06 November - According to tradition and the legendary account of his life, written in the 11th century, Leonardo was born into a Frankish family of officers of the court of Clovis at the end of the 5th century. Baptized by Saint Remi, Bishop of Rheims, he had Clovis himself as his godfather, and became a disciple of Saint Remi.

Like this one, he visits the poor and the sick. He obtains from the king the privilege of visiting prisoners and freeing all those he deems worthy of this grace. He refuses the episcopal dignity proposed by the king and prefers to leave the court to join his brother Liphar and Saint Maximin in the monastery of Micy near Orleans. Ordained a deacon, he continued southward and stopped to set up his hermitage in the forest of Douvain, not far from Limoges and the tomb of Saint Martial.

During a stay of the king of Aquitaine who came to hunt in these places, the queen, who had reached the end of her pregnancy, had difficulty giving birth. Through his prayers, Leonardo intercedes and saves the queen and the child. The king wants to thank him with gifts, but Leonardo only accepts the territory of the forest that his donkey will be able to delimit in 24 hours. He names this domain "Noblac" to mark the royal origin of this gift.

Leonardo built a chapel in honor of Mary and Saint Remi: "Notre Dame de Sous les Arbres". He welcomes two monks to him and miraculously makes a spring gush forth. Little by little, prisoners freed through his intercession and others joined him. He shares his domain with them so that they can live from their work and not from "adventures and disorders" and teaches them the Gospel. He died on November 6 and was buried in the chapel he had built. His tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage that gave birth to the city of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat.