Saint John Leonard, Confessor
S. Ioannis Leonardi Confessoris
Saint John Leonard, an Italian priest of the age of reform, founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God and laboured for the renewal of Christian life and the spread of the faith among the nations.
Saint John Leonard was born about the year 1541 near Lucca, in Tuscany. In his youth he was trained as an apothecary; but, drawn to a higher service, he turned to the study of sacred things and was ordained a priest. He came to the priesthood in an age when the Church, renewing herself after the Council of Trent, called for zealous pastors to instruct the faithful, to reform morals, and to kindle anew the fervour of Christian life; and to this work Saint John gave himself wholeheartedly.
Founder and reformer
Saint John laboured especially in the Christian instruction of the young and the simple, gathering children and the unlearned to teach them the truths of the faith, and promoting frequent recourse to the sacraments and devotion to the mysteries of our Lord and his Mother. To carry on and to perpetuate this work, he gathered companions and founded a congregation of priests, the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, devoted to the care of souls, to preaching, and to the teaching of Christian doctrine. Like many founders, he met with opposition and difficulty, which he bore with patience and constancy, trusting in God and persevering in his purpose.
His zeal reached beyond his own land and his own congregation. Saint John was among those who promoted the formation of a college at Rome for the training of priests to be sent to far-off peoples who had not yet received the Gospel — a work that bore fruit in the foundation, after his day, of the college for the spreading of the faith. Thus his charity embraced not only the renewal of Christian life at home but the carrying of the faith to the nations.
His holy death
Saint John Leonard spent himself without reserve in these labours. During an outbreak of plague he gave himself to the care of the stricken, and it was in tending the sick that, in the end, he himself fell ill. He died at Rome on the ninth of October, 1609, worn out in the service of God and of souls, and was in time canonised.
His veneration
The collect of his feast asks that, by the help of Saint John Leonard, the heavenly gifts of the faith may increase and spread, and that all nations may come to the knowledge of the truth. The feast is kept on the ninth of October. In Saint John Leonard the Church honours a priest of the Catholic reform who spent himself for the instruction of the faithful, the renewal of Christian life, and the spreading of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Collect
Patronage
He is venerated as the founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God and is honoured among the apostles of the Catholic reform and the spreading of the faith; he is reckoned a patron of pharmacists.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his memorial is observed on the same day, 9 October, as an optional memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint John Leonard?
His feast is kept on 9 October in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Third Class feast. The modern calendar likewise observes him on 9 October, as an optional memorial.
Who was Saint John Leonard?
He was an Italian priest of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God and laboured for the renewal of Christian life after the Council of Trent. He promoted the teaching of Christian doctrine and the training of missionaries, and died at Rome in 1609 while caring for the sick.
What did Saint John Leonard found?
He founded a congregation of priests, the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, devoted to preaching, the care of souls, and the teaching of Christian doctrine. He also helped promote the establishment at Rome of a college for the training of priests to be sent to peoples who had not yet received the Gospel.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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