St. Leonard of Noblac

St. Leonard of Noblac (died c. 559, by tradition) was, according to his medieval life, a Frankish nobleman at the court of King Clovis I who, converted along with the king by St. Remigius, renounced worldly honors and even the offer of a bishopric to embrace the monastic and eremitical life. He withdrew to the forest of Noblac near Limoges, in central France, where he lived as a hermit and gathered disciples, founding the monastery that grew into the town later called Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat.

Tradition holds that he obtained from the king the privilege of freeing prisoners whom he visited, and that many captives, invoking his name in their chains, found themselves miraculously released and would bring their broken fetters to his shrine. For this he became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, the beloved patron of prisoners and captives, and also of women in childbirth — invoked for deliverance in every kind of bondage. His cult spread across France, Germany, and beyond.