ON ST. LEOBONUS, CONFESSOR, AT SALAGNAC IN THE PROVINCE OF LIMOUSIN IN GAUL,
IN AN UNCERTAIN CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
The cult of the Saint: his ecclesiastical Office: the time at which he flourished uncertain.
Leobonus, confessor, at Salagnac in the Limousin province of Gaul. (S.)
BY J. B. F.
The province of Limoges, among the various Saints whom it religiously embraces in its bosom The Saint, whose memory in a few Martyrologies, and has brought forth for heaven, rejoices also in the sacred body of St. Leobonus, who in the village which is called Salagnacum, by others Salamacum and by more recent writers Salaniacum, three leagues distant from Limoges, led the eremitical life, died there, rests there and is venerated. Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology announces him on the thirteenth of October in the following French words, which, rendered into Latin, sound thus: "At Salagnac, in the province of Limoges, of St. Leobonus the Solitary." On the same day André du Saussay, in part 2 of the Gallican Martyrology, commemorates him in Aquitaine, in which region of Gaul the province of Limoges is contained, thus: "In Aquitaine, of St. Leobonus, confessor and hermit, who, when a shameless little woman had been sent in to tempt him, defended himself not by cold, like St. Francis, not by thorns, like St. Benedict, but by burning coals; and thence came to Salagnac, where he ended his life in great holiness."
[2] Although none of the martyrologists, if you except the two just praised, is venerated at Salagnac and Périgueux on this day, celebrate the memory of our Saint, the holiness of Leobonus and his cult in the church of Limoges do not on that account cease to be certain. For all doubt is removed by the Breviary of Limoges, which we have printed in the year 1625, in which his Office of nine Lessons, of which the three middle ones are held proper to the Saint himself, is prescribed to be celebrated on the fourteenth day of October. With the same rite too, but on the thirteenth day of the same month, his memory is honored annually in the church of Périgueux, as we are taught by Monsieur Armand Gerard, canon of Sarlat, in a Note which he subjoined to the Lessons customarily recited about our Saint in that church, and which the praised gentleman transmitted to our Predecessors copied from the old Breviary of Périgueux. Bernard Gui, in the Miscellanies on the Saints of Limoges, in Labbe's Library, tome 1, page 634, relates thus that the feast of St. Leobonus is celebrated annually at Salagnac, where his sacred body is preserved, not on the XIVth of October, as is done in the church of Limoges, but on the XIIIth day of the same month, which, as will become plain from the Office to be reprinted below, is his anniversary: "St. Leobonus the confessor, as a precious treasure of the Lord, is kept in the Bourg of the castle of Salamacum, by whose help many of those burning are healed at his tomb.
This illustrious Father destroys the force of the sacred fire, and the flames of the sick at once and of the vices. Succoring the wretched with innumerable signs.
His splendid deeds are kept in the same place. His feast is kept on the third day before the ides of October."
[3] on which day too in the church of Limoges with the Office which here For what reason he is not honored with the honors of the Saints in the church of Limoges on the same day on which he is venerated at Salagnac, and on which he received the eternal reward of his virtues in heaven, I have sought in vain. However that may be, since on this day, which is his anniversary, his feast is celebrated at Salagnac, where he honorably rests, it seemed good to treat of him today in our Work, and, since the praised Gerard writes to our Predecessors that his deeds, which, as Bernard cited above relates, were preserved at Salagnac, have been lost by the injury of time, to reprint here, as a compendium of Acts, the Lessons which are recited at Limoges about St. Leobonus. "Lesson IV. Leobonus, having cast away the empty cares of the world, resolving to lead on earth a kind of heavenly life, chose a retreat on a mountain of the territory of Limoges not far from the village whose name is Fursac. In which place, ever watchful in prayers, strong in temptations, humble in mind, words and the whole bearing of his body, sober in food, poor in spirit, he diligently cultivated chastity of mind and body. Of this virtue he gave a splendid proof when, a woman who solicited him to lewdness having been sent into his little hut at night by shameless young men, he lay down unharmed on burning coals, and, exhorting her to do the same, turned her to flight, astonished at the miracle. Lesson V. The truth of the miracle having been ascertained by those who had driven the shameless woman to the crime, when they asked pardon and wondered at the holiness of the most pure Man, he spared them from his heart. Yet since he believed that it was not safe to remain there longer, he betook himself to Salagnac, where, having found a place suitable to his purpose, having changed his soil, not his resolve, he spent the remaining time of his life diligently in vigils, fasts, contemplation of divine things and other virtues of the more perfect Christian life. On the third day before the Ides of October he was called to the rewards of the Blessed.
[4] given, he enjoys an ecclesiastical one. "Lesson VI. God made illustrious the glory of Leobonus after his death with many miracles, of which kind the best known are those which are consigned in ancient monuments to have been wrought in the year nine hundred and ninety-four; for at that time, when a subcutaneous fire, an unknown kind of disease, was devouring the bodies of men through almost the whole of Aquitaine, the remedies of physicians being applied in vain, a solemn supplication was proclaimed at Limoges, and Hilduin the bishop ordered the relics of the Saints to be carried there from the whole province of Limoges. Wherefore, that the people of Salagnac might not be wanting in their duty, and that the prayer of St. Leobonus might avail with God together with the others, they moved his reliquary from its place, and, having opened it, washed the bones laid in it with wine, which was afterwards salutary to some sick persons. But also two young men on the journey, while the sacred body was being carried to Limoges, were entirely freed at Juncheria from that pestilent fire." All which things, if you except what is reported about the public supplication in which the body of St. Leobonus was solemnly carried, are read in the Périgueux Office of our Saint copied by the praised Gerard.
[5] From these Lessons, which constitute part of the ecclesiastical Office of St. Leobonus, [The beginning of his cult and the century in which the Saint flourished are unknown.] it is sufficiently gathered that his cult is ancient; but the time at which the church of the village of Salagnac, which with his sacred body
rejoices, began to bestow on him the honors of the heavenly ones, the said Lessons by no means express. Nor does the Chronicle which Geoffrey, Prior of Vigeois, wrote in the year 1183, as may be seen in Labbe, tome 2, in which it is edited, page 290, relate a single word, besides these few which are found there on page 285: "The Bourg of the castle of Salagnac contains Leobonus the confessor, by whose help many of those burning are often healed," from which the time at which our Saint began to shine with miracles and to be invoked by mortals can be determined. But as regards the time to be assigned at which St. Leobonus led his most holy life; since the martyrologists cited above and the praised authors who wrote about our Saint are deeply silent about this, and neither among them nor in his ecclesiastical Office is any chronological mark found by which we might come to a knowledge of the time at which he flourished, we cannot define it.