Feast day: November 6

St. Leonard of Noblac

Hermit, Abbot · d. c. 559

Patron of Prisoners, captives, women in labor

A Frankish nobleman who became a hermit near Limoges and obtained from the king the right to free any prisoner he visited, becoming the great patron of captives.

Leonard of Noblac was one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, especially as the patron of prisoners and captives — though, as the Church acknowledges, almost nothing certain is known of his life, the earliest account of which was written some five centuries after his supposed time.

According to that legend, Leonard was a Frankish nobleman of the early sixth century, a godson of the great bishop St. Remigius, and a courtier of King Clovis. Converted to a fervent Christianity, he is said to have obtained from the king the privilege of freeing prisoners whom he found to be unjustly held — the root of his enduring patronage.

Refusing the honour of a bishopric that the king offered him, Leonard chose instead the life of a monk and then a hermit, withdrawing to the forest of Noblac, near Limoges, where he founded a monastery and lived in prayer and austerity. A famous story tells how, through his prayers, the queen was granted a safe delivery in a difficult childbirth — which made him also a patron of women in labour.

Whatever the history beneath the legend, his cult exploded across Europe from the eleventh century, carried in part by released crusader captives who credited him with their freedom. Countless churches bear his name, and prisoners' chains were hung at his shrine in thanksgiving.

By tradition the king granted him the power to release prisoners he visited, and freed captives across Europe hung their broken chains at his shrine in thanks.

Image: Serse82 (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/09178b.htm