6
November. 1662 Book of Common Prayer: Leonard the Confessor
No
author. “St. Leonard, Hermit, Confessor (Sixth Age).” EWTN. N.d. http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/LEONARD.htm. Accessed 28 May 2014.
|
ST
LEONARD, HERMIT, CONFESSOR (SIXTH AGE)
|
|
Feast:
November 6
|
|
[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.]
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
Laetus, a holy monk of that house, who afterwards died a hermit.
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 toward
captives and prisoners, and he laid himself out with unwearied zeal in
affording them both corporeal 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.
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. He was particularly
invoked in favour of prisoners, and several miracles are ascribed to him. 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. 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. How
shall a Christian who lives in the world practice 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.
(Taken
from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal
Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler.)
|
No comments:
Post a Comment