Saint Leo of Carentan

His merit appeared even more when he was raised to the priesthood: for his heart, burning with an ardent desire for the salvation of souls, he applied himself to preaching with all the success that could be expected from a man all on fire for the glory of his God. This great zeal, which is the character of a good shepherd, caused eyes to be cast upon him to be Archbishop of Rouen. He did what he could not to be burdened with this load, which he judged to be above his strength; but he dared not resist the will of Go d. The Po Étienne V Immediate predecessor of Paschal I. pe (Stephen V) having confirmed this election, our Saint finally acquiesced to it despite the repugnance of his humility. All this took place while he was in Rome, where his zeal had led him, to ask the sovereign Pontiff for the quality of apostolic preacher.

However, his episcopate did not make him renounce this glorious ministry: for, having gone in a short time to Rouen and having arranged everything there and established two vicars in his place, he went to Labourd and Navarre where the incursions of the Saracens and the Normans had almost extinguished the torch of the faith. He took as companions for this generous enterprise his two brothers Philip and Gervase Gervais Brother and successor of Saint Ternat to the see of Besançon. , to whom he had inspired a similar design; and, beginning to preach the Gospel in a village of the Landes, called Labouh eyre, he f Labouheyre Village in the Landes where Léon began his preaching in the South-West. irst converted Argare, who was its lord, and baptized him with his whole family.

From there he went to Bayonn Bayonne Principal site of the saint's mission, martyrdom, and cult. e to preach in the public square, and converted seven hundred and eighteen people in one day; the next day he went to the temple and took as the subject of his preaching the idol of the god Mars, who was worshipped by these inhabitants, born in arms and accustomed to war. He first addressed the one who performed the office of priest, and had some conversations with him to try to convince him; but, seeing his obstinacy, he turned to the people who were allowing themselves to be misled by impious superstitions and by the artifice of this minister of Satan.

When he began to speak and to represent how unreasonable it was to give the title of gods to creatures who did not even deserve the name of men, which he showed through irrefutable demonstrations and reasoning, these priests interrupted his speech and stirred up a great sedition against him, to force him into silence. This obliged him to cease, because he saw well that they were not then disposed to listen to him; but he raised his prayer to God, and begged Him to have pity on this people, and to perform a stroke of His power to disabuse them. After his prayer, as if he had received a new spirit, he approached the statue of Mars, knocked it to the ground with a breath from his mouth, and reduced it to powder: which was the cause of the conversion of the priests and of some people of various conditions.

Since then, this city has always preserved the purity of the faith and persevered in the knowledge of the Gospel: thus we can call him the Apostle of Bayonne; some e ven place him in Apôtre de Bayonne Principal site of the saint's mission, martyrdom, and cult. the rank of the bishops of this city. Our Saint, having employed some time in this enterprise, did not believe he had sufficiently fulfilled all the duties of his ministry for it to be permitted for him to rest. That is why, taking leave of his children whom he had begotten in Jesus Christ through preaching, he passed into Spain to evangelize Biscay and Navarre; he found everywhere the means to exercise his virtue and make his talent count, because these peoples, whom nature has hidden in the corners of the Pyrenees, had barely seen the light of the Gospel, and few people had gone as far as them to enlighten them.

However, pirates from Bayonne, returning after a long absence to that city, were surprised to see it completely changed and the temples overturned. They fell into a great fury, especially upon learning that they had to renounce their piracy and do penance, and upon seeing their relatives and friends obeying the Gospel. They conspired against the author of this revolution and went to wait for him in ambush upon his return from Spain. The Saint was preaching on the banks of the Nive when these madmen threw themselves upon him, struck him harshly, slaughtered his brother Gervais before hi s eyes, Gervais Brother and successor of Saint Ternat to the see of Besançon. and finally massacred him as well. It is said that his blood, upon touching the ground, caused an abundant spring to gush forth, and that his torso, seizing his severed head, carried it more than a mile to the place where he was buried, and where a chapel was later built in his honor. His relics received the homage of public veneration there until 1557. The fear of the Protestants, who were then devastating the Labourd, caused them to be transferred to the cathedral, and the chapel itself wa s torn down when M maréchal de Vauban Marshal of France whose fortification works led to the destruction of the saint's chapel. arshal de Vauban raised the ramparts of the citadel.

Before 1793, they were kept there in a magnificent silver reliquary that cost 3,000 livres. A canon, M. de Laclaux, bequeathed 1,000; the rest was provided by the city and the chapter. Following an ancient custom dating back at least to the 11th century and which had been preserved almost until our time, on the day of Pentecost, the syndic of Bayonne, leaving from the town hall, would go alone to the chapel, and, after the destruction of the chapel, to the nearest house, and return with a lighted candle in his hand. Upon his return, the city council, preceded by the governor and followed by the principal citizens, would make the same pilgrimage, and return like the syndic with lighted candles which were then placed in the choir of the cathedral: a pious symbol of the evangelical light brought to these regions by Saint Leon.

It is noted that, shortly before his death, he asked God that women who would have recourse to him during their pregnancy might be preserved from all kinds of accidents, and that he particularly recommended to Him the preservation of the city of Bayonne. He appeared immediately after his martyrdom to his grand vicars of Rouen, and they went immediately to the place of his death, where they learned everything we have just reported. His feast was formerly celebrated in Rouen; the new Proper has excluded it.

His life, drawn from the archives of the cathedral church of Bayonne, is reported in the first volume of the Acts of the Saints for the month of March by the guarantors of Bellandus.