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A shepherd who stayed with his people through hard times.

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October 1 · Bishop, Confessor

St. Leudomer

St. Leudomer

A shepherd who stayed with his people through hard times.

Traditional feast

October 1
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Bishop
Confessor

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1897–98) · original text below · little is known

(The surviving account on this page begins partway through the story.)

Leudomer's biographer, Stephen the abbot, gives a marvel which the Bollandists (scholarly editors of saints' lives) label "fabulous" says birds stripped Leudomer's newly sown field. Indignant, he ordered all the birds to follow him, and they slunk after him into a barn and shut them in overnight.

A labourer ate one sparrow in the night. Next morning Leudomer gathered its feathers and bones, prayed, and the heap shook itself into shape and flew off twittering with the rest. The birds were then told to leave his fields alone. In French he is St. Leumer or Lomer; his emblem is an eye.

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 220 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

None eye. 1 This wonderful story is not told by Stephen, the Abbot, who, however, narrates another sufficiently marvellous anecdote, which the Bollandists ticket as “ fabulosa narratio.” The bishop had a field which was cleared oi the fresh-sown corn by birds. He was very indignant, and going to the field, he * rdered *all the birds to follow him. The guilty sparrows and blackbirds slunk after him to a bam.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

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

Learn from the kind of life it was. A shepherd who stayed with his people through hard times.

Read more

The full original · 220 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Gallican Martyrologies. By some martyrologists on Sept. 30. At Ch&lons on Oct 2. On that day Saussaye. Authority: — his Life, supposed to have been written by Stephen, abbot of S. Urban, ft A.D. 925; full of fable.] S. Leudomer, brother of S. Elaphius, bishop of Chilonssur-Mame, succeeded him in that see. They were both bom at Limoges, sons of a certain noble named Leo. Elaphius was summoned by KingSigebert of Austrasia, from Limoges to occupy the see of Chilons. He is mentioned by Gregory of Tours. Leudomer accompanied his brother, whom he dearly loved, and the brothers gave over their paternal inheritance at Limoges to the church at Chilons. Ruinart says that he had read the deed whereby “ the blessed Elasius (Elaphius) the bishop, and his brother the deacon Leudomir, had made over estates to the church of S. Stephen, at Chalons.” 1 This donation was made in a.d. 565. On the death of Elaphius, in a.d. 580, Leudomer was raised to occupy the episcopal throne in his room. Queen Brunehild is said by the Chilons Breviary to have sent for him one day to her palace, and finding him a tall, good-looking fellow, eyed him with kindling glances, and made an observation to him full of warmth. Leudomer drew back and stared at her with icy eyes. So frozen was the glance that when Roger II., Bishop of Chilons, dug up his predecessor, after the lapse of four hundred and fifty years, though all the rest of the body of Leudomer was turned to dust, the glassy eye stared out of the dust heap, with all the cold indignation wherewith it had repulsed Queen Brunehild. The freezing glance seems to have been reserved to 1 Ruinart, in his notes to S. Gregory of Tours, lib. v. c. 41; it was unquestionably a mediaeval forgery of a not uncommon kind. [Oct. a.

None eye. 1 This wonderful story is not told by Stephen, the Abbot, who, however, narrates another sufficiently marvellous anecdote, which the Bollandists [Jesuit scholars who since the 1600s have critically studied the lives of the saints] ticket as “ fabulosa narratio.” The bishop had a field which was cleared oi the fresh-sown corn by birds. He was very indignant, and going to the field, he * rdered *all the birds to follow him. The guilty sparrows and blackbirds slunk after him to a bam. He held the door open and ordered them all to enter, and they sneaked dejectedly in. Then he shut the door on them, and left them in the bam to their meditations. Now, during the night, a labourer got in, and killed and ate one of the sparrows. Next morning Leudomer came to the granary and ordered the birds out, and to be off and not molest his fields any more. They shook their heads, and looked sadly at some feathers and a pair of clawed feet on the floor. Leudomer saw what was the matter in a moment. He collected the feathers, bones, and claws into a little heap, prayed, and the heap got up and shook itself into shape, and flew off pertly twittering with the rest of the birds.

In French, S. Leudomer is called S. Leumer or Lomer. His symbol in art is an eye.

Feast days

Feast: October 1

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

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

Also on October 1
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St. Piatus

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Sts. Eleutherius and…

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St. Serenus

October 1 · Priest, Confessor
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). 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.