Saint Leonard of Vandoeuvre

Leonard was born towards the end of the 5th century, but it is unknown in which country. Animated by an ardent desire to serve God, he left his family, his possessions, and his homeland, and fled secretly into the region of Maine, in o rder to find s Saint Innocent Bishop of Le Mans in the 6th century, successor to Severianus. olitude there. Saint Innocent received him with kindness, and himself indicated a place where he would encounter what he desired. It was the place then very deserted named Vandœuvre. The holy hermit built himself a cell there, and spent several years there in the exercises of the most austere penance. God tested him through violent temptations from which he emerged victorious.

After these struggles in which great souls are formed, God manifested to him the designs He had for him: many solitaries who lived in the neighboring deserts and on the wild banks of the Sarthe came to find him and begged him to be their guide in the ways of perfection. Leonard could not refuse them, and he became their abbot. Shortly after, he raised a monastery and gathered them there under a common rule. He also built a basilica for the offices of the monks and had it dedicated in honor of Saint Peter. It appears that from its origin this monastery was numerous, and that it needed quite vast buildings, since it took three years to construct them, despite the great number of those who took part in these works. The inhabitants of the neighborhood hastened to bring the religious the help of their labor; moreover, these volunteer workers provided, both for themselves and for the community, food of all kinds that was needed. It was not necessary to make bread, nor to prepare other food during all that time, and yet no one lacked anything, so eager was charity to assist the servants of God.

Many people of all ranks abandoned their possessions, distributed the proceeds to the poor, and came to place themselves under Leonard's guidance. The devil used this gathering of so many generous souls to incite several people against the holy abbot, who went to find King Clotaire and ma de him under roi Clotaire King of the Franks who supported the foundation of the monastery. stand that this monk, who lived in Vandœuvre with his disciples, was turning his subjects away from his obedience, encouraging them to dispose of their goods, and claiming for himself full authority over them. Clotaire, whom his crimes had made suspicious, easily gave in to these suggestions and sent commissioners to the site, charged with inquiring into the reality of the facts and, if they found them to be true, to drive out the monks and the abbot.

The envoys hastened to fulfill their mission; at the very moment they entered the monastery grounds, a young man of noble birth, gifted with all the qualities suitable for the exercises of arms, presented himself to Leonard, explaining that he had just sold his entire fortune, that he had given the best part of it to the poor, and that he was bringing the rest for the needs of the community, in which he wished to spend the rest of his days. The royal commissioners, witnesses to this conversation, said to each other: "What is the need for further investigation? Here is the proof, here is the testimony of the truth that our master wishes to know! Are we not ourselves witnesses to it?" However, they addressed Leonard and asked him who had given him the boldness to corrupt the subjects of the King of the Franks by persuading them to despise his orders and taking away his men-at-arms. "Already," they added, "this whole country is running after you and your like; if this continues, if you are left the freedom to act as you do, it will soon no longer be the kingdom of Clotaire, but yours and that of your monks." They then employed all the subtlety their minds possessed to make the servant of God fall into the traps they set for him; but they did not succeed, for his great holiness meant that he was perfectly self-possessed, and he always knew how to answer them with texts from Scripture full of accuracy and relevance. "I have repeated," he told them, "these words of the Lord: Go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. I have also said these words that came from the mouth of Truth itself: Whoever leaves his father and mother, his wife, his children, his brothers, his sisters, his houses, and his fields for my sake, will receive a hundredfold and eternal life. If I have taught," he added, "only what Our Lord Jesus Christ commands to be taught, why do you wish to trouble me?"

They had nothing just or sensible to answer, so they naively told him that they admired his way of life and that they themselves would like to imitate it. Then they withdrew and made a faithful report to the king of everything they had seen. Clotaire, who, despite his great faults, sincerely loved the servants of God, easily set aside the anxiety he had conceived at the instigation of the wicked; he gave thanks to heaven and thereafter helped Leonard in the expansion of his monastery.

The holy abbot, now living in peace under the aegis of royal protection, saw the number of his disciples increase even further; he knew how to make himself amiable to everyone, he possessed a profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and a holiness that made him the object of the veneration and love of all. Two of the greatest bishops of that time, Sai nt Germanus w saint Germain Bishop of Paris whose life was written by Fortunatus. ho governed the Church of Paris, and S aint Domnolus saint Domnole Bishop of Le Mans, successor to Innocent, present at the death of Leonard. who was the second successor of Saint Innocent to the see of Le Mans, had a singular affection for him, and showed him great confidence. Saint Domnolus often sent him to his friend, the bishop of Paris, when he could not go there himself.

One day, as Leonard was praying alone in his cell, a serpent climbed onto the feet of the solitary, rose along his legs and back, and exited through the top of his garments; then it fell to the ground at his feet, and expired without having done him any harm and without having been able to distract him from his prayer. From that time on, as his disciples attested to the historian who reports this fact, no serpent was ever seen in that place again.

Saint Leonard ended his long career on the Ides of October (the 15th of that month), during the reign of Chilperic (561-584). He died in the arms of Saint Domnolus, who had been warned by a revelation of the approaching death of the servant of God. At the same time, Leonard knew, in a supernatural way, of the arrival of the holy bishop, and ordered his disciples to prepare a reception worthy of such a guest. He likewise announced to them that he would die the day after the prelate's arrival, and the event was indeed accomplished in that manner. The funeral of the holy abbot was moreover remarkable for several miracles, for while his body was being carried to the earth, some blind people recovered their sight.

He is ordinarily represented wearing a monastic habit, with a serpent around his body. He is particularly implored to be cured of deafness.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The religious who inhabited the abbey founded by Saint Leonard had not ceased, since their re-establishment in the 6th century, to devote themselves there to prayer and work. More fortunate than many other monasteries, that of Vandœuvre seems to have weathered the storms of the successive revolutions that changed the fate of the province of Maine without having felt the repercussions too severely; such was the fate of several abbeys whose revenues were modest and which were situated in deep solitude. But, at the approach of the Norman pirates, the monks of Vandœuvre understood that their obscurity and their poverty would not guarantee them against the enterprises of these pagans, driven by a blind fanaticism and as greedy for sacrilegious profanations as for riches. Fearing with reason that the precious remains of their founder might be scattered, they transported them to the wild mountains of the Morvan, in the diocese of Autun. There they found a hospitable roof in the dwelling of the monks of Corbigny (Sanctus Petrus de Corb inianus Corbigny Place of the translation of relics in the Morvan. apud Ædams). Saint Leonard performed in the new sanctuary where he rested as great a number of miracles as in the solitude of Vandœuvre; the piety of the inhabitants of these regions greeted with enthusiasm the marvelous guest who manifested his arrival through countless benefits, and one saw the crowd of pilgrims at his tomb as numerous in Burgundy as it had been in Maine. The gathering of the clients of the holy abbot gave rise to the town of Corbigny-Saint-Léonard. The abbey itself, dedicated at first under the patronage of Saint Peter, did not take long to take the name of Saint-Leonard, and to render to the holy abbot of Maine the honors due to a patron. Finally, the brilliance spread by the healings obtained in the church of Corbigny through the merits of our illustrious abbot was the reason why it soon became the custom to designate him almost indifferently by the name of Saint Leonard of Corbigny, or Saint Leonard of Vandœuvre.

At the beginning of the 10th c entury, Guillaume, lord of Bel Guillaume, seigneur de Bellême Norman lord who had a sanctuary built for the relics of Leonard. lême (Orne), had just built a sanctuary in that city when the body of Saint Leonard of Vandœuvre was discovered on his lands. The news of this event was greeted by the entire region with great demonstrations of joy; but no one felt it more keenly than the lord of Bellême. He had the holy relics transported to the church he had just built, which was dedicated to the holy hermit with extraordinary solemnity. King Robert, the Archbishop of Tours, the Bishop of Le Mans, and the Bishop of Séez, three prelates united by blood ties to the lord of Bellême, several other bishops, and abbots were present. Richard II, Duke of Normandy, Herbert Wake-the-Dog, and a host of other lords were present at this celebration. The cult of Saint Leonard of Vandœuvre was not forgotten in Maine and the neighboring regions. It seems, however, to have taken on new developments from that day on. The churches of the first children of Saint Francis who came to settle in Séez and Alençon, under the reign of Saint Louis, were dedicated under the name of our holy abbot, but the sanctuary where he henceforth received the greatest honors was the basilica of Bellême. Several centuries after this dedication and translation, its anniversary was solemnized every year, and the gathering of pilgrims made this feast famous throughout France.

During the capture of Corbigny by the Calvinists Calvinistes Religious group that destroyed the saint's relics in 1567. in 1562, the relics of Saint Leonard were scattered. However, the church of Varzy (Nièvre) still possesses a radial bone of th e Saint t os radien Relic preserved in Varzy in an arm-shaped reliquary. oday. It is preciously kept in a reliquary in the shape of a clothed arm, from which a hand emerges: the whole is made of painted and gilded wood, adorned with fleurs-de-lis.

Saint Leonard has remained the patron of the parish that took the place of his monastery and which is named Saint-Léonard des Bois. He is also the patron of Broupt-Saint-Basle, in the diocese of Troyes. He was, moreover, honored with a public cult in a large number of dioceses, even in countries outside of France.

To compose this biography, we have used the *Cautionnaires* of Bollandus, *Vita sancti Leonardi, abbatis*, published from three nearly identical manuscripts, one from the Abbey of Saint-Calais, another from Saint-Sauveur of Utrecht, and the third from Chartres; the History of the Church of Le Mans, by the Reverend Father Dom Paul Fiotin; the *Saints of Troyes*, by Abbé Deller; the *Hagiologie Nisernaise*, by Mgr Creenter; and the History of the Church, by Abbé Darras, volume XVIII.