ON ST. LEONIUS, PRIEST, AT POITIERS IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE END OF THE FOURTH CENTURY
CommentaryLeonius, Priest, at Poitiers in Gaul (St.)
By I. B.
[1] St. Leonius the Priest -- who is called Leo by others and Leontius by Vincent of Beauvais, and popularly St. Liesne or Lienne -- is venerated with great celebration at Poitiers on the Kalends of February. Hermann Greeven mentions him thus in his additions to Usuard, and likewise the Cologne Martyrology printed in 1490, and the manuscript Florarium: St. Leonius is venerated on February 1. "At Poitiers, of St. Leo the Confessor." Molanus in his additions to Usuard: "At Poitiers, of St. Leonius, fellow-priest of St. Hilary, a most holy man from his earliest years."
[2] Andrew Saussay, in the Gallic Martyrology, encompasses his deeds in a brief encomium: A companion of St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers. "At Poitiers, of St. Leonius the Confessor, fellow-priest of St. Hilary, a most holy man from his earliest years; who, accompanying the holy Bishop himself when he departed into exile, endured various afflictions for the Catholic faith together with him; and after the return to Gaul, he was of the greatest assistance to him in combating the Arian perfidy. Moreover, when Blessed Hilary had been carried up to celestial glory, he revived Gaul, bereft of the protection of so great a champion, with singular consolation, instructing the people with Apostolic preaching, inciting them to the practice of religion by the examples of a holy life, and confirming them by miracles. A vigorous herald of the faith. While he was persisting in these pious duties, after having accomplished many things by divine power, he fell into a gentle sleep, and on that day which St. Hilary had predicted to him, putting off mortality, he departed to the joys of blessed immortality; and being buried near St. Hilary, he shone forth at his tomb with great powers of divine signs."
[3] Whether fully written accounts of his deeds survive anywhere, we have not been able to ascertain.
Jean Bouchet mentions him in more than one place in part 1 of the Annals of Aquitaine; and in chapter 9 he writes that Leonius, Justus, and other priests were present with Hilary when he returned from exile. In chapter 14 he says that the same St. Leonius attended Hilary on his deathbed, along with St. Justus; that Leonius was his ordinary priest, or, as they now say, his Chaplain; He is present at the death of St. Hilary. and that he was sent a second time to observe whether the noise of the crowd continually flowing to his house, anxious about his passing, had subsided. Lest anyone suspect that Bouchet derived this from some more recent writer, Vincent in book 14, chapter 51, of his Speculum Historiale narrates thus: "After many and great miracles, therefore, St. Hilary fell ill, and when he recognized that his death was imminent, he summoned Leontius, a priest of the same city, whom he especially loved. And when, as night approached, he had ordered him to go out and report whatever he heard outside; the priest returned and explained that he had heard the voices of the people of the city in tumult. And when the priest was keeping vigil beside him, awaiting his end, at midnight he was ordered to go out and report to the dying man what he could hear; and when he announced that he had heard nothing, He perceives a celestial light and fragrance. immediately a most brilliant light, which even the priest could not endure, entered upon him, and thus, as the light gradually receded, he departed to the Lord." Bouchet adds that Leonius and Justus bore witness that the lifeless body of St. Hilary exhaled a most sweet fragrance. Concerning St. Justus we shall treat on November 25.
[4] The same Bouchet relates that Leonius was trained from his youth in the discipline of Hilary, dear to him for his virtues and was most dear to him on account of the exceptional goodness, simplicity, and uprightness of character that shone in him; and that he rendered faithful service to Hilary both in exile and thereafter; and that for this reason he made great progress in the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures. He dies of a fever. After the death of Hilary, having taught the people for many years, now weighed down by age, he was seized by a fever and finally carried off by it on February 1 -- the fact that this would happen having been divinely revealed to him beforehand -- and he was buried in the church of St. Hilary. This is now an abbey of the Order of St. Augustine, popularly called St. Hilary de la Celle, where St. Hilary himself is said to have lived and to have built a chapel for the Martyrs Sts. John and Paul, for whom he later established a larger church outside the walls, in which he himself, his wife, and his daughter St. Apra were buried; which church was later enlarged and dedicated to his name, according to the same Bouchet.
[5] He is distinguished by miracles. After his death, St. Leonius was honored with heavenly prodigies, as the same author reports; and his body was enclosed in a silver reliquary. A great concourse of devout people takes place at that church, and many find relief from gout and fevers through his patronage.
[6] Sebastian Roulliard also mentions St. Leonius in his History of Melun, while treating of another St. Leonius distinct from the St. Leonius of Melun who is venerated at Melun on November 12, whose help is likewise invoked against fevers. He judges him, however, to be different from the Poitevin archpriest of St. Hilary, both because they are not venerated on the same day, nor even in the same month, and because the body of the one is believed to exist in the suburb of Melun which is called St. Leonius after him, where it is still buried in the earth within the church dedicated to his name -- although some of his relics are preserved in the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, others in the church of St. Peter, and some in that of St. Aspasius. whose relics are elsewhere But the relics of the other were carried partly to Parthenay, partly to Poitiers and neighboring places, as the same author writes. The Acts, however, of the one from Melun -- his era, rank -- are entirely unknown, except that he is recorded to have appeared to someone in a dream wearing priestly garb. Distinct from both is St. Leonius the Bishop, and also from the one of Bayonne who about the year 900 of Christ was crowned with martyrdom near Bayonne.