St Leonard’s Churches and Place Names in Europe
 

While he was clearing out his archives before leaving Hythe, our previous Vicar, Rev Brian Barnes, passed on a folder given to him when he first came to the Parish. This contained a dossier of information assembled by one of our sister parishes in France in the small town of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, which is rich in medieval architecture and lies between the Limousin Mountains and Limoges. (The town is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the description ‘Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France’, being a stage on the Way of St James pilgrimage route to the cathedral in north-western Spain.)

The history of the town records that, according to tradition and the legendary account of his life written in the 11th century, Leonard was born to the family of an officer of the court of King Clovis I, King of the Franks, who was converted to Christianity by the Bishop of Reims in AD 496

Leonard asked Clovis to grant him personally the right to visit prisoners and liberate those whom he would find worthy of freedom. Leonard secured the release of a number of prisoners, for whom he has since become patron saint. Although he was offered many responsibilities (including a bishopric) he chose to enter the monastery at Micy near Orléans. Then, according to legend, Leonard became a hermit in the forest of Limousin, where he gathered a number of followers. One day, the King of Aquitaine came to hunt there. Meanwhile his wife, the Queen, who was nine months pregnant, nearly died trying to give birth. Leonard prayed on her behalf and, through his prayers, the Queen was safely delivered of a male child. The grateful king offered him many gifts, but the hermit only agreed to receive as a present the area of forest he could cover with his donkey in 24 hours. In recompense Leonard was therefore given royal lands at Noblac, 21 km from Limoges, where he founded the abbey of Noblac, around which a village grew, named in his honour Saint-Léonard de Noblac (now Noblat).
St Leonard window
St Leonard window
in the porch of our church
 

Gradually more and more people came to visit Leonard, including prisoners that he had freed and who were seeking sanctuary. They were all given parts of his land so they could farm there. Worshipped by everyone, Leonard died (according to tradition) on 6 November 559 and was buried in the chapel he had built. (Each year on the second Sunday in November following the anniversary of his death, members of the Brotherhood of St Leonard walk through the town in procession carrying a painted wooden model representing the top part of a tower, a symbol of the prison whose doors St Leonard opened.)

The glory of ‘the blessed confessor St Leonard of the Limousin’ spread throughout Europe. Regarded as a man capable of curing all ills, he was called upon by captives, women in labour, sick children and more recently sterile women. In some regions he is considered guardian of the cattle, horses and the harvest. From Norway to Spain, from Scotland to Bethlehem, more than 500 churches, chapels and hospitals were founded and dedicated to St Leonard. Mainly religious pilgrims but also crusaders helped to spread his faith.

The dossier from Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat also included a catalogue of all places in Europe dedicated to St Leonard. This was based on a survey initiated in 1960 and subsequent extensive research, which led to the publication of a register plus accompanying country maps on the occasion of a 1994 exhibition held in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat on Leonard and how his cult spread throughout the continent. More than 800 such church or place names in nearly 20 countries have been documented, notably in France, southern Germany, Austria and Italy, but also in Great Britain amongst others. The name would have been brought across the Channel in the wake of the Norman conquest in 1066. The first recorded use of the name in England apparently dates back to 1082 when a Benedictine monastery dedicated to St Leonard was founded in Stamford. Our own St Leonard’s Church in Hythe was so named when a new church was built here in the late 11th century to replace the previous Saxon chapel.

Brin Hughes
 
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