortes dans le péché, et il fixa dans la pratique des
bonnes oeuvres beaucoup de morts qui vivaient en bêtes. 4° Il est craintif au
fond du coeur, car, d'après Isidore, il craint le bruit des roues et le feu. De
même, Léonard posséda la crainte qui lui fit éviter le bruit des tracas du
monde, c'est pour cela qu'il s'enfuit au désert; il craignit le feu de la
cupidité terrestre: voilà pourquoi il méprisa tous les trésors qu'on lui
offrit.
Léonard vécut, dit-on,
vers l’an 500. Ce fut saint Remi, archevêque de Reims, qui le tint sur les
fonts sacrés du baptême et, qui l’instruisit dans la science du salut. Ses
parents avaient le premier rang dans le palais du roi de France. Il obtint du
monarque la faveur insigne de renvoyer immédiatement absous tous les
prisonniers qu'il visitait. Or, comme la renommée de sa sainteté allait
toujours croissant, le roi le fit rester longtemps auprès de lui, jusqu'à ce
qu'il se présentât une occasion favorable de lui. donner un évêché. Léonard le
refusa, car, préférant la solitude, il quitta tout et vint avec son frère
Liphard à Orléans où ils se livrèrent à la prédication. Après avoir passé
quelque temps dans un monastère, Liphard ayant voulu rester solitaire sur les
rives de la Loire, et Léonard, d'après l’inspiration du Saint-Esprit, se
disposant à prêcher dans l’Aquitaine, ils se séparèrent après s'être embrassés
mutuellement. Léonard prêcha donc en beaucoup d'endroits, fit un grand nombre
de miracles et se fixa dans une forêt voisine de la ville de Limoges, où se
trouvait un château royal bâti à cause de la chasse. Or, il arriva qu'un jour
le roi étant venu y chasser, la reine, qui l’avait accompagné pour son
amusement, fut saisie par les douleurs de l’enfantement et se trouva en péril.
Pendant que le roi et sa suite étaient en pleurs à raison du danger qui
menaçait la reine, léonard passa à travers la forêt et entendit leurs
gémissements. Emu de pitié, il alla au palais où on l’introduisit auprès du roi
qui l’avait appelé. Celui-ci lui ayant demandé qui il était, Léonard lui
répondit qu'il avait été disciple de saint Remi. Le roi conçut alors bon espoir
et pensant qu'il avait été élevé par un bon maître, il le conduisit auprès de
la, reine en le priant de lui obtenir par ses prières deux sujets de joie,
savoir: la délivrance de son épouse et la naissance de l’enfant. Léonard fit
donc une prière et obtint à l’instant ce qu'il demandait. Or, comme le roi lui
offrait beaucoup d'or et d'argent, il s'empressa de refuser et conseilla au
prince de distribuer ces richesses aux pauvres : « Pour moi, lui dit-il, je
n'en ai aucun besoin, je ne désire qu'une chose : c'est de vivre dans quelque
forêt, en méprisant les richesses de ce monde, et en ne servant que J.-C. » Et
comme le roi voulait lui donner toute la forêt, Léonard lui dit : « Je ne
l’accepte pas tout entière, mais je vous prie seulement de me concéder la
portion dont je pourrai, la nuit, faire le tour avec mon âne. » Ce à quoi le
roi consentit bien volontiers. On y éleva donc un monastère où Léonard vécut
longtemps dans la pratique d'une abstinence sévère, avec deux personnes qu'il
s'adjoignit. Or, comme on ne pouvait se procurer de l’eau qu'à un mille de
distance, il fit percer un puits sec dans son monastère et il le remplit d'eau
par ses prières. Il appela ce lieu Nobiliac parce qu'il lui avait été donné par
un noble roi. Il s'y rendit illustre par de si grands miracles que tout
prisonnier, invoquant soir nom, était délivré de ses chaînes et s'en allait
libre, sans que personne n'osât s'y opposer; il venait ensuite présenter à
Léonard les chaînes ou les entraves dont il avait été chargé. Plusieurs de ces
prisonniers restaient avec lui et servaient le Seigneur. Sept familles de ses
parents, nobles comme lui, vendirent tout ce qu'elles possédaient pour le
joindre : il distribua à chacune une portion de la forêt et leur exemple attira
beaucoup d'autres personnes.
Enfin, le saint homme
Léonard, tout éclatant de nombreuses vertus, trépassa au Seigneur le 8 des Ides
de novembre. Comme il s'opérait beaucoup de miracles au lieu où il, reposait,
il fut révélé aux clercs de faire construire une autre église ailleurs, parce
que celle qu'ils avaient là leur était trop petite à raison de la multitude des
pèlerins, puis d'y transférer avec honneur le corps de saint Léonard. Quand les
clercs et le peuple eurent passé trois jours dans le jeûne et la prière, ils
virent tout le pays couvert de neige, mais ils remarquèrent que le lieu où
voulait reposer saint Léonard en était entièrement dépourvu. Ce fut donc là
qu'il fut transporté. L'immense quantité de différentes chaînes de fer
suspendues devant son tombeau témoigne combien de miracles le Seigneur opère
par son intercession, surtout à l’égard de ceux qui sont incarcérés. — Le
vicomte de Limoges, pour effrayer les malfaiteurs, avait fait forger une chaîne
énorme qu'il avait commandé de fixer au pied de sa tour. Quiconque avait cette
chaîne au cou restait exposé à toutes les intempéries de l’air, c'était donc
endurer mille morts à la fois. Or, il arriva qu'un serviteur de saint Léonard
fut attaché à cette chaîne, sans l’avoir mérité. Il allait rendre le dernier
soupir, quand il se recommanda, le mieux qu'il put et de tout coeur, à saint
Léonard, en le priant, puisqu'il délivrait les autres, de venir aussi au
secours de son serviteur. A l’instant saint Léonard lui apparut, revêtu d'un
habit blanc, et lui dit : « Ne crains point, car tu ne mourras pas. Lève-toi et
porte cette chaîne avec toi à mon église. Suis-moi, je te précéderai. » Cet
homme se leva, prit la chaîne et suivit jusqu'à son église saint Léonard qui
marchait en avant. Au moment où il arrivait vis-à-vis la porte, le bienheureux
prit congé de lui. Le serviteur entra donc dans l’église et raconta à tout le
monde le service que saint Léonard lui avait rendu, et il suspendit devant le
tombeau cette chaîne énorme.
Un habitant de Nobiliac,
qui était fort fidèle à saint Léonard, fut pris par un tyran, qui se dit en
lui-même : « Ce Léonard délivre tous ceux qui sont enchaînés et toute espèce de
fer, quelle qu'en soit la force, fond en sa présence comme la cire devant le
feu. Si donc je fais enchaîner cet homme, aussitôt Léonard viendra le délivrer;
mais si je pouvais le garder, j'en tirerais mille sous pour sa rançon. Je sais
ce que j'ai à faire. Je ferai creuser au fond de ma tour une fosse profonde et
j'y plongerai cet homme après l’avoir chargé d'entraves. Ensuite sur l’orifice
de la fosse, je ferai construire une geôle de bois où veilleront des soldats en
armes. Bien que Léonard brise le fer, cependant il n'est pas encore entré sous
terre. » Ce tyran exécuta tout ce qu'il s'était proposé : et comme le
prisonnier se recommandait à chaque instant- à saint Léonard, le bienheureux
vint la nuit et retournant la geôle où se trouvaient les soldats, il les y
renferma dessous comme des morts dans un sépulcre. Ensuite étant entré dans la
fosse, environné d'une grande lumière, il prit son fidèle serviteur par la main
et lui dit : « Dors-tu, ou veilles-tu ? Voici Léonard que tu désires voir. »
Alors cet homme s'écria plein d'admiration : « Seigneur, aidez-moi. » Aussitôt
le saint brisa les chaînes, prit le prisonnier dans ses bras et le porta hors
de la tour : ensuite, s'entretenant avec lui, comme un ami le fait avec son
ami, il le conduisit jusqu'à Nobiliac et même jusqu'à sa maison.
Un pèlerin qui revenait
d'une visite à saint Léonard, fut pris en Auvergne et renfermé dans une cave.
Il conjurait ses geôliers de le relâcher, par amour pour saint Léonard, car
jamais il ne les avait offensés en rien. Ils répondirent que s'il ne donnait
une somme importante pour sa rançon, il ne sortirait pas. « Eh bien, dit le
pèlerin, que J'affaire se vide entre vous et saint Léonard auquel vous saurez
que je me suis recommandé. »
Or, la nuit suivante,
saint Léonard apparut au maître du château et lui commanda de laisser partir
son pèlerin. Le matin à son réveil, cet homme n'estimant pas la vision qu'il
avait eue plus qu'il n'eût fait d'un songe, ne voulut pas lâcher son
prisonnier. La nuit suivante, saint Léonard lui apparut encore, en lui
réitérant les mêmes ordres ; mais il refusa de nouveau d'y obtempérer; alors la
troisième nuit, le saint prit le pèlerin et le conduisit hors de la place. Un
instant après, la tour s'écroula avec la moitié du château; plusieurs personnes
furent écrasées et le seigneur, qui n'eut que les deux jambes cassées, fut
préservé afin qu'il pût survivre à sa confusion. — Un soldat, prisonnier en
Bretagne, invoqua saint Léonard, qui apparut au milieu de la maison, entra dans
la prison, et après avoir brisé les chaînes qu'il remit entre les mains de cet
homme, l’emmena en lui faisant traverser la foule frappée à cette vue de
stupeur et d'effroi.
Il y eut un autre Léonard
de la même profession, et saint également, dont le corps repose à Corbigny. Il
était à la tête d'un monastère où il pratiqua une telle humilité qu'il semblait
être le dernier des frères. Mais presque tout le peuple accourant vers lui, des
envieux persuadèrent le roi Clotaire que, s'il n'y prenait garde, le royaume de
France souffrirait de grands dommages, à cause de Léonard, qui, sous prétexte
de religion, rassemblait beaucoup de monde autour de soi. Le roi trop crédule
ordonna de le bannir. Les soldats qu'on envoya furent tellement touchés des
paroles du saint qu'ils promirent de se faire ses disciples. Le roi se repentit
enfin et priva les détracteurs du saint de leurs honneurs et de leurs biens ;
il conçut une vive amitié pour Léonard qui obtint difficilement du prince que
ses calomniateurs fussent réintégrés dans leurs dignités. Il obtint aussi de
Dieu que quiconque étant incarcéré, invoquerait son nom, fût délivré aussitôt.
Un jour qu'il se livrait à la prière, un serpent énorme se glissa depuis ses
pieds jusqu'à sa poitrine. Le saint n'en continua pas moins sa prière ; mais
quand il eut fini, il dit au serpent : « Je sais bien que dès le commencement
de la création, tu inquiètes les hommes, autant qu'il est en ton pouvoir; si
cependant quelque puissance t'a été donnée sur moi, traite-moi comme je l’ai
mérité. » Quand il eut parlé ainsi, le serpent, sortant précipitamment par son
capuce, tomba mort à ses pieds. Dans la suite, il réconcilia deux évêques en
discorde, et prédit qu'il mourrait le lendemain, vers l’an du Seigneur 270.
* Bréviaire de Limoges.
La Légende dorée de
Jacques de Voragine nouvellement traduite en français avec introduction,
notices, notes et recherches sur les sources par l'abbé J.-B. M. Roze, chanoine
honoraire de la Cathédrale d'Amiens, Édouard Rouveyre, éditeur, 76, rue de
Seine, 76, Paris mdccccii
SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/voragine/tome03/156.htm
Richard
de Montbaston et collaborateurs. Saint Léonard devant Clovis Ier ; Martyre.
Cote : Français 185 , Fol. 126. Vies de saints, Légende dorée, France,
Paris, XIVe siècle
Saint Léonard de Noblat (ou Noblac)
Ermite, Patron des Prisonniers
(† 559)
Parmi les jeunes
seigneurs de la cour de Clovis qui abjurèrent le paganisme après la bataille de
Tolbiac, il y avait un brillant officier nommé Léonard. Pour des hommes de
cette trempe, la vertu commune ne suffit pas : il se fit moine.
À l'école de saint Rémi,
près duquel il se fixa, il fit de rapides progrès dans la vertu. « Il
était affable dans ses entretiens, fidèle à ses promesses, prodigue par ses
aumônes, modeste en ses paroles, humble et simple en tout. »
Clovis, informé par la
voix publique de sa sainteté et des merveilles que Dieu opérait par ses main,
voulut le faire évêque ; mais Léonard refusa : « Eh bien ! lui
dit le roi, demandez-moi quelque grâce, je vous l'accorderai. - Ô prince ! dit
Léonard, accordez-moi le pouvoir de visiter les prisons et de délivrer les
prisonniers que je jugerai dignes de cette faveur. »
Clovis fut heureux d'y
consentir.
Le saint moine passa
quelques temps à Orléans, près de saint Mesmin, abbé de Mici, pour se former
aux règles de la vie monastique, puis il traversa le Berry, où il prêcha la foi
à des populations encore païennes et obtint un succès immense par sa parole et
par ses nombreux miracles.
De là il se rendit en
Aquitaine et chercha un lieu solitaire pour se livrer à la prière et à la
contemplation des choses célestes. Il trouva cette retraite dans une forêt,
près de Limoges, et y mena, pendant vingt ans, une vie plus angélique
qu'humaine, dont Dieu seul a le secret.
À sa parole, une source
d'eau vive sortit de terre pour alimenter son ermitage. La solitude de ces
lieux autrefois sauvages fut bientôt envahie. Une infinité de malades se
faisaient transporter auprès du saint et obtenaient leur guérison ; d'autres
venaient entendre sa parole et recevoir ses avis. Mais surtout les prisonniers
échappés de leur cachot par l'effet de ses prières venaient lui présenter leurs
fers en hommage, et recevoir de lui les leçons de la pénitence et de la vie
chrétienne.
©Evangelizo.org
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Saint Sébastien, Saint Léonard et Sainte Catherine, XVe siècle
Léonard vécut,
dit-on, vers l’an 500. Il naquit dans la province des Gaules au temps de
l'empereur Anastase (491-518), de nobles francs, alliés du roi Clovis qui,
" d'après des témoignages véridiques ", voulut bien être le parrain
de l'enfant.
Ce fut Saint Remi,
Archevêque de Reims, qui le tint sur les fonts sacrés du Baptême et, qui
l’instruisit dans la science du Salut.
Devenu grand, Léonard
refusa de servir dans l'armée royale comme tous ses parents, mais voulut suivre
Saint Remi, Évêque de Reims.
Saint Remi avait obtenu
des rois que, chaque fois qu'ils viendraient à Reims ou qu'ils y passeraient,
tous les prisonniers seraient aussitôt libérés.
Léonard pour imiter cette
charité demanda que tous les prisonniers qu'il visiterait soient aussitôt
libérés : le roi accorda cette faveur dont le Saint usa largement.
Or, comme la renommée de
sa sainteté allait toujours croissant, le roi le fit rester longtemps auprès de
lui, jusqu'à ce qu'il se présentât une occasion favorable de lui donner un
évêché.
Léonard le refusa, car,
préférant la solitude, il quitta tout et vint avec son frère Liphard à Orléans
où ils se livrèrent à la prédication.
Après avoir passé quelque
temps dans un Monastère, Liphard ayant voulu rester solitaire sur les rives de
la Loire, et Léonard, d'après l’inspiration du Saint-Esprit, se disposant à
prêcher dans l’Aquitaine, ils se séparèrent après s'être embrassés
mutuellement.
Léonard prêcha donc en
beaucoup d'endroits, fit un grand nombre de miracles et se fixa dans une forêt
voisine de la ville de Limoges, où se trouvait un château royal bâti à cause de
la chasse.
Or, il arriva qu'un jour
le roi étant venu y chasser, la reine, qui l’avait accompagné pour son
amusement, fut saisie par les douleurs de l’enfantement et se trouva en péril.
Pendant que le roi et sa
suite étaient en pleurs à raison du danger qui menaçait la reine, Léonard passa
à travers la forêt et entendit leurs gémissements.
Ému de pitié, il alla au
palais où on l’introduisit auprès du roi qui l’avait appelé.
Celui-ci lui ayant
demandé qui il était, Léonard lui répondit qu'il avait été disciple de Saint
Remi.
Le roi conçut alors bon
espoir et pensant qu'il avait été élevé par un bon maître, il le conduisit auprès
de la reine en le priant de lui obtenir par ses prières deux sujets de joie,
savoir : la délivrance de son épouse et la naissance de l’enfant.
Léonard fit donc une
prière et obtint à l’instant ce qu'il demandait. Or, comme le roi lui offrait
beaucoup d'or et d'argent, il s'empressa de refuser et conseilla au prince de
distribuer ces richesses aux pauvres :
" Pour moi, lui
dit-il, je n'en ai aucun besoin, je ne désire qu'une chose : c'est de vivre
dans quelque forêt, en méprisant les richesses de ce monde, et en ne servant
que Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ."
Et comme le roi voulait
lui donner toute la forêt, Léonard lui dit :
" Je ne l’accepte
pas tout entière, mais je vous prie seulement de me concéder la portion dont je
pourrai, la nuit, faire le tour avec mon âne."
Ce à quoi le roi
consentit bien volontiers.
Léonard construisit un
Oratoire en l'honneur de Notre-Dame et y dédia un autel en mémoire de Saint
Remi. Il se rendait souvent au tombeau de Saint Martial.
On y éleva ensuite un
Monastère où Léonard vécut longtemps dans la pratique d'une abstinence sévère,
avec deux personnes qu'il s'adjoignit.
Or, comme on ne pouvait
se procurer de l’eau qu'à une demie-lieue de distance, il fit percer un puits
sec dans son Monastère et il le remplit d'eau par ses prières.
Il appela ce lieu
Nobiliac parce qu'il lui avait été donné par un noble roi.
Il s'y rendit illustre
par de si grands miracles que tout prisonnier, invoquant son nom, était délivré
de ses chaînes et s'en allait libre, sans que personne n'osât s'y opposer ; il
venait ensuite présenter à Léonard les chaînes ou les entraves dont il avait
été chargé.
Plusieurs de ces
prisonniers restaient avec lui et servaient le Seigneur.
Sept familles de ses
parents, nobles comme lui, vendirent tout ce qu'elles possédaient pour le
joindre : il distribua à chacune une portion de la forêt et leur exemple attira
beaucoup d'autres personnes.
Enfin, le saint homme
Léonard, tout éclatant de nombreuses vertus, trépassa au Seigneur le 8 des Ides
de Novembre.
Comme il s'opérait beaucoup
de miracles au lieu où il reposait, il fut révélé aux clercs de faire
construire une autre église ailleurs, parce que celle qu'ils avaient là leur
était trop petite à raison de la multitude des pèlerins, puis d'y transférer
avec honneur le corps de Saint Léonard.
Quand les clercs et le
peuple eurent passé trois jours dans le jeûne et la prière, ils virent tout le
pays couvert de neige, mais ils remarquèrent que le lieu où voulait reposer
Saint Léonard en était entièrement dépourvu.
Ce fut donc là qu'il fut
transporté.
L'immense quantité de
différentes chaînes de fer suspendues devant son tombeau témoigne combien de
miracles Le Seigneur opéra par son intercession, surtout à l’égard de ceux qui
sont incarcérés.
Le vicomte de Limoges,
pour effrayer les malfaiteurs, avait fait forger une chaîne énorme qu'il avait
commandé de fixer au pied de sa tour. Quiconque avait cette chaîne au cou
restait exposé à toutes les intempéries de l’air, c'était donc endurer mille
morts à la fois.
Or, il arriva qu'un
serviteur de Saint Léonard fut attaché à cette chaîne, sans l’avoir mérité. Il
allait rendre le dernier soupir, quand il se recommanda, le mieux qu'il put et
de tout cœur, à Saint Léonard, en le priant, puisqu'il délivrait les autres, de
venir aussi au secours de son serviteur.
A l’instant Saint Léonard
lui apparut, revêtu d'un habit blanc, et lui dit :
" Ne crains point,
car tu ne mourras pas. Lève-toi et porte cette chaîne avec toi à mon église.
Suis-moi, je te précéderai."
Cet homme se leva, prit
la chaîne et suivit jusqu'à son église Saint Léonard qui marchait en avant.
Au moment où il arrivait
vis-à-vis la porte, le bienheureux prit congé de lui. Le serviteur entra donc
dans l’église et raconta à tout le monde le service que Saint Léonard lui avait
rendu, et il suspendit devant le tombeau cette chaîne énorme.
Un habitant de Nobiliac, qui était fort fidèle à Saint Léonard, fut pris par un
tyran, qui se dit en lui-même :
" Ce Léonard délivre
tous ceux qui sont enchaînés et toute espèce de fer, quelle qu'en soit la
force, fond en sa présence comme la cire devant le feu. Si donc je fais
enchaîner cet homme, aussitôt Léonard viendra le délivrer ; mais si je pouvais
le garder, j'en tirerais mille sous pour sa rançon.
Je sais ce que j'ai à
faire. Je ferai creuser au fond de ma tour une fosse profonde et j'y plongerai
cet homme après l’avoir chargé d'entraves.
Ensuite sur l’orifice de
la fosse, je ferai construire une geôle de bois où veilleront des soldats en
armes. Bien que Léonard brise le fer, cependant il n'est pas encore entré sous
terre."
Ce tyran exécuta tout ce
qu'il s'était proposé, et comme le prisonnier se recommandait à chaque instant
à Saint Léonard, le bienheureux vint la nuit et retournant la geôle où se
trouvaient les soldats, il les y renferma dessous comme des morts dans un
sépulcre.
Ensuite étant entré dans
la fosse, environné d'une grande lumière, il prit son fidèle serviteur par la
main et lui dit :
" Dors-tu, ou
veilles-tu ? Voici Léonard que tu désires voir."
Alors cet homme s'écria
plein d'admiration :
" Seigneur,
aidez-moi."
Aussitôt le Saint brisa
les chaînes, prit le prisonnier dans ses bras et le porta hors de la tour.
Ensuite, s'entretenant avec lui, comme un ami le fait avec son ami, il le
conduisit jusqu'à Nobiliac et même jusqu'à sa maison.
Un pèlerin qui revenait d'une visite à Saint Léonard, fut pris en Auvergne et
renfermé dans une cave. Il conjurait ses geôliers de le relâcher, par amour
pour Saint Léonard, car jamais il ne les avait offensés en rien. Ils
répondirent que s'il ne donnait une somme importante pour sa rançon, il ne
sortirait pas.
" Eh bien, dit le
pèlerin, que l'affaire se vide entre vous et Saint Léonard auquel vous saurez
que je me suis recommandé."
Or, la nuit suivante,
Saint Léonard apparut au maître du château et lui commanda de laisser partir
son pèlerin.
Le matin à son réveil,
cet homme n'estimant pas la vision qu'il avait eue plus qu'il n'eût fait d'un
songe, ne voulut pas lâcher son prisonnier.
La nuit suivante, Saint
Léonard lui apparut encore, en lui réitérant les mêmes ordres ; mais il refusa
de nouveau d'y obtempérer ; alors la troisième nuit, le Saint prit le pèlerin
et le conduisit hors de la place.
Un instant après, la tour
s'écroula avec la moitié du château ; plusieurs personnes furent écrasées et le
seigneur, qui n'eut que les deux jambes cassées, fut préservé afin qu'il pût
survivre à sa confusion.
Un soldat, prisonnier en Bretagne, invoqua Saint Léonard, qui apparut au milieu
de la maison, entra dans la prison, et après avoir brisé les chaînes qu'il
remit entre les mains de cet homme, l’emmena en lui faisant traverser la foule
frappée à cette vue de stupeur et d'effroi.
6 novembre
Saint Léonard
Nous établissons en
premier lieu que saint Léonard naquit environ l’an de notre Seigneur 466. Il se
réfugia vers saint Remi, Archevêque de Reims, environ l’an 472, âgé environ de
six ans. Il s’en va à la Cour du Roy Clovis son cousin, y étant appelé par la
Reyne Clotilde, environ l’an 495. Il marche en guerre avec Clovis, allant
combattre les Allemands l’an 499. Il est baptisé avec le même Clovis à Reims
après la victoire sur les Allemands la même année 499. Il se retire de la Cour
de Clovis, et s’en va vivre solitaire dans un bois proche de Paris l’an 501 ou
environ. Deux ans après à savoir l’an 502, il quitte la France et s’en vient en
Aquitaine proche de Limoges dans la forêt de Pauvin. Il délivre miraculeusement
de mort la reyne Clotilde dans ses dangereuses couches l’an 507 ou 508. Il sort
de la solitude pour prêcher au peuple, et tâcher de pacifier les princes vers
les années 530 ou 535, et non au commencement de sa conversion ainsi que la
plupart disent, faute de bien peser les circonstances de sa vie. Il retourne de
sa mission après avoir visité saint Rémy, et ayant demeuré quelques années au
Monastère de Saint-Maximim environ l’an 540. Il meurt dans son monastère et
solitude de la forêt de Pauvin en Limousin environ l’an 559, âgé d’environ 93
ans.
De celle Chronologie on
peut insérer que notre Léonard est le premier saint de la Couronne de France,
si nous avons égard à la naissance, qui est la qualité que nous lui avons
donnée au commencement de cette histoire ; étant presque centenaire ;
quoique ordinairement on le représente dans les peintures sous la figure d’un
jeune homme d’environ trente ans ; ce qui provient de ce qu’il est apparu
plusieurs fois à diverses personnes en la forme d’un beau jeune homme en la
fleur de son âge, ce qui ne préjudicie aucunement à la vérité de notre
histoire ; puisque les peintres en font de même à l’égard des autres saints,
qu’ils dépeignent tantôt vieux, et tantôt jeunes, ainsi qu’il se peut voir en
saint Joseph, époux de la Vierge. Dans l’Eglise Cathédrale de Saint-Etienne de
Limoges, il y a une image en bosse, où ce saint est représenté avec un habit
d’ermite, et presque dans une décrépite vieillesse ; ainsi que je l’ai
considéré moi-même, aussi bien qu’en d’autres endroits.
On peut encore par le
moyen de cette Chronologie corriger l’erreur de ceux qui le font naître après
le baptême de Clovis ; ce qui est tout à fait improbable à ceux qui pèseront
attentivement toutes les vies écrites de ce saint ; et sur tout ce qu’on en a
dit jusqu’ici : et qui a été ramassé des légendes, Vies, Profes, et Chroniques
du pays de Limousin.
Nous faisons remarquer
que la confusion qu’on a fait des deux Rignomers, est cause de ceci. Et cela
soit dit à la plus grande gloire de Dieu, et du glorieux saint Léonard, de qui
nous avons écrit la vie avec toute la sincérité possible, nous réservant de
traiter un autre jour de ses miracles ; suppliant le bénévole lecteur de
vouloir lire le tout avec un esprit de charité, excusant la grossièreté et
rudesse du langage, corrigeant avec douceur ce qu’il y trouvera mal couché. Et
priant ce grand saint qu’il intercède pour nous : afin que délivrés des liens
de cette vie, et de la prison de ce monde, nous puissions aller jouir de la
pleine liberté des enfants de Dieu dans la béatitude éternelle. Ainsi soit-il.
R.P. Bernardin, de tous
les saints
Prieur des Carmes
Déchaussés de Limoges (1673)
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/11/06.php
Meran St. Leonhard Portal. This media shows the cultural heritage monument with the number 16019 in South Tyrol.
Also
known as
Leonard de Noblet
Leonard of Limoges
Leonard of Limousin
Leonardo of…
Leonhard of…
Lienard of…
Linhart of…
Léonard of…
Leonardo Nobiliacum
Profile
Born to the Frankish nobility.
Part of the court of
the pagan King Clovis
I. The Queen suggested
to Leonard, possibly as a joke, that he invoke the help of his God to
repel an invading army.
Leonard prayed,
the tide of battle turned,
and Clovis was
victorious. Archbishop Saint Remigius
of Rheims used this miracle to convert the King,
Leonard, and a thousand of followers to Christianity.
Leonard began a life of
austerity, sanctification, and preaching.
His desire to know God grew
until he decided to enter the monastery at
Orleans, France.
His brother, Saint Lifiard,
followed his example and left the royal court,
built a monastery at
Meun, and lived there. Leonard desired further seclusion, and so withdrew into
the forest of Limousin, converting many
on the way, and living on herbs, wild fruits, and spring water. He built
himself an oratory,
leaving it only for journeys to churches. Others begged to live with him and
learn from him, and so a monastery formed
around his hermitage.
Leonard had a great compassion for prisoners,
obtaining release and converting many.
After his death,
churches were dedicated to him in France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, Poland and
other countries. Pilgrims flocked
to his tomb, and in one small town in Bavaria there
are records of 4,000 favors granted through Saint Leonard’s
intercession.
c.559 of
natural causes
in Italy
abbot holding chain, fetters or
a lock
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MLA
Citation
“Saint Leonard of
Noblac“. CatholicSaints.Info. 23 April 2021. Web. 5 November 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-leonard-of-noblac/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-leonard-of-noblac/
St. Leonard of Limousin
Nothing absolutely certain is
known of his history, as his earliest "Life", written in the
eleventh century, has nohistorical value whatever. According to this
extraordinary legend, Leonard belonged to a noble Frankish family of
the time of King
Clovis, and St. Remy of Reims was
his godfather. After having secured from the king the release of a great number
of prisoners,
and refused episcopal honours which Clovis offered him,
he entered a monastery at
Micy near Orléans. Later he went to Aquitaine and there preached
the Gospel. Having obtained, through prayer,
a safe delivery for the Queen of the Franks in
her confinement, he received as a gift from the king a domain
at Noblac, near Limoges,
where he founded a monastery.
The veneration of this saint is as widely known as
his history is obscure and uncertain. It is true that
there is no trace of it before the eleventh century, but from that time it
spread everywhere, and little by little churches were dedicated to
him, not only in France,
but in all Western Europe,
especially in England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany,
more particularly in Bavaria,
and also in Bohemia, Poland,
and other countries. Pilgrims, among them kings, princes, and
high dignitaries of the Church,
flocked to Noblac (now St. Leonard). Numerous miracles are
attributed to him, and in one small town alone, Inchenhofen, Bavaria,
from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, there are records of about 4000
favours granted through his intercession. The saint wrought the
delivery of captives, women in
confinement, those possessed
of an evil spirit, people and beasts afflicted with diseases. At
the end of the eleventh century his name had already become renowned among
the Crusaders captured
by the Mussulmans.
He is generally represented holding chains in his hands. His feast
day is celebrated on 6 November.
Sources
PONCELET in Acta SS.,
November, III, 139-209; see also CHEVALIER, Bio-Bibl., s.v.
Poncelet, Albert. "St. Leonard of Limousin." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 6 Nov. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09178b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T.
Barrett. Dedicated to St. Leonard of Limousin.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09178b.htm
Illuminierte Seite aus dem Waldburg-Gebetbuch, WLB Stuttgart, Cod. brev. 12, fol. 41v, 1486
St. Leonard
St. Leonard was born to
the Frankish nobility in the 5th century. He was part of the court of the then
pagan King Clovis I. The Queen suggested to Leonard, possibly as a joke, that
he invoke the help of his God to repel an invading army. Leonard prayed, the
tide of battle turned, and Clovis was victorious.
Archbishop Saint Remigius
of Rheims used this miracle to convert the King, Leonard, and a thousand of
followers to Christianity. This was a pivotal conversion in the history of
Europe and brought Christianity in full to what is now France. Clovis was the
founder of the Merovingian dynasty of which Charlemagne was a descendent.
Leonard began a life of
austerity, sanctification, and preaching. His desire to know God grew until he
decided to enter the monastery at Orleans, France. His brother, Saint Lifiard,
followed his example and left the royal court, built a monastery at Meun, and
lived there. Leonard desired further seclusion, and so withdrew into the forest
of Limousin, converting many on the way, and living on herbs, wild fruits, and
spring water.
He built himself an
oratory, leaving it only for journeys to churches. Others begged to live with
him and learn from him, and so a monastery formed around his hermitage. Leonard
had a great compassion for prisoners, obtaining release and converting many.
After his death, churches
were dedicated to him in France, England, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland,
Germany, Bohemia, Poland and other countries. Pilgrims flocked to his tomb, and
in one small town in Bavaria there are records of 4,000 favors granted through
Saint Leonard’s intercession.
St. Leonard is the patron of prisoners, prisoners of war, locksmiths, and miners.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-leonard/
St. Leonard, Hermit and
Confessor
His life published in
Surius was written a considerable time after his death. Baronius in his notes
on the Martyrology mentions another life of this saint which he saw in
manuscript: several ancient monuments mention him.
Sixth Age.
ST. LEONARD or LIENARD
was a French nobleman of great reputation in the court of Clovis I., and in the
flower of his age was converted to the faith by St. Remigius, probably after
the battle of Tolbiac. Being instructed in the obligations of our heavenly
warfare, wherein the prize of the victory is an assured crown of immortal
glory, he resolved to lay aside all worldly pursuits, quitted the court, and
became a constant disciple of St. Remigius. The holy instructions and example
of that saint made every day deeper impressions upon his tender soul, and
Leonard seemed to have inherited the very spirit of his master, and to be
animated with the same simplicity, disinterestedness, modesty, zeal, and
charity. He preached the faith some time; but finding it very difficult to
resist the king’s importunities, who would needs call him to court, and, burning
with a desire of giving himself up entirely to the exercises of penance and
contemplation, he retired privately into the territory of Orleans, where St.
Mesmin or Maximin governed the monastery of Micy (called afterwards St.
Mesmin’s), which his uncle St. Euspicius had founded, two leagues from the
city, in 508. In this house St. Leonard took the religious habit, and inured
himself to the fervent practices of regular discipline under the direction of
St. Mesmin and of St. Lie or Lætus, a holy monk of that house, who afterwards
died a hermit. St. Lifard, brother to our saint, who had renounced the world in
the fortieth year of his age, laid the foundation of a religious community at
Meun, in that country, which is at present a collegiate church of canons which
bears his name.
St. Leonard himself
aspiring after a closer solitude, with the leave of St. Mesmin left his
monastery, travelled through Berry, where he converted many idolaters, and
coming into Limousin, chose for his retirement a forest, four leagues from
Limoges. Here, in a place called Nobiliac, he built himself an oratory, lived
on wild herbs and fruits, and had for some time no other witness of his penance
and virtues but God alone. His zeal and devotion sometimes carried him to the
neighbouring churches, and some who by his discourses were inflamed with a
desire of imitating his manner of life, joined him in his desert, and formed a
community which, in succeeding times, out of devotion to the saint’s memory,
became a flourishing monastery, called first Noblat, afterwards St. Leonard le
Noblat. The reputation of his sanctity and miracles being spread very wide, the
king bestowed on him and his fellow-hermits a considerable part of the forest
where they lived. The saint, even before he retired to Micy, had been most
remarkable for his charity towards captives and prisoners, and he laid himself
out with unwearied zeal in affording them both corporal and spiritual help and
comfort, and he obtained of the governors the liberty of many. This was also the
favourite object of his charity after he had discovered himself to the world in
Limousin, and began to make frequent excursions to preach and instruct the
people of that country. It is related that some were miraculously delivered
from their chains by his prayers, and that the king, out of respect for his
eminent sanctity, granted him a special privilege of sometimes setting
prisoners at liberty; which about that time was frequently allowed to certain
holy bishops and others. But the saint’s chief aim and endeavours in this
charitable employment were to bring malefactors and all persons who fell under
this affliction, to a true sense of the enormity of their sins, and to a
sincere spirit of compunction and penance, and a perfect reformation of their
lives. When he had filled up the measure of his good works, his labours were
crowned with a happy death about the year 559, according to the new Paris
Breviary. In honour of the saint his church, which has been long served by
regular canons (though now half the number is secularized), enjoys still great
exemptions from public burdens and exactions. Many other places in France bear
his name, and he is honoured there with particular devotion. Many great
churches in England, of which he is the titular saint, and our ancient
calendars, show his name to have been formerly no less famous in England. In a
list of holidays published at Worcester, in 1240, St. Leonard’s festival is
ordered to be kept a half-holiday, with an obligation of hearing mass, and a
prohibition of labour except that of the plough. 1 He
was particularly invoked in favour of prisoners, and several miracles are
ascribed to him. 2 His
name occurs in the Roman and other Martyrologies.
Solitude has always
charms to the devout servant of God, because retirement from the world is very
serviceable to his conversing with heaven. This appears from the practice of
the Nazarites, prophets, and devout persons in the old law, and from that of Christ
and all the saints in the new. Isaac went out into the field when he would
meditate; and when Moses met God, it was in the desert. Solitude and silence
settle and compose the thoughts; the mind augments its strength and vigour by
rest and collection within itself, and in this state of serenity is most fit to
reflect upon itself and its own wants, and to contemplate the mysteries of
divine grace and love, the joys of heaven, and the grounds of our hope. This
solitude must be chiefly interior, that of the mind still more than of the
place, by freeing and disengaging ourselves from worldly cares and business,
from the attachment to our senses, and from all those things and even thoughts,
which soften, allure, disturb, or distract us, or which breed in us vanity or
vexation. If we cut not off these things, under the name of retirement, we
shall be more persecuted with a dissipation of thoughts, and the noise and
cravings of our passions, than in the midst of the most active and busy life.
How shall a Christian, who lives in the world, practise this retirement? By not
loving its spirit and maxims, by being as recollected as may be in the midst of
business, and bearing always in mind that salvation is the most important and
only affair: by shunning superfluous amusements, and idle conversation and
visits; and by consecrating every day some time, and a considerable part of
Sundays and great festivals to the exercises of religious retirement,
especially devout prayer, self-examination, meditation, and pious reading.
Note 1. See Sir H.
Spelman’s Councils, t. 2, p. 358. Johnson’s English Canons, ad an. 1362, n.
3. [back]
Note 2. In the same
sixth age St. Leonard of Yandeuvre led an eremitical life in the desert of that
name in the diocess of Mans, and at length formed his disciples into a
community, was made the first abbot, and died about the year 560. His relics
were translated hence in the ninth age to the abbey of Corbigny, in Nivernois,
in the diocess of Autun. See Le Cointe, Annal. Eccl. Franc. Bulteau, l. 2, c.
30. The History of Mans, &c. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume XI: November. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/11/061.html
Leonard of Noblac, Abbot (RM)
(also known as Lienard, Lithenard)
Born c. 466; died c. 559. Leonard of Noblac was one of the most popular saints
of Western Europe in the late Middle Ages, but the account of his life is
unreliable because it was not written until the 11th century. Doubtless his
popularity was due to the very large number of miracles and aids attributed to
his intercession, and to the enthusiasm of the returning crusaders, who looked
on him as the patron saint of prisoners. Tradition has it that, like many young
nobles, when Leonard was about six years old he went to live with Saint
Remigius, archbishop of Rheims. About 495 he went to the court of his cousin
Clovis, King of the Franks, at the summons of Queen Clotilde. After
accompanying Clovis in a victorious war against the Germans, Leonard was
baptized by Saint Remigius, who had previously baptized Clovis, Leonard's
godfather (some say they were baptized the same day). Clovis offered Leonard a
bishopric, but he turned it down. Seeking no earthly rewards, Leonard renounced
the life of a Frankish nobleman and withdrew from the court about the year 501.
Instead he went to the monastery of Micy in Orleans and became a monk under
Saint Mesmin and Saint Lie. Seeking even more solitude he built himself a
little hut in a forest of Pauvin near Limoges, Aquitaine, in a place called
Nobiliac and lived on vegetables and fruit. His zeal and devotion sometimes
carried him to the neighboring churches where his preaching would inflame
others to imitate his life.
The legend says that one
day the king went hunting in this forest, accompanied by his wife, who was
pregnant. The moment of birth arrived, and it was clear that the queen was in
difficulties. Leonard fell to prayer on her behalf, and her baby was delivered
safely. In gratitude the king said that the saint should be given as much land
as he could ride round in one day on his donkey. Leonard rode all day, was
granted many acres and there founded the abbey of Noblac around which grew the
town of Saint-Léonard. He used this abbey as a base to preach the Gospel
throughout the whole region. Leonard was also known for the miracles wrought on
his behalf.
A more conservative
version says that after saving Clotilde, he left his solitude to preach to the
people and to try to pacify warring princes. In 540, after visiting Saint Remy
and living for several years in a monastery at Micy, he returned from his
mission. The saint appears to have had a remarkable charity towards prisoners
for whom he provided both corporal and spiritual help. Some were miraculously
delivered from their chains by his prayers; others were released by the king at
Leonard's request out of respect for his sanctity--a frequent privilege of
certain holy bishops during that period. Leonard died in solitude in his
monastery in the forest of Pauvin in Limousin about 599, aged about 99 years.
Leonard was the first
saint of the French royal family. Although he was nearly 100 when he died, he
is usually represented in art as a young man of about 30, because he appeared
to many people at different times as a handsome young man in the flower of his
youth. Today Leonard is regarded as the patron saint of childbirth, prisoners
(because King Clovis promised that any prisoner converted by the saint would be
released), prisoners of war (Bohemond, the crusader prince of Antioch, was
released from a Islamic prison in 1103 and visited Noblac to make an offering
in gratitude), and those in danger from brigands, robbers, and thieves (perhaps
because the public was in danger from the very prisoners whom Leonard was
responsible for releasing ) (Attwater, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia,
Husenbeth, White).
He is portrayed in art
vested as an abbot holding chains in his hand of a deacon with fetters or
locks. Sometimes shown freeing prisoners, with prisoners nearby in stocks, or
with a horse or ox near him (Roeder). He is venerated at Orleans (Abbey of
Micy) and Noblac, and is the patron of cattle, domestic animals and prisoners
(Roeder)
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1106.shtml
Golden Legend –
Life of Saint Leonard
Here followeth the Life
of Saint Leonard, and first of his name.
Leonard is as much to say
as the odour of the people. And it is said of leos, that is, people, and of
nardus, that is, a herb sweet smelling, for by the odour of good fame he drew
the people to him, and by the odour of good renomee. Or Leonard may be said as
gathering high things. Or it is said of lion. The lion hath in himself four
things. The first is force or strength, and as Isidore saith, it is in the
breast and in the head. And so the blessed Leonard had strength in his breast
by the refraining of evil thoughts, in the head by the contemplation of
sovereign things. Secondly, the lion hath subtlety in two things, for he hath
his eyes open when he sleepeth, and defaceth his traces when he fleeth. And
thus Leonard waked by labour of good works, and in waking he sleepeth by rest
of contemplation, and defaceth in himself the trace of all worldly affection.
Thirdly, the lion hath might in his voice, for by his voice he raiseth the
third day his whelp that is dead born, and maketh all other beasts by him to be
in peace and rest. And in like wise Leonard raiseth many that were dead in sin,
and many that lied bestially he fixed them in good works and profitable.
Fourthly, the lion hath dread in his heart after that Isidore saith: He
doubteth two things, that is, the noise of wheels of chariots or carts, and
fire burning. In like wise Leonard doubted, and in doubting he eschewed all the
noise of the world, and therefore he fled into the desert. And he eschewed the
fire of covetise, and therefore he refused the treasures that were offered him
Of Saint Leonard.
It is said that Leonard
was about the year of our Lord five hundred. And he was baptized in the holy
font of Saint Remigius, archbishop of Rheims, and was instructed of him and
induced in holy discipline of health. And the parents and kinsmen of Saint
Leonard were chief and highest in the palace of the king of France. This
Leonard gat so much grace of the king, that all the prisoners that he visited
were anon delivered. And when the renomee of his holiness grew and increased,
the king constrained him for to dwell with him long time, till that he had time
convenable, and gave to him a bishopric. And he refused it and left all,
desiring to be in desert, and went to Orleans, preaching there with his brother
Lifardus, and there lived a little while in a convent. And then Lifardus had
desire to dwell alone in a desert upon the river of Loire, and Leonard was
warned by the Holy Ghost to preach in Guienne, and then they kissed together
and departed. Then Leonard preached there and did many miracles, and dwelled in
a forest nigh to the city of Limoges. In which forest the king had do make a
hall or a lodge, which was ordained for him when he should go hunt. And it
happed on a day that the king went for to hunt in that forest, and the queen,
which was gone thither with him for her recreation, which then was great with
child, began to travail of child. And the travail endured long, and she was in
point to perish, so that the king and all the meiny wept for the peril of the
queen. And then Leonard passed through the forest and heard the voice of them
that wept, and was moved with pity and went thither. And the king called him,
and demanded him what he was, and he said that he was a disciple of Saint
Remigius. And then the king had good hope because he had been informed of a
good master, and brought him to the queen, and prayed him that he would pray
for her, and for the fruit that she bare, that she might get of God double joy.
And anon as he had made his prayer, he gat of God that he required. Then the
king offered to him much gold and silver, but he refused all, and desired him
to give it to poor men, and said: I have no need of such things, it sufficeth
me to despise the riches of the world and to serve God in this wood, and that
is that I desire. And then the king would have given to him all the wood. I
will not have all, but as much as I may go about with mine ass in a night, I
desire, which the king gladly granted to him. And there was made a monastery in
which he lived long in abstinence, and two monks with him. And their water was
a mile from them, wherefore he did do make a pit all dry, the which he filled
with water by his prayers, and called that place noble, because he had received
it of a noble king. And he shone there by so great miracles, that who that was
in prison and called his name in aid, anon his bonds and fetters were broken,
and went away without any gainsaying freely, and came presenting to him their
chains or irons. And many of them that were so delivered, dwelled still with
him and served there our Lord. And there were seven of his noble lineage which
sold away all their goods and dwelled with him, and he delivered to each of
them a part of that wood. And by his holy example he drew many to him. And at
the last this holy man, being endowed with many virtues, the eighth ides of
November departed out of this world, and slept in our Lord, whereafterward for
the many miracles that God showed there, it was showed to the clerks of the
church that because that place was over little for the great multitude of
people that came thither, that they should do make in another place another
church, and bear therein the body of Saint Leonard honourably.
And then the clerks and
the people were all three days in fastings and in prayers. And on the third day
they saw all the country covered with snow, save only the place wherein Saint
Leonard would rest, which was all void. And thither was the body transported,
and the church made. And the great multitude of irons of diverse manners
witness well how many miracles our Lord hath showed for him, and specially to
prisoners, of whom the fetters and irons hang tofore his tomb.
The viscount of Limoges
had do make a great chain for to fear withal the malefactors, and commanded
that it should be fastened unto a trunk in his tower. And whosomever was
bounden with this chain to that trunk thereas it was set, he might see no
light. And it was a place right dark, and whoso died there, died not of one
death only, but more than of a thousand torments. And it happed that one of the
servants of Saint Leonard was bounden with this chain without deserving, so
that almost he gave over his spirit. And then as he might, in his courage he
avowed to Saint Leonard, and prayed him that sith he delivered other that he would
have pity on his servant. And anon Saint Leonard appeared to him in a white
vesture and said: Fear thee nothing, for thou shalt not die. Arise up, and bear
thou this chain with thee to my church; follow me, for I go tofore. Then he
arose and took the chain and followed Saint Leonard, which went tofore him till
he came to the church. And anon, as he was tofore the gates, Saint Leonard left
him there, and he then entered into the church and recounted to all the people
what Saint Leonard had done. And he hung that great chain tofore his tomb.
There was a certain man which dwelled in the place of Saint Leonard, and was
much faithful and devout to Saint Leonard. And it happed that this good man was
taken of a tyrant, which began to think in himself that Saint Leonard unbindeth
and looseth all them that be bounden in irons, and the might of iron hath no
more might against him than wax hath against the fire. If I set this man in
irons Leonard shall anon deliver him, and if I may keep him I shall make him
pay for his ransom a thousand shillings. I wot well what I shall do. I shall go
make a right great and deep pit under the earth in my tower, and I shall cast
him therein bounden with many bonds. And after I shall do make a chest of tree
upon the mouth of the pit, and shall make my knights to lie therein all armed.
And how be it that if Leonard break the irons, yet shall he not enter into it
under the earth.
And when he had made all
this that he thought, this man which was enclosed therein cried oft to Saint
Leonard, so that on a night Saint Leonard came and turned the chest wherein the
knights lay armed, and closed them therein like as dead men be in a tomb. And
after entered into the fosse or pit with great light, and took the hand of his
true servant, and said to him: Sleepest thou or wakest. Lo! here is Leonard
whom thou so much desirest. And he, sore marvelling, said: Lord help me! And
anon his chains were broken, and took him in his arms and bare him out of the
tower, and then spake to him as a friend doth to a friend, and set him at home
in his house. There was a pilgrim which returned from the visiting of Saint
Leonard, and was taken in Almaine and put in a pit or fosse, and fast closed
therein. And this pilgrim prayed strongly Saint Leonard and also them that took
him, that they would for the love of Saint Leonard let him go, for he had never
trespassed to them. And they answered, but if he would pay much money he should
not depart. And he said: Be it between you and Saint Leonard, to whom I remit
the matter. And the night following Saint Leonard appeared to the lord of the
castle and commanded him that he should deliver his pilgrim, and on the morn he
supposed he had dreamed, and would not deliver him. The next night he appeared
to him again, and commanded him to let him go, but yet he would not obey. The
third night Saint Leonard took this pilgrim and brought him out of the castle,
and anon the tower and half the castle fell, and oppressed many of them that
were therein, and the prince only was left, to his confusion, alive, and had
his thighs broken. et cetera.
There was a knight in
prison in Brittany which oft called on Saint Leonard, which anon appeared to
him in the sight of all men, and knowing him, and they being sore abashed,
entered into the prison and brake his bonds and put them in the man’s hand, and
brought him forth before them all, being sore afeard.
There was another
Leonard, which was of the same profession and of one virtue, of whom the body
resteth at Corbigny. And when this Leonard was prelate in a monastery he was of
so great humility that he was seen to be lowest of all. And much people came to
him, so fast and so many, that they that were envious said to the king Clothair
that, if he took not good heed to the realm of France he should suffer damage,
and that great by Leonard, which gathered to him much people under the shadow
of religion. And then this cruel king commanded that he should be chased away,
but the knights that came for to chase him were so converted by his words that,
they were compunct, and promised to be his disciples. And then the king
repented him, and required pardon of him, and put them from him that had so
missaid of him, and from their goods and honours, and loved much Saint Leonard,
so that unnethe the king would not
re-establish them again to their estate at the prayers of the holy saint. And
this holy saint impetred and had grant of God, that whosomever were holden in
prison and prayed in his name that he should anon be delivered. And on a day,
as he was in his prayers, a right great serpent stretched him from the foot of
Saint Leonard along upward unto his breast, and he never therefore left his
orison. And when he had accomplished his orisons, he said to the serpent: I
know well that sith the beginning of thy creation thou
tormentest men as much as thou mayst, but thy might is given to me now, do to
me now that which I have deserved. And when he had said thus the serpent sprang
out of his hood and fell down dead at his feet. After this, on a time when he
had appeased two bishops that had been in discord, he said that he should on
the morn finish his life. And so he did, and that was about the year of our
Lord five hundred and seventy.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-life-of-saint-leonard/
Katholische
Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt in Ettenbeuren,
einem Ortsteil der Gemeinde Kammeltal im Landkreis Günzburg (Bayern),
Prozessionsfahne, Darstellung: hl. Leonhard
Influence
of the Pre-Reformation Church on Scottish Place-Names – Saint Leonard
The relics of Saint Andrew were
brought at an early date to Fife in Scotland.
Many pilgrims flocked
to his shrine, and a hospital was built for their reception some time, it is
believed, in the twelfth century. This hospital, like so many others, was
dedicated to Saint Leonard,
but was suppressed by Prior Hepburn in 1512,
when Saint Leonard’s College was founded. The saint continues to be remembered
in the name of Saint Leonard’s parish.
According to Alban
Butler, Leonard was a French nobleman at the Court of Clovis I, but quitted the
Court and sought retirement at Mobilac, near Limoges, where he founded a
monastery, called after him Saint Leonard de Noblat. He died about the middle
of the sixth century. He was noted for his kindness to captives, and became, in
after-times, their patron saint. His emblem in art is a chain, in allusion to
this trait in his character. The Rev. R. Owen mentions that
“Bohemond, Prince of
Antioch, son of Robert Guiscard, when he came to France in 1106, visited
Limoges and offered silver fetters to Saint Leonard as a thankoffering for his
escape from captivity.”
– from Influence of the Pre-Reformation Church on Scottish
Place-Names, by James Murray Mackinlay, 1904
Weninger’s
Lives of the Saints – Saint Leonard, Confessor
Article
The Roman Martyrology
says of this Saint as follows: “At Limoges, in Aquitain, shone Saint Leonard, a
disciple of Saint Remigius, who, of noble parentage, chose a solitary life and
became renowned for his holiness and the miracles he wrought. His power,
however, was especially manifested in liberating prisoners.”
Leonard, a native of
France, was of very high lineage. Clovis, the first Christian king of that
country, with whom his parents stood in high favor, was his sponsor. Saint
Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, baptized him, and instructed him for several years.
The king, in course of time, offered him a high office at court; but Leonard
had already conceived a disgust for all temporal things and had determined to
employ his days only in the service of God and for the salvation of souls.
Hence, he was ordained priest by Saint Remigius, and began to preach the word
of God. His holy conduct gave great power to his words to move the hearts of
his hearers. There was hardly any one whom he did not succeed in converting or
persuade to constancy in pursu- ing the path of right. He first preached at
Orleans; after which he travelled through the whole of Gascony, where a great
portion of the inhabitants were yet idolaters. God bestowed on him the gift of
miracles. He freed the possessed, made the blind see, the deaf hear, and
restored health to the sick.
It happened, one day,
that the king was hunting with his queen, in a forest. The latter, who was with
child, was suddenly taken sick, and her life and that of her child were in
great danger. Leonard, not knowing anything of this, was at the same time
traversing the forest, on his way to a neighboring village, where he was going
to preach. Led by Providence, he came to the place where the queen lay ill.
Having been informed of the sad circumstances, he sank upon his knees and
prayed, and when he arose, the queen was happily delivered. The King expressed
his warmest thanks to the servant of the Lord, and offered him some valuable
presents, which the Saint refused, telling the king to give the value of them
to the poor. The king promised to follow the charitable request, but insisted
that Leonard should accept as a gift the forest in which the miracle had
happened, and use it as he deemed best. The Saint, however, was satisfied with
a portion of it, large enough to build a chapel in honor of the Blessed Virgin,
and a hut for himself and his companions. The king had both buildings erected;
and Leonard, entering joyfully into his new dwelling, led a strict and holy
life. The fame of his holiness caused many to come to him who desired to serve
the Almighty under his guidance. He received them kindly, and instructed them
in virtue and piety. Some of these were grieved that there was no water in the
neighborhood, and that they had to bring it from a distance. Leonard offered a
prayer to the Almighty, and immediately there gushed forth, near the chapel, a
spring of the purest water, which exists to this day. This and other miracles
spread the fame of the Saint to distant countries, so that his assistance was
often requested by people who lived afar off. God bestowed upon him peculiar
power to help the unfortunate, as several prisoners especially experienced. It
is attested that many who were languishing in dungeons were miraculously
restored to liberty when they had heard of the great holiness of Saint Leonard
and had begged of God to be merciful to them for his sake. The same happened to
others who regarded Leonard, though still living and far away, as if he had
been already one of the Saints reigning in heaven, and who requested him with
the greatest confidence, to intercede for them. Many of these brought to the
Saint the chains and irons, with which they had been fettered, and thanked him
for having released them by his prayers. This gave him an opportunity to
admonish them to free themselves, by true repentance, from the chains of sin,
and to make their lives such that they would not one day be imprisoned in that
dungeon from which there is no escape.
Similar admonitions he
gave to others who visited him in his solitude. The inhabitants of the
neighboring villages and hamlets he sought to lead to piety and the fear of God
by his sermons. After having thus lived a holy life for many years, he longed
to be relieved from the fetters of life and admitted to the liberty of the
children of God. His prayer was accepted; for, God called him to heaven by a
happy death, in 549. The miraculous deliverance of prisoners, however, ended
not at the death of Saint Leonard. A great many chains were brought to the tomb
of the Saint, by different persons, who said that, by calling on Saint Leonard,
they had been most miraculously led out of prison. From many hundred instances
we will select only a few.
The Count of Limoges had
chained an innocent man in heavy irons and in such a manner that he could not
move without pain. Calling with great confidence on Saint Leonard, he was
immediately released by the Saint who appeared to him, struck off the chain and
told him to take it along. The man obeyed, took the heavy chain upon his
shoulder, with the greatest ease, and followed his guide, who led him away into
the church where the body of the Saint was buried. There the Saint disappeared,
and he, who had been so miraculously delivered, related what had happened. A
similar miracle was performed in favor of a prisoner of war, who against all
justice, had been cast into a deep pit in the earth, by his captor, who
mockingly said, that Saint Leonard could open the doors of the prisons and
deliver the prisoners, but it had never been heard that he had freed any one
out of a pit under the earth. The prisoner was not discouraged, but called the
more fervently on the Saint, who appeared to him and led him from his
subterranean vault to the gates of the monastery of Nouaille, where the man so
happily delivered related the great miracle that the kind Saint had wrought on
him. Let this suffice in praise of Saint Leonard, or rather, in honor of the
Most High, who is wonderful in His Saints.
Practical Considerations
• The prayer offered by
Saint Leonard for the queen had the desired effect. Why has your prayer so
often no effect whatever? Because it is not agreeable to the Most High: because
it is not as it ought to be. “Three things,” says Saint Bernard, “make prayers
agreeable to God: attention, devotion and reverence.” Perhaps not one of these
three requisites is to be found in your prayers. How can they, then, be
agreeable to God? how can they have the desired effect? If you wish that, in
future, your prayer may be pleasing to the Almighty, endeavor first, to say it
with attention; give no occasion to distraction by looking about or talking.
Should you feel tempted to do either the one or the other, endeavor to preserve
your recollection by thinking of the presence of the Most High. Secondly,
recite your prayer with devotion and fervor, considering yourself a poor beggar
who appears before the mightiest and kindest of all Lords, to obtain relief.
Thirdly, say it with due reverence. You read that Saint Leonard sank upon his
knees when he prayed. Oh! how many of our prayers are rendered worse than
useless by our standing up boldly and without reverence, or by lazily sitting
down, leaning against the wall, by talking, laughing, looking about. Such
prayer is not agreeable to the Lord, and it not only fails of the desired
effect, but rather tends to increase our sins and hence our punishment: because
it is a horror in the eyes of God and an offence to His Majesty. Take care
that your prayer be not such.
• Take to heart the admonition
that Saint Leonard gave to them who brought their chains to him: that they
should free themselves from the bonds of sin by true penance, so that they
might not be banished into that prison whence there is no escape. I ask you, if
you were bound and chained in your house by your enemy, and had to fear that
you would soon be imprisoned for all your life in a fearful dungeon, but had it
in your power to free yourself from your fetters and thus escape the danger,
would you have to consider long before you acted? I hardly believe it: but on
the contrary, I am of opinion, that you would, without any delay, loosen your
chains, and thus escape all further danger. Behold! as long as you are in
mortal sin, you are a prisoner of Satan, enchained by your sin, and you are in
continual danger of being banished into the dungeon of hell, whence there is no
return. You can free yourself from your fetters by a good confession. The
priest, who has the power to bind and to loose, can release you from the chains
of your sins, and in this manner you can escape the danger of eternal
imprisonment. Are you, therefore, not extremely foolish, if you, by wantonly
deferring your penance, remain in danger? Consider what it means – to be
eternally imprisoned in hell. You are not one hour of the day secure from being
precipitated into it; can you therefore delay one single moment? Oh! heed what
you do! “We must hasten,” says Saint Ambrose, “for, life is short, and the
greatest danger is in deferring.” Still greater is the danger, if after you
have freed yourself from the fetters of sin, you allow yourself to be again
bound with them, or rather you again enchain yourself by a detestable relapse
into your former evil doings. Saint Leonard never admonished any of the
released prisoners not to return into their former bondage, nor to enchain
themselves with new irons: because he knew that not one of them would commit so
foolish an action. Why then are you so senseless, that after having gone to
confession, you commit new sin, and thus deliver yourself again to Satan? If
some one went wantonly back again into prison after having been released, he
would not be worthy of being released anew, nay, he would not even deserve pity
should he die in it. Thus you deserve no pardon, if you wantonly cast yourself
into sin again! one could hardly pity you, should you go to destruction in it.
“Whoever, after having been restored to health, again in a reckless manner,
wounds himself, deserves not to be healed again,” says Saint Lawrence
Justinian; “and whoever, after having received pardon, sins again, deserves not
to be again cleansed or forgiven.”
MLA
Citation
Father Francis Xavier
Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Leonard, Confessor”. Lives
of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info.
23 May 2018. Web. 6 November 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-leonard-confessor/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-leonard-confessor/
Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (–1516) et Marco d'Oggiono (1470–1540). La
Résurrection du Christ avec Saint Leonard de Noblac et Sainte Lucie, 1491-1494,
234,5 x 185,5, Gemäldegalerie
Pictorial
Lives of the Saints – Saint Leonard
Leonard, one of the chief
personages of the court of Clovis, and for whom this monarch had stood as
sponsor in baptism, was so moved by the discourse and example of Saint Remigius
that he relinquished the world in order to lead a more perfect life. The Bishop
of Reims having trained Leonard to virtue, he became the apostle of such of the
Franks as still remained pagans; but fearing that he might be summoned to the
court by his reputation for sanctity, he withdrew secretly to the monastery of
Micy, near Orleans, and afterwards to the solitude of Noblac, near Limoges. His
charity not allowing him to remain inactive while there was so much good to be
done, he undertook the work of comforting prisoners, making them understand
that the captivity of sin, was more terrible than any mere bodily constraint.
He won over a great many of these unfortunate persons, which gained for him
many disciples, in whose behalf he founded a new monastery. Saint Leonard died
about the year 550.
Reflection – “The wicked
shall be taken with his own iniquities, and shall be held by the cords of his
own sin.”
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-leonard/
Hinterglasbild "Hl. Leonhard", Süddeutschland oder Tirol, 1. Hälfte 19. Jh.,
A
Garner of Saints – Saint Leonard of the Limousin
Article
Was baptised by Saint
Remi, archbishop of Rheims, his parents being people of distinction in the
court of the French king. From that monarch he obtained permission that all the
captives whom he visited should be set at liberty. Although greatly favoured by
the king, and offered a bishopric, he resolved to live in poverty and humility
and after a while departed to preach in Aquitaine. Arrived at Limoges, he found
that the queen who had followed her husband hunting, was on the point of child-bearing,
and great anxiety was felt for her safety. Leonard secured her a safe delivery,
for which the king overwhelmed him with thanks and would have given him great
wealth and possessions. Leonard however would only accept as much land as he
could make the circle of in one night, mounted on his ass. Here he built a
monastery and lived there with two monks, devoting himself to a life of
mortification. There being no water nearer than a mile, he caused a well to be
dug in a dry place, and by his prayers filled it with water. He called the
place Nobiliac, because it was the noble present of a king. He worked a number
of miracles, and when a prisoner invoked his name, the chains fell from him;
and many of them stayed with him, devoting themselves to religion. After many
good works, he died at the monastery which he had founded about 559. He is
the patron
saint of all prisoners and
captives and of women in travail. 6th
November.
Attributes
Carries chains in his
hand, and wears the habit of a deacon.
MLA
Citation
Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
“Saint Leonard of the Limousin”. A Garner of
Saints, 1900. CatholicSaints.Info.
21 April 2017. Web. 6 November 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-leonard-of-the-limousin/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-leonard-of-the-limousin/
San Leonardo di Limoges Eremita
Gallia, inizio VI sec. –
Limoges, 6 novembre 545 ca.
Leonardo nacque in Gallia
al tempo dell’imperatore Anastasio da nobili franchi, amici del re Clodoveo che
volle fargli da padrino al battesimo. In gioventù rifiutò di arruolarsi
nell’esercito e si mise al seguito di S. Remigio, arcivescovo di Reims. Avendo
questi ottenuto dal re di poter chiedere la liberazione dei prigionieri che
avesse incontrato, anche Leonardo, acceso di carità, chiese e ottenne lo stesso
favore e liberò, di fatto, un gran numero di questi infelici. Diffondendosi la
fama della sua santità, egli rifiutata la dignità vescovile offertagli da
Clodoveo si diresse a Limoges; attraversando la foresta di Pavum soccorse la
Regina sorpresa dalle doglie del parto. La preghiera del santo le concesse di
superare i dolori e di dare alla luce un bel bambino. Clodoveo riconoscente gli
concesse una parte del bosco per edificarvi un monastero. Il Santo costruì un
oratorio in onore della Madonna e dedicò in altare in onore di S. Remigio;
scavò poi un pozzo che si riempì miracolosamente d’acqua e al luogo diede il
nome di nobiliacum in ricordo della donazione di Clodoveo. Il Santo sarebbe
morto il 6 novembre di un anno imprecisato, nella metà del VI secolo.
Patronato: Prigionieri,
Puerpere, Campobasso, Conegliano (TV)
Etimologia: Leonardo =
forte come leone, dal latino e dal tedesco
Martirologio Romano:
Nella cittadina vicino a Limoges in Francia in seguito insignita del suo nome,
san Leonardo, eremita.
La prima cosa certa che riguarda s. Leonardo di Noblac o di Noblat o di Nobilicum o di Limoges, è che le prime notizie sulla sua esistenza risalgono al secolo XI, nelle “Historiae” di Ademaro di Chabannes scritte verso il 1028; dove si racconta che nel 1017, venne scoperto un supposto capo di s. Giovanni Battista a Saint-Jean-d’Angély e i fedeli dei dintorni accorsero portando le reliquie dei loro santi fra le quali quelle di s. Leonardo confessore nel Limusino.
Qualche anno dopo il 1030, fu messa in circolazione un’anonima “Vita sancti Leonardi” con l’aggiunta della descrizione di nove miracoli a lui attribuiti.
Secondo gli studiosi agiografi successivi, questa “Vita” è molto favolosa, ma rimane comunque il più antico racconto e ad esso ci rifacciamo.
Leonardo nacque in Gallia al tempo dell’imperatore Anastasio I (491-518), i suoi genitori erano nobili franchi amici di re Clodoveo (481-511), il quale volle fargli da padrino nel battesimo.
Da giovane rifiutò di arruolarsi nell’esercito, come era uso per i nobili franchi e si pose come discepolo di s. Remigio, arcivescovo di Reims (438-530), il grande evangelizzatore dei Franchi che aveva convertito e battezzato lo stesso re Clodoveo.
Il santo vescovo aveva ottenuto dal re convertito, di poter chiedere la liberazione dei prigionieri che avesse incontrato e anche Leonardo, preso da grande fervore di carità, chiese ed ottenne lo stesso favore, liberando così un gran numero di infelici prigionieri, vittime delle guerre barbare di quei tempi.
La sua santità andava molto diffondendosi e Clodoveo I gli offerse la dignità vescovile, che Leonardo rifiutò, ritirandosi come eremita prima presso S. Massimino a Micy, poi si diresse a Limoges. Si racconta che attraversando la foresta di Pavum nei pressi di Limoges, dove si era stabilito, si trovò a soccorrere la regina Clotilde, che era al seguito del re Clodoveo per la caccia e che era stata sorpresa dalle doglie del parto; Leonardo con le sue preghiere, le concesse di superare i dolori e quindi di dare alla luce un bel bambino.
Clodoveo per riconoscenza, gli concesse parte del bosco per edificarvi un monastero, che lo stesso Leonardo delimitò montato su un asino.
Il santo eremita edificò un oratorio in onore della Madonna, dedicando anche un altare al suo maestro, s. Remigio, da tempo defunto in fama di santità.
Un pozzo da lui scavato si riempì miracolosamente di acqua e chiamò quel luogo “Nobiliacum” in ricordo della donazione di Clodoveo, re nobilissimo.
Le regioni già cristiane di Germania, Aquitania, Inghilterra, furono pervase dalla fama che circondava il santo eremita; sia a Micy presso Orléans, che a Nobilac accorrevano malati di ogni genere, che solo a vederlo, ritornavano guariti; ma soprattutto il santo liberava i carcerati, che erano essenzialmente prigionieri di guerra (si ricorda che la pena in quei secoli era corporale o pecuniaria per le punizioni, la detenzione serviva per riscuotere i riscatti).
I prigionieri dovunque lo invocassero, vedevano le catene spezzarsi, i lucchetti si aprivano, i carcerieri si distraevano, le porte si spalancavano; questi infelici riacquistata la libertà, accorrevano da Leonardo per ringraziarlo e molti rimanevano con lui.
Parecchi familiari del santo eremita si stabilirono nei dintorni del monastero con le loro famiglie, dando così origine ad un villaggio, che poi prenderà il suo nome. S. Leonardo morì il 6 novembre di un anno verso la metà del VI secolo, certamente dopo il 530, anno in cui era morto il suo maestro, a cui aveva dedicato un altare.
Dall’XI secolo, il suo culto prese ad espandersi in tutta l’Europa Centrale, ed altre ‘Vite’ successive, con racconti di strepitosi miracoli a lui attribuiti, ne aumentarono la conoscenza e la devozione; furono erette in suo onore varie centinaia di chiese e di cappelle, il suo nome fu inserito nei toponomastici e nel folklore popolare.
Fu particolarmente venerato all’epoca della crociata e tra i suoi devoti si annovera il principe Boemondo d’Antiochia (Boemondo d’Altavilla, 1050-1111, figlio di Roberto il Guiscardo) che preso prigioniero dagli infedeli nel 1100 durante la I crociata, venne liberato nel 1103, attribuendo la sua liberazione al santo che aveva invocato; quando tornò in Europa donò come voto al santuario di Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, delle catene d’argento, simili a quelle che lo tenevano legato.
Il ‘Martirologio Romano’ lo celebra il 6 novembre; s. Leonardo è molto raffigurato nell’arte, quasi sempre con le catene, simbolo della sua particolare protezione per i carcerati ingiustamente; per questo è patrono anche dei fabbricanti di catene, di fermagli, fibbie, ecc., inoltre viene invocato per i parti difficili, mali di testa e malattie dei bambini; contro la grandine ed i banditi; a lui si rivolgono anche gli obesi.
In Belgio è patrono dei minatori del bacino minerario di Liegi; introdotto dai Normanni, il suo culto si diffuse anche in Sicilia, testimoniato dalle tante opere d’arte che lo raffigurano, come del resto in tutta Europa.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
Antonio da Correggio (1489–1534). Saint Pierre, Sainte Marte, Sainte Marie Madeleine et saint Léonard de Noblat, vers 1517, 172 x 126, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Per tutti quelli che lottano ogni giorno con i chili di troppo arriva in aiuto il santo festeggiato oggi, protettore degli obesi. Leonardo (dal longobardo “forte come un leone”) nasce in una nobile famiglia intorno al 496, vicino a Orleans (Francia). Suo padrino di Battesimo è il re dei Franchi Clodoveo. Trascorre un’infanzia dorata a corte. Per lui tutti si aspettano un futuro destinato a ricoprire ruoli prestigiosi accanto al re. Il ragazzino viene quindi avviato alla carriera politica e militare. Leonardo è ubbidiente, studia con profitto. Simpatico e gentile, è amico di tutti e a tutti dà consigli. Tuttavia ai combattimenti e alle armi il giovane preferisce la preghiera. Si sente attratto dalla vita di Gesù, della Madonna e dei santi, raccontata dal futuro Santo Remigio, vescovo di Reims, suo educatore. Leonardo è contento quando accompagna il suo maestro Remigio nelle povere capanne a fare visita ai poveri. E grazie alle immense ricchezze della sua famiglia, sa essere molto generoso nei confronti dei più sfortunati, verso i quali prova tenerezza e compassione.
La famiglia rimane stupita quando apprende della decisione irremovibile del figlio di entrare in convento. Al seguito di San Remigio, Leonardo diventa monaco e, per umiltà, rifiuta di diventare vescovo. Si spoglia di tutti i suoi beni che regala ai poveri, rinuncia all’eredità, alla gloria, alla ricchezza. Come Remigio, anche Leonardo ottiene dal re di poter liberare tutti i prigionieri incarcerati ingiustamente che avesse incontrato sul suo cammino. Da quel momento moltissimi detenuti, soprattutto di guerra, ottengono la libertà: se un carcerato lo invoca le catene si spezzano, le porte della cella si aprono, i guardiani si distraggono, miracolosamente. Leonardo conforta vedove e orfani, porta pace nelle famiglie, divulga il Vangelo, fa diventare buoni i cattivi. Il monaco diventa famoso anche per i suoi prodigi: basta che un ammalato lo guardi, ed è subito guarito.
Leonardo di Noblat, desideroso di solitudine per stare più a contatto con il Signore, si rifugia in una folta foresta nei pressi di Limoges. Vive in una capanna sotto ad un albero, si ciba di erbe selvatiche e frutti di bosco. Lavora per sostenersi ed aiutare chi ha bisogno, prega, accoglie cacciatori e pellegrini diretti ai santuari. Un giorno il re, mentre è a caccia nel bosco, incontra Leonardo e lo implora di aiutarlo perché la moglie sta soffrendo per un parto difficile. Leonardo prega e la regina partorisce un bel bambino. Per riconoscenza il re gli offre una parte di quel bosco dove Leonardo vive, ovvero il terreno che il monaco sarebbe riuscito a delimitare cavalcando in groppa ad un asino in un giorno. Su quel terreno Leonardo edifica una chiesa in onore della Madonna. Fa, poi, prodigiosamente zampillare l’acqua da una buca scavata nel terreno. Tutta la zona diventa fertile e si popola di poveri, miracolati e prigionieri liberati grazie a lui e seguiti dalle loro famiglie. Nasce un villaggio agricolo fondato sul lavoro onesto e sulla carità che tuttora si chiama “Saint Leonard de Noblat” dove Leonardo, dopo la sua morte avvenuta nel 559, viene sepolto.
Questa città è diventata luogo di intenso pellegrinaggio e una delle più importanti tappe del “Cammino di Santiago de Compostela” (Spagna). San Leonardo è protettore di fruttivendoli, fabbri, prigionieri incarcerati ingiustamente e partorienti. Viene invocato per i parti difficili, da chi soffre di obesità e mal di testa, contro la grandine e le malattie dei bambini. Diventa famoso in Europa e in Italia, soprattutto in Sicilia, in seguito alla dominazione normanna.
Autore: Mariella Lentini
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/76300
Leonhard von Noblat
französischer Name: Léonard
auch (in Bayern und Österreich): Lienhard
auch: von Limoges
Gedenktag katholisch: 6.
November
nicht gebotener Gedenktag im deutschen Sprachgebiet
Gedenktag anglikanisch:
6. November
Gedenktag orthodox: 6.
November
Name bedeutet: der
wie ein Löwe Starke (latein. - althochdt.) oder: der für das Volk
Starke (althochdt.)
Diakon, Einsiedler, Klostergründer und Abt in Noblat bei Limoges (?)
* um 500 in Orléans (?) in Frankreich
† 559 (?) im heutigen St-Léonard-de-Noblat bei
Limoges in Frankreich
Die Lebensgeschichte von
Leonhard ist in vielem legendär. Demnach ließ die am Hof der Merowinger lebende
fränkische Adelsfamilie ihren Sohn durch Erzbischof Remigius
von Reims taufen und unterrichten. Als Erwachsener wurde er Mönch und
war beteiligt an der Gründung des Klosters in Micy.
Die Leonhard angebotene
Übernahme eines Bistums verweigerte er, blieb einfacher Diakon und zog sich in
die Einsamkeit des Waldes Pauvin bei Limoges zurück,
predigte von seiner Zelle aus und heilte die zu ihm kommenden Krüppel und
Hilfsbedürftigen. Regelmäßig besuchte er Gefangene und erreichte für viele bei
König Chlodwig I. (oder Chlotar I. ?) ihre Freilassung. Viele Gefangene riefen
auch den Namen Leonhards, worauf sofort ihre Fesseln abfielen, die sie dann als
Freie dem Einsiedler brachten.
König und Königin zogen
eines Tages zur Jagd in diesen Wald; Leonhard hörte die Königin klagen und
rufen, da sie in Wehen lag. Auf Bitten des Königs betete Leonhard am Lager der
Königin, und sie schenkte ihrem Knaben das Leben. Der König wollte Leonhard mit
Gold und Silber beschenken; dieser bat aber nur um so viel Waldgelände, wie er
mit seinem Esel in einer Nacht umreiten könne. Leonhard gründete in seinem
Waldstück die Gemeinschaft von Noblat - das heutige Dorf St-Léonard-de-Noblat -,
wo er ehemalige Gefangene aufnahm und zu Handwerkern ausbildete. Leonhard
leitete die Gemeinschaft bis zu seinem Tod und wurde bald schon als heilig
verehrt.
Leonhards Existenz ist
historisch nicht gesichert, aber doch eher wahrscheinlich. Die älteste
Lebensgeschichte wurde um 1030 verfasst; sie sollte offenbar lokale Verehrung
in Micy und Noblat weithin
bekannt machen. Seine Verehrung verbreitete sich dann rasch in Frankreich,
England, Italien und besonders in Bayern und Österreich.
Am Sonntag nach dem 6.
November wird heute in dem nach ihm benannten Städtchen St-Léonard-de-Noblat zu
seinen Ehren ein großes Ritterfest gefeiert. Die zu seinen Ehren 1358
gegründete Bruderschaft geht zurück auf eine Stiftung des Kreuzfahrers Bohemund,
die dieser nach seiner Freilassung 1103 in Noblat machte. Für das Ritterfest
erstellt die Bruderschaft aus Holz den Nachbau einer Burg, die auf einen Pfahl
gestellt und von Reitern mit Stöcken geschlagen wird, bis sie in Stücke
zerfällt, die dann von den Leuten als Glücksbringer mit nach Hause genommen
werden. Die Kirche über seinem angeblichen Grab hat einen der mächtigsten
Glockentürme in Frankreich, sie war Station der Pilger auf der Wallfahrt zu Jakobus in Santiago
de Compostela; Richard Löwenherz, Pippin der Kleine oder Karl VII. machten
hier Station.
Leonhard wurde seit dem
11. Jahrhundert besonders auch in Bayern verehrt, über 150 Wallfahrten fanden
unter seinem Namen statt, auch heute gibt es noch über 50
Leonhardi-Wallfahrten, meist mit Pferde-Ritten, die größte davon in Bad
Tölz. Leonhard galt ursprünglich als Schutzpatron derer, die in Ketten
liegen, also der Gefangenen - aber auch der Geisteskranken, die man bis
ins 18. Jahrhundert ankettete; nach der Reformation wurde er Schutzpatron der
Haustiere, weil man die Ketten, mit denen er abgebildet wurde, als Viehketten
deutete. Die Leonhard geweihten Kirchen sind mit Ketten umspannt, so auch die
in Bad Tölz.
Im 19. Jahrhundert
erreichte die Verehrung in Bayern ihren Höhepunkt; man nannte ihn
den bayerischen Herrgott oder Bauernherrgott; in Bayern gehört
Leonhard auch zu den 14
Nothelfern. Am Leonhardstag werden Tiersegnungen vorgenommen. An der Leonhards-Kirche in
Inchenhofen befindet sich der 125 kg schwere Leonhards-Nagel, den man seit 1459
zum Zeichen der Buße bei einer Reiterprozession rund um die Kirche trägt;
damals gehörte Inchenhofen neben Jerusalem, Rom und Santiago
de Compostela zu den bedeutendsten Wallfahrtsorten
der Welt; von den früher 167 Wallfahrtszügen kommt aber auch heute noch gut ein
Drittel dorthin.
Die Wallfahrer brachten
früher Pflugscharen als Walfahrtsgaben mit, aus denen dann die Ketten oder
schwere Leonhardsnägel geschmiedet wurden; von diesen ist nach ihrer
Entfernung im aufklärerischen 19. Jahrhundert nur der eine Nagel an der
Südseite der Kirche in
Inchenhofen erhalten.
In Meilenhofen -
einem Ortsteil von Nassenfels bei Ingolstadt - wird
der Leonhardiritt seit 1422 - mit Unterbrechung von 1955 bis 1976 -
durchgeführt. Seit 1718 wird in Bad
Tölz der Leonhardsritt begangen; seit 1994 gibt es wieder
den traditionellen, grenzüberschreitenden Leonhardi-Ritt von Rittsteig -
einem Ortsteil von Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut im Oberpfälzer Wald -
nach Uhlište /
Kohlheim in Tschechien. Die Wallfahrtskirche St.
Leonhard im gleichnamigen Ort bei Salzburg ist Ziel eines Umrittes.
Attribute: als Mönch
oder Abt mit Kette, Pferde und Ochsen, Gefangene befreiend
Patron von St. Leonhard bei Salzburg und Verbania-Palanza; der Bauern und des Viehs, vor allem der Pferde, der Ställe, Stallknechte, Fuhrleute, Schmiede, Schlosser, Wassertäger, Lastenträger und Böttcher, Kesselschmiede Obsthändler, Bergleute; der Wöchnerinnen, Gefangenen; für alle Anliegen der Bauern, gute Geburt, bei Entbindungen; gegen Kopfschmerzen, Geistes- und Geschlechtskrankheiten
Bauernregel: Wenn auf Leonhardi Regen fällt, / ist's mit dem Weizen schlecht bestellt.
Wie's Wetter an Lenardi ist, / bleibt's bis Weihnachten gewiss.
Nach der vielen Arbeit Schwere, / an Leonhardi die Rösser ehre.
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Autor: Joachim
Schäfer - zuletzt aktualisiert am 29.03.2021
Quellen:
• Vera Schauber, Hanns Michael Schindler: Heilige und Patrone im Jahreslauf. Pattloch, München 2001
• Hiltgard L. Keller: Reclams Lexikon der Heiligen und der biblischen Gestalten. Reclam, Ditzingen 1984
• Günther Schenk: Zum Wohl Frankreichs und zum Segen Leonhards. Stuttgarter Zeitung, 9. November 1999
• http://www.bauernregeln.net/november.html nicht mehr erreichbar
• Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, begr. von Michael Buchberger. Hrsg. von Walter Kasper, 3., völlig neu bearb. Aufl., Bd. 6. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997
• https://www.donaukurier.de/lokales/schrobenhausen/UEber-500-jaehrige-Tradition;art603,3940909 - abgerufen am 18.07.2023
• https://www.donaukurier.de/lokales/eichstaett/DKmobil-Leonhardiritt-2018-Die-600-Jahr-Feier-im-Blick;art575,3971487 nicht mehr erreichbar
• https://www.krone.at/1802401 - abgerufen am 18.07.2023
• Hugo Schnell: St. Leonhard Inchenhofen, 11. Aufl. Verlag Schnell &
Steiner Regensburg 2001
korrekt zitieren: Joachim Schäfer: Artikel Leonhard von Noblat, aus dem Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon - https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienL/Leonhard_von_Noblat.html, abgerufen am 6. 11. 2023
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet das Ökumenische
Heiligenlexikon in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte
bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://d-nb.info/1175439177 und http://d-nb.info/969828497 abrufbar.
SOURCE : https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienL/Leonhard_von_Noblat.html
Voir aussi : Saint Leonard: The Iconography : https://www.christianiconography.info/leonard.html
