Saint Leonard was born into a noble Frankish family at the royal court of Clovis I in the early 6th century. Converted by Saint Remigius, Leonard refused military honors and obtained from King Clovis the perpetual right to secure liberation for worthy prisoners and captives of war. Retiring into the forests of Limousin, he founded a monastery around which the town of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat grew, becoming one of Europe's most venerated pilgrimage stops on the Way of Saint James.
Saint Leonard was born into a noble Frankish family at the royal court of Clovis I in the early 6th century. Converted by Saint Remigius, Leonard refused military honors and obtained from King Clovis the perpetual right to secure liberation for worthy prisoners and captives of war. Retiring into the forests of Limousin, he founded a monastery around which the town of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat grew, becoming one of Europe's most venerated pilgrimage stops on the Way of Saint James.
