(ABOUT A.D. 583.)
[Gallican Martyrologies. Authority: the life of S. Leobard, written
by his friend, S. Gregory of Tours.]
Leobard was the son of noble parents in Auvergne. The youth loved study
and prayer. On reaching his majority, his father urged him to marry, but
the young man, having no wish to take to himself a wife, refused. The
father, however, pressed him so strongly, that at last he consented to
be betrothed. "Then," says S. Gregory, "the ring, the kiss, and the shoe
were given, and the betrothal feast was kept." But Leobard lost his
father shortly after, and taking the betrothal gifts, he rode to his
brother's house, to make them over to him. He found his brother so drunk
that he did not even invite him to stay the night with him, so Leobard
tied up his horse, and crept into a hay loft and slept there. But in the
middle of the night he woke, and his mind turned to the importance of
saving his soul, and of striving to be like Christ. Then he resolved to
renounce the world wholly; but first to seek counsel at the tomb of S.
Martin at Tours. From Tours he went to Marmoutier, and joined himself to
a hermit named Alaric, who spent his time in making parchment and
writing out Holy Scripture. Leobard lived in a cave, which he dug out of
the rock, enlarging it and improving it as he saw fitting; and here he
spent twenty-two years in prayer and study and writing, and in labour
with his hands. He was frequently visited by S. Gregory of Tours, who
was his personal friend. On a Sunday, being very ill, he said to him who
ministered to him in his sickness, "Prepare me some food." "It is ready,
sir," answered the servant shortly after. "Go forth," said the hermit,
"and see if the people are returning from mass." And this he said
because he knew that his hour was come, and he desired to be alone with
God when he migrated. So the servant went out and looked towards the
church, and waited, and presently he returned to say that he saw the
congregation drifting homewards, then he saw his master lying dead upon
the ground, and he, too, was going home.