LEO
173
XJB00ADI4
Baob» LmmU XIII Carmina, hitenptionss, NtanimiuUa
aM3), tr. Hjbnrt (Philadelphia—); Acta Leonit XIIL 26
▼ok. (Rome. 1878-1903); Scetta di aUi apoatolici dd card. Peed
(Rome, 1879); CcnvetdumeM de re6tM tcduitutieU (14 vols.,
Rome, 1878-93); bioNnraphiea by O'Rxxllt (1886): T'Seb-
(XAXS (3 vols., Paris, 1894-1906); Schnbidbr (1901); Justin
McCabtht (London, 1896): Furbt (New York, 1903); Spahn
(1905)- Jkan d' Arras (Paris, 1902); Quilubrmin (Paris,
1902): BoTER d'Aqbn, La Jeunetse de L^on XIII (Toura, 1S96;;
Idbm. La PrUaturtde Lron XIII {iHd., 1900); de Germint,
LaPolUiguedeLfion XIII (Paris, 1902) ; Lefebvre de Blaine,
L^n X III el le prince Bismarck (Paris, 1898); Qeffken, Lton
X^IIdevarU VAlUnuiffne (Paris, 1896): de Cerarb, II conclave
di Leane XIII (3nl ed., Cittk di C.istello. 1887); Bonacxna.
ConlinuoMione dala Horia eccl. di Rohrbacher e di aaJan (Turin,
1899); DB Mebstbr, Lean*t XIII e la chieaa greca (Rome, 1905);
Pbotsner, Die Entufickeluno dee kirchlichen EherechU unler Leo
XIII (Salsburs, 1908). Cf. also The Great Encyclicals of Leo
XIII, ed. Wynne (New York, 1902).
U. Benign'i.
Leo, Brother, Friar Minor, companion of St. Fran- eis of Assisi, date of birth uncertain; d. at Assisi, 15 Nov. J 1271. He appears to have been a native of Aasisi and not of \ iterbo, as some later writers have asserted. Although not one of the original twelve companions of St. Francis, Leo was one of the first to join mm after the approbation of the first Rule of the Fiiars Minor (1209-1210) and perhaps was already a priest. In the course of time he became the confessor and secretary of the saint, and from about 1220 up to tJie time of Francis's deatn Leo was his constant com- panion, lie was with the " Pov-erello " when the latter retired to Fonte Colombo near Rieti in 1223, to re-write the rule of liie order and he accompanied him on his subsequent journey to Rome to seek its approval. The year following Leo was with the saint on Mount La Vema when Francis received the stigmata and he has left us a clear and simple account of that great mir- acle. This statement ne wrote across the face of the autograph blessing which St. Francis had given him on La \^ma, as a talisman against temptation, and which is still preser\'ed at S. Francesco in Assisi. The text of a letter ^-ritten by the saint to Leo some time before is also extant. It is a word of tender encouragement and counsel to the **Frate Pecorollo di Dio" (little brother sheep of God) as the Saint had named his faithful disciple because of his simplicity and ten- derness. And one of the most golden chapters in the "Fioretti" (ch. vii) tells how St. Francis showed to Brother Ix»o " which things were perfect joy ". Leo nursed his master during his last illness and as the saint lay djdng it was he, together with Angelo, an- other favourite companion, who consoled Francis by singing the "Canticle of the Sun ".
Leo had entered deeply into the bitter disappoint- ments experienced by the saint during the last few years of nis life, and soon after Francis's death he came into conflict with those whom he considered trai- tors to the Poverello and his ideal of poverty. Having protested against the collection of money for the election of the oasilica of San Francesco and having actually smashed the vase which Brother Elias had Bet up for contributions (sec Elias), Leo was whipped by order of Elias and expelled from Assisi. lie there- upon retired to some hermitage of the order and from thenceforth we catch only occasional glimpses of him. Thus we find him present in 1253 at the cfeath-bed of St. Clare of whom ne was a life-long friend. Leo ap- pears to have passed much of his latter years at the rorziuncola and to have employed himself in writing those works which exerted such a marked infiuenco on Conrad d'OflSda. Angelo Clareno, Ll)ertino da Ca- sale, and other Spirituals" of a later generation. These writings, in which Leo set forth what he con- sidered to be the real intention of St. Francis regarding the observance of poverty, he is said to have confided to the nuns at S. Cniara in Assisi in order to save them to posterity. Leo died at the Porziuncola on 15 Nov.y 1271, at an advanced age and was buried in the bmer church of San Francesco near the tomb of his leraphio fisher. He is commemorated in the Fran-
ciscan Martyrology which gives him the title of
Blessed, and the cause of his formal beatification is
now (1910) pending with that of the other early com-
panions of St. Francis.
Considerable doubt still exists as to how much Leo actually wrote. The famous " rotuli " and " ccduls " which he deposited with the Poor Clares have not come down to us, but these documents are believed to have been the source from which the "Speculum Peiv fectionis" and some other compilations of materia seraphica were more or less directly derived. This "Speculum Perfectionis " was first puolished as a sepa- rate work in 1898 by Paul Sabatier, who called it the "Legenda Antiquissima S. Francisci" and claimed that it was written by Leo as early as 1227, as a mani- festo against Elias and the other abettors of laxity among the friars. This claim gave rise to a large con- troversial literature. The majority of critics ascribe the "Speculum Perfectionis" to a later date and re- gard it as the work of different writers. However this may be, the "Speculum Perfectionis" remains of the utmost value and interest. In spite of its polemic tone — which reflects the controversy raging within the order between the zelanti and mitigaii m Leo's day — and its shortcomings from a literary standpoint if compared with the "Legends" of Thomas of Ce- lano and of St. Bonaventure, the portrait of St. Francis which the "Speculum" presents, and which all admit to be substantially due to Leo, affords an in- sight into the life of the Poverello such as no formal biography contains and such as none but an intimate could have given. Leo was moreover associated with Angelo and Rufino in the composition of the cele- brated "Legend of the Three Companions", a work which has been the subject of scarcely less controversy than the "Speculum Perfectionis"; he Is also credited with the authorship of a life of Blessed Giles or iEgid- ius of Assisi inserted in the "Chronicle of the XXIV Generals ", and is thought to have collaborated in the biography of St. Clare written about 1257.
No modern biogmphy of Leo cxiata, but Paul Sabatier has been at paius to gatlier all the contemporary rcferenccn to him [see jSpfcuZum Perfectionis ed. Sabatier (Paris, 1898), pp. LXIl-LXXXV], and tlicro is a good sketch of his life by Anns Macdqne.Xh Sons of Francis (London, 1902), pp. 95-112. The earU* life of Leo contained in the Ckron. XX IV Generalium [Anal. Francis., t. Ill (Quaracchi, 1897), 65 sq.] seems to be a compendium of an older legend; the one inserted by Barthol. PwANua in his De ConformitaU \Anal. Francis, IV (1906), 188 BO.] gives a list of miracles attributed to Leo not totmd ebe- wticre. On the writings of Leo nee Lbmmens, Scripta Frairie Leonis in Doc. Ant. Francis., I (Quaracchi. 1901). For a synop- sis of the controversial literature to which the Speculum Perfect tionis gave rise sec T)b Kerval in Bulletiino Critico di cose Francescane (Dec. 1905^. 109, and Robinson, Introduction to Franciscan Literature (New York, 1907), 12 Bq. See also Clarenub, Ilisloria Tribxdntionum etc. ed. Ehble in Archiv. fiXr Liu. und Kirchen, III, 55.'^-623; Wadding, Anruiles Minonun ad an IglO, I. 91 n 32; Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum ejus. ed. Sabatier (Paris, 1902), vii-ix and passim; Balfour, The Seraphic Keepsake (London, 1905) passim; Carmichabl, />a Benefiizione di San Francesco (Lc»;hom, 1900): Robinbon. The Writings of SL Francis (Philadelphia, 1906), 130 sq.. and 146 8q.
Paschal Robinson.
Leocadia, Saint, virgin and martyr, d. 9 Decem- ber, probably 304, in the Diocletian persecution. The last great persecution gave the Church in Spain a suc- cession of martyrs, who from 303 until 305 suffered death for the Christian Faith. In the historical mar- tyrologies of the ninth century, St. Leocadia of To- ledo is honoured among these martyrs on 9 Decem- ber. Her name is not mentioned by rrudentius in his hymn on the Spanish Martyrs, but in very early times there was a church dedicated to her at Toledo. In the first half of the seventh centun' this church was men- tioned as the meeting-place of the Fourth Synod of Toledo in 633, as well as of the fifth in 636, and the sixth in 638 (Concil. Tolctanum IV, mentions the " basilica beatissimse et sanctae Confcssoris Leocadia) " ; Mansi, "Concil. Coll.", X, 615). Long before that date, therefore, I.«cocadia must have been publicly honoured as a martyr. The basilica in question waa
