St. Leonard was a French nobleman of great reputation was converted to the faith by St. Remigius. Finding it very difficult to resist the need for him among the king’s court, he retired privately to the monastery of St. Mesmin. Aspiring after a closer solitude he left his monastery and retired to a forest, outside of Limoges. He built himself an oratory, lived on wild herbs and fruits, and had for some time no other witness of his penance and virtues. Others eventually joined him in his desert life. The reputation of his sanctity and miracles led the king to bestow him and his fellow-hermits a considerable part of the forest where they lived. A favorite object of his charity was towards captives and prisoners; his chief aim to bring these persons to a sincere spirit of compunction and penance and a perfect reformation of their lives. He died in 559.