Leonard
Life and witness
At Limoges, in Aquitaine, of St. Leonard, confessor, disciple of St. Remigius, bishop, who being nobly born, and making choice of a solitary life, was famous for holiness and miracles, especially in delivering of captives.
Biographical overview
Leonard is a common English surname and a masculine given name. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German Leonhard containing the prefix levon ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin Leo, and the suffix hardu ("brave" or "hardy"). The name has come to mean "lion strength", "lion-strong", or "lion-hearted". Leonard was the name of a Saint in the Middle Ages period, known as the patron saint of prisoners. Leonard is also an Irish origin surname, from the Gaelic O'Leannain also found as O'Leonard, but often was anglicised to just Leonard, consisting of the prefix O ("descendant of") and the suffix Leannan ("lover"). The oldest public records of the surname appear in 1272 in Huntingdonshire, England, and in 1479 in Ulm, Germany.
Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness
Lemovicis, in Aquitania, sancti Leonardi Confessoris, qui fuit beati Remigii Episcopi discipulus. Hic, nobili genere ortus, solitariam vitam delegit, et sanctitate ac miraculis claruit; ejusque virtus praecipue in liberandis captivis enituit.