Spread of the Cult of Saint Leonard in Europe in the Middle Ages
Famous Pilgrims
Spread of the Cult of Saint Leonard in Europe in the Middle Ages
La diffusion des vies de saint Léonard au Moyen-Age, Céline Cheirézy in Hagiographie et société : l'exemple de saint Léonard de Noblat
« Vers cette époque (début du XIè siècle) le saint confesseur saint Léonard en Limousin… se mit à se signaler par d’éclatants miracles, et de toutes parts, les peuples affluaient vers lui. »
Adhémar de Chabannes (mort en 1034)
After the publication, the “Life of Saint Leonard”, it spread quickly beyond the Limousin, thanks mainly to Benedictine and the Cistercian monasteries which were established throughout Europe. St Leonard became known as the Patron Saint of all forms of delivery, but particularly during the troubled times of the Middle Ages, for the liberation of prisoners.
The Crusaders from most European countries became the vectors through which the Cult of St Leonard spread. This was particularly the case through the influence of some of their major leaders like Bohémond Prince of Antioch and Richard the Lionheart King of England who suffered imprisonment at the hands of their fellow crusaders.
Le pèlerinage de saint Jacques de Compostelle est un autre mode de diffusion du culte de saint Léonard : en effet la via lemovicensis, une des voies empruntée depuis Vézelay, passe par Saint-Léonard de Noblat et de nombreux pèlerins viennent se recueillir sur le tombeau du saint avant de poursuivre leur route vers l’Espagne. Ils font connaître ainsi le long du parcours du pèlerinage, les bienfaits et les miracles attribués à saint Léonard.
Partout en Europe des églises ou des chapelles sont dédiées à saint Léonard, très nombreuses en Allemagne, en Italie, au Royaume Uni, en Autriche, et bien sûr en France.
Au XIIème siècle, l'évêque de Naumbourg (Bavière) , Waleran de Bamberg, vient à Saint- Léonard recopier la "Vita" et la diffuse dans son pays : on y recense plus de 200 paroisses dédiées à saint Léonard autour d'un lieu phare: Inchenhoffen.
En Italie, les Normands, installés après la première croisade en Italie du sud et en Sicile, contribuent à la création de nombreuses fondations (225 connues à ce jour).
Au Royaume Uni, la participation aux croisades de nombreux chevaliers et de leur roi Richard Coeur de Lion, duc d'Aquitaine, explique le nombre de dédicaces (plus de 180) de l'Ecosse à Saint Léonard de Stamford (1082) en passant par Norwich (1095), et Saint-Leonard-on-Sea près d'Hastings, avec abondance particulière d'hôpitaux de pélerins.
On retrouve le culte de saint Léonard du Limousin en Suède, en Pologne (dont la célèbre chapelle saint Léonard de la cathédrale de Cracovie où sont enterrés les souverains), aux Pays-Bas (Beek-en-Donk), en Belgique (Zoutleeuw), Sint-Lenaarts, Zuidschote), en Suisse (Bâle, Landschlacht, Saint-Léonard du Valais), en Autriche (Kundl), en Slovénie (60 lieux de culte), à Malte (Kirkop, Crypte de Sainte-Agathe), en Espagne (Zamora, San Leonardo (Soria)), au Portugal, en Sardaigne, en Hongrie et même outre-atlantique.
Certaines de ces églises sont entourées de chaînes, comme en Bavière ou en Slovénie. Ces chaînes, réalisation d'un voeu ou d'une action de grâce collective sont le plus souvent le résultat de la fonte de milliers d'ex-voto en fer apportés dans ces sanctuaires à l'autel saint Léonard.
En dehors de ces fondations, la dévotion envers saint Léonard s'est exprimée à travers des milliers d'oeuvres d'art, dont l'inventaire ne fait que commencer.
d'après Saint Léonard du Limousin, Connaissance et Sauvegarde de Saint-Léonard et Confrérie de saint Léonard
Carte des lieux dédiés à saint Léonard en Europe (Connaissance et Sauvegarde de saint Léonard 1995)
En 1760, dans son "Histoire de la vie et du culte de saint Léonard", l’Abbé Oroux, historien attentif au rayonnement de saint Léonard, recense 120
paroisses, monastères, hôpitaux, villes ou chapelles qui lui étaient dédiés dans divers pays (Allemagne, Suisse, Pologne, Écosse, Angleterre, Espagne, Italie, Pays-Bas, Flandre,
France..)".
Deux cents ans plus tard, en 1960, le chanoine Biossac, curé de saint Léonard, fait une recherche plus exhaustive des lieux de culte dédiés à saint Léonard en Europe. Son travail est repris et approfondi en 1994, par l’association Connaissance et Sauvegarde de Saint-Léonard qui élabore un catalogue et une carte présentant plus de 800 lieux dans près de 20 pays. (Saint Léonard et les chemins de l’Europe XIè-XVIIIè)
Aujourd’hui, ce travail d’enquête continue et s’enrichit régulièrement.
Famous Pilgrims
Bohémond prince of Antioch
Set aside in the succession of Robert Guiscard, his father, as Duke of Pouille and Calabria, Bohémond had to be satisfied with the Earldom of Tarante. He decided to join, along with 500 knights, the first crusade at the call of Pope Urbain II in 1096 with the aim of liberating Jerusalem from the control of Islam.
He was an able war leader and an excellent strategist, and thus became one of the main leaders of the first crusade. He gained control of Antioch by a ruse, and fought with the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnène. He was taken prisoner by the Emir of Sivas in 1100.
During his captivity Bohémond prayed to St Leonard to intercede for his liberty, which he achieved in 1103. He returned to France in 1104 to recruit reinforcements and went in pilgrimage to St Leonard de Noblat to bring his gratitude to the Saint by placing a silver chain on the altar of the church. His fame helped to contribute to the spread of the cult of St Leonard at the court of King Philip 1st, whose daughter he married.
Pons de Leras
Around the year 1130 a gentleman, from Lodeve in the Herault region, Pons de Leras, who up until that time had preyed on travellers from his lair above the village of Caylar, repented of his previous actions and took, as a penance with six of his companions, to follow the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella. On their way back they took the direction of Mont St Michel, St Martin of Tours and St Leonard de Noblat. In 1132 he founded a monastery at Rouergue which was attached to the rule of the Cistercians and in 1136 the Abbey of Sylvanès in the Aveyron region.
Charles VII
In 1422 King Charles VII of France who had great devotion to St Leonard gave the town of St Leonard-de-Noblat letters of patent which gave the town certain privileges “in consideration of St Leonard, to whom the King is devoted, one recommends to them who by their prayers to the blessed Saint will help to keep his realm in peace and reclaim it from the wars with the English”
On 10th March 1438 the King, on a visit to Limoges, came to St Leonard-de-Noblat to pay his respects at the Saint’s tomb and a few years later donated a reliquary casket.
Henry II of Bourbon, Prince of Condé.
A fierce opponent of the policies of the regent Marie de Medici, the mother of Louis XIII, King of France, he was arrested and imprisoned in the castle of Vincennes from 1616 to 1619. During his imprisonment he prayed to St Leonard, and after his liberation he came on pilgrimage to St Leonard-de-Noblat in 1620 to thank his liberator. He donated the sum of 100 Ecus which was used to buy two velvet capes embroidered in gold (according to Abbot Oroux)
Saint Gaucher
He came originally from Meulan (department of Yvelines) near Paris. Gaucher came on pilgrimage to Noblat around 1068 and, following the example of St Leonard, he retired into a hermitage with his friend Germond for three years, in the forest of Chavagnac in Haute Vienne then he joined Humbert, a canon from Limoges to create a monastery in the forest of Aureil just a few kilometres from St Leonard-de-Noblat in a place which was indicated by a dove.
Marc and Sebastian
Around the year 1106 two nobles from Venice, Marc and Sebastian, on pilgrimage to the tomb of St Leonard, decided to stay as hermits in the Limousin, and built a place called Artige-Vieille, a small establishment just a few kilometres to the east of St Leonard-de-Noblat, which comprised two monastic cells and an oratory. Bit by bit a community grew up around them as they became the priors of an establishment following the rule of St Augustin.
After his death Marc was beatified by the will of the people.
In 1175 the community moved to the Artige on a spur of rock dominating the confluence of the rivers Vienne and Maulde.
Richard 1st King of England (the Lionheart)
Richard was born in Oxford in 1157. He became King of England and Duke of Aquitaine. He left to participate in the third crusade in Palestine in 1190. He had a number of successful battles against the Saracens. He received information that Philippe Auguste King of France, had signed an alliance with his younger brother John Lackland, he decided to return to England. On his way home he was shipwrecked and had to pass through the lands of the Duke of Austria, whom he had insulted in the Holy Land, was taken prisoner and passed into the custody of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V1 who ransomed him for a sum equivalent of a third of the Gross National Product (G NP) of England, which was eventually paid.
He was freed in 1193 and on his next visit to his lands in Aquitaine he came in pilgrimage to thank St Leonard. He contributed to the creation of ramparts round the town and to the construction of the collegiate church. He died, in Chalus in the Limousin in 1199, while besieging the castle there.
Vincent Aubrousse
Le 6 mai 1611, Vincent Aubrousse, natif d'Autun, fut capturé par les turcs à Ostie et conduit vers leurs vaisseaux pour être emmené en esclavage. Il pria saint Léonard et devint tout à coup si immobile que les Turcs ne purent le déplacer et le laissèrent sur place. Le pape Paul VI, informé de ce miracle, l'invita à se rendre à Noblac, ce qu'il fit le 22 février 1612.
d'après l'abbé Oroux "Histoire de la vie et du culte de saint Léonard du Limousin"
Anne of Austria (1601 – 1666)
Married in 1615 to King Louis X111 of France, she reigned for a long time without the power normally given to the dauphin (heir) of France. She prayed to St Leonard in the church of Croissy-sur-Seine, which is dedicated to St Leonard, to help her have safe delivery of her child. She carried a relic of the Saint with her at the birth and Louis X1V came safely into this world in 1638.
Anne of Austria subsequently made a pilgrimage in thanks to the church of St Leonard at Croissy. She also arranged the redecoration of the Chapel of St Leonard in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.