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Leobard, from a noble family of Auvergne, loved study and prayer.

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January 18 · Hermit

St. Leobard at Marmoutier

St. Leobard at Marmoutier

Leobard, from a noble family of Auvergne, loved study and prayer.

Traditional feast

January 18
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1914)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Hermit

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1914) · original text below

Leobard, from a noble family of Auvergne, loved study and prayer. Pressed by his father, he was betrothed, but his father soon died. Riding to give the betrothal gifts to his brother, he found him too drunk even to offer him a bed, and slept in a hayloft.

That night he resolved to give up the world. After praying at St. Martin's tomb at Tours, he joined a hermit named Alaric at Marmoutier, who made parchment and copied Scripture. Leobard dug himself a cave and lived there twenty-two years in prayer, study, writing and manual work, often visited by his friend St. Gregory of Tours. On his last Sunday, gravely ill, he sent his attendant to see if people were coming back from Mass, wishing to be alone with God; the man returned to find him dead.

St. Gregory describes the betrothal: the ring, the kiss and the shoe were given, and a feast held. Leobard enlarged and improved his cave as he saw fit. On the day he died he had asked for food to be prepared, then sent his attendant out; the man waited until he saw the congregation heading home.

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

Leobard was the son of noble parents in Auvergne. The youth loved study and prayer. On reaching his majority, his father urged him to marry, but the young man, having no wish to take to himself a wife, refused.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Feed your mind with Scripture and good books. Learning and the Scriptures matter in this life.

Pray a little every day. Prayer runs all through this account.

Make time for silence. Solitude and withdrawal to pray shape this life.

Read more

The full original · 366 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Gallican Martyrologies. Authority: the life of S. Leobard, written by his friend, S. Gregory of Tours.

Leobard was the son of noble parents in Auvergne. The youth loved study and prayer. On reaching his majority, his father urged him to marry, but the young man, having no wish to take to himself a wife, refused. The father, however, pressed him so strongly, that at last he consented to be betrothed. "Then," says S. Gregory, "the ring, the kiss, and the shoe were given, and the betrothal feast was kept." But Leobard lost his father shortly after, and taking the betrothal gifts, he rode to his brother's house, to make them over to him. He found his brother so drunk that he did not even invite him to stay the night with him, so Leobard tied up his horse, and crept into a hay loft and slept there. But in the middle of the night he woke, and his mind turned to the importance of saving his soul, and of striving to be like Christ. Then he resolved to renounce the world wholly; but first to seek counsel at the tomb of S. Martin [St. Martin of Tours (d. 397), soldier turned bishop] at Tours. From Tours he went to Marmoutier, and joined himself to a hermit named Alaric, who spent his time in making parchment and writing out Holy Scripture. Leobard lived in a cave, which he dug out of the rock, enlarging it and improving it as he saw fitting; and here he spent twenty-two years in prayer and study and writing, and in labour with his hands. He was frequently visited by S. Gregory of Tours [bishop and historian of the Franks (d. 594)], who was his personal friend. On a Sunday, being very ill, he said to him who ministered to him in his sickness, "Prepare me some food." "It is ready, sir," answered the servant shortly after. "Go forth," said the hermit, "and see if the people are returning from mass." And this he said because he knew that his hour was come, and he desired to be alone with God when he migrated. So the servant went out and looked towards the church, and waited, and presently he returned to say that he saw the congregation drifting homewards, then he saw his master lying dead upon the ground, and he, too, was going home.

Feast days

Feast: January 18

Nine days · Free

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One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Leobard at Marmoutier's story, and a nudge to keep going.

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Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new and revised edition (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1914; first edition 1872). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new and revised edition (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1914; first edition 1872). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.