medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (6. November) is the feast day of:
Leonard of Noblac (d. 6th century, supposedly). L. is first heard from in the early years of the eleventh century. A little before 1028, St. Fulbert of Chartres received through an intermediary a request from the bishop of Limoges to write a Vita of L.; very shortly after that, Ademar of Chabannes (not yet notorious for his historical falsifications) wrote in his _Historiae_ that in 1017 L., a confessor in the Limousin, had become popular for his miracles. By a little after 1030, L. had a legendary Vita (BHL 4862; not by Fulbert) that made him a Frankish noble who was both a close friend of Clovis and a disciple of St. Remigius. Clovis was said to have given L. the power, which he used liberally, to obtain from him the release of prisoners. This trait made L. a natural recourse for ordinary people who had fallen afoul of the justice of local lords; before the century was out, it would also make him popular with pilgrims and with Crusaders.
L.'s reported obtaining of an easy childbirth for Clovis' queen led to another stream of requests for his intercession, originally at the abbey he was said to have founded at Noblac in the Limousin (today's Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat [Haute-Vienne]) and later at many other cult sites.
The abbey at Noblac was on one of the pilgrim routes across France toward Compostella and benefited mightily from this. An Italian-language account is here:
http://www.chiesainrete.it/arciconfraternita/libro/cap_15.htm
And a brief French-language one, with expandable views, is here:
http://architecture.relig.free.fr/noblat.htm
A model of the abbey church:
http://tinyurl.com/yz25nv
Other views:
http://www.chiesainrete.it/arciconfraternita/vedo-citta.htm
http://homepage.uvt.nl/~s239062/europe/SaintLeonard.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/yl8crb
http://tinyurl.com/wywye
Medievally, L.'s cult in Italy extended (as it still does) from the Dolomites to the Ionian and across the Strait of Messina to Sicily. Perhaps L.'s best known monument here is the former monastery of San Leonardo di Lama Volara outside of Manfredonia (FG) in northern Apulia. From the early twelfth century until 1250 it was run by Augustinian Canons. In 1261 it was given to the Teutonic Knights. An Italian-language account is here:
http://www.gargano.it/visitare/manfred2.php
An illustrated website is here:
http://www.garganonline.net/s.Leo0.html
Various views:
http://www.manfredoniaeventi.it/sanleonardo/solstizio/index_2.htm
http://www.manfredoniaeventi.it/sanleonardo/solstizio/index.htm
http://www.thais.it/architettura/romanica/schede/sc_00155_uk.htm
Herewith views, etc. of some other medieval dedications to L. in today's Italy:
Late twelfth-century doorway of the church of San Leonardo al Frigido near Massa (MC) in Tuscany:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/eust/hob_62.189.htm
The church was rebuilt in the 1950s (after the removal of the medieval portal). This is how it looks now:
http://tinyurl.com/yb4dtm
Medievally, there was a pilgrim hospital here. An Italian-language account:
http://www.chiesainrete.it/arciconfraternita/notizie/toscana/massa.htm
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Not dissimilar in general appearance is the originally early twelfth-century church of San Leonardo in Treponzio (since rebuilt), near Capannori (LU) in Tuscany. This too once had an adjacent hospital:
http://luccapro.sns.it/ENG/PIE/PIE_S0024/index.asp
http://luccapro.sns.it/ENG/PIE/PIE_S0024/gal.asp
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Other medieval dedications to L. in Tuscany are shown here, sometimes with active links to sites devoted to a particular one:
http://www.chiesainrete.it/arciconfraternita/toscana.htm
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Originally thirteenth-century church of San Leonardo at Campobasso (CB) in Molise:
http://www.chiesainrete.it/arciconfraternita/campobasso1.htm
http://tinyurl.com/ymdoxk
http://tinyurl.com/yla8dr
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Originally thirteenth-century church of San Leonardo at Castelmauro (CB) in Molise:
http://tinyurl.com/ug8rv
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Originally twelfth- or thirteenth-century Basilica di San Leonardo at Siete Fuentes, a locality of Santulussurgiu (OR) in Sardinia.
Illustrated, brief Italian-language accounts here:
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/orsantulussurgiu.htm
and near foot of this page:
http://web.tiscalinet.it/d1ego/santuluss/turismo.htm
Six expandable views here:
http://tinyurl.com/y8wr93
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Originally fifteenth-century church of San Leonardo at Serramanna (MD) in Sardinia.
Italian-language accounts:
http://web.tiscali.it/sanleonardo/chiesa/la_chiesa.htm
http://web.tiscali.it/sanleonardo/chiesa/cenni_storici.htm
Exterior views (NB: The facade was rebuilt in the twentieth century):
http://www.ilportalesardo.it/monumenti/caserramanna.htm
http://web.tiscali.it/sanleonardo/foto/foto_varie_serramanna/chiesa.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/y27pgt
http://web.tiscali.it/sanleonardo/foto/foto_varie_serramanna/chiesa2.jpg
Some views here (all expandable) show Catalan Gothic aspects of the nave:
http://web.tiscali.it/sanleonardo/chiesa/foto_della_chiesa.htm
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Early fifteenth-century church of San Leonardo (replacing one of the twelfth) at Chieri (TO) in Piedmont:
http://www.chieri.info/contents/chiesa-sanleonardo-chieri.php
http://tinyurl.com/ycebxa
Best,
John Dillon
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