Image: Austrian School, 18th century, Der heilige Leonhard als Schutzpatron der Gefangenen (oil on canvas). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. (source)
This site follows the traditional Roman calendar of 1962, as found in the 1962 Roman Missal used at the Traditional Latin Mass. Some feast days fall on different dates than in the General Roman Calendar of 1969, revised after the Second Vatican Council.
In carcere eram, et venistis ad me.
Matthew 25:36
I was in prison, and you came to me.
About Today
Today is a feria in the 1962 calendar, with no saint’s feast in the Missal. The saint honored here is taken from the traditional Roman Martyrology for November 6.
His Life
Leonard was a Frankish noble of the sixth century, converted to the faith about the time King Clovis was baptized. He left the court and the honors offered him there, and sought a hidden life of prayer in the forests of Limousin near Limoges.
There he lived as a hermit, and disciples gathered around him. He founded a monastery at Noblac, later called Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat. His charity was especially remembered toward prisoners: many captives, tradition says, were set free through his prayers, and chains and fetters were laid at his shrine in thanksgiving.
He died around the year 559. In later centuries his name was invoked across Europe by prisoners, by women in childbirth, and by country people who sought his help for their cattle. He remains one of the great confessors of early France.
A Lesson for Today
St. Leonard left power and comfort to serve Christ in solitude and in the suffering. His care for captives recalls Our Lord’s own words: whatever we do for those in prison, we do for Him.
Sancte Leonarde, ora pro nobis.
St. Leonard, pray for us.