SAINTS OF FRANCE
St. Leonard.—The attitude of France to this hermit-saint was one of deep devotion. Our Norman kings and nobles shared this veneration. Foundations bearing his name at Chesterfield, Derby, Lancaster and Nottingham, had privileges in the adjoining royal forests; and St. Leonard’s, Launceston, was dependent on the Duchy. The hospital at Northampton showed a crown upon its seal, and that of York (re-dedicated to this saint by Stephen) bore the arms of England. St. Leonard’s, Alnwick, was erected on the spot where the Scottish king Malcolm fell. This saint had a reputation as a healer: “il était le médecin des infirmes.” Some fifty-five charitable foundations had St. Leonard for patron; they were mainly for lepers, and in certain counties (notably Derby and Northampton) even St. Mary Magdalene had to give place to him in this capacity. p262 The “Hospital of St. Leonard the Confessor” in Bedford was revived twenty years ago by a band of brothers who met on St. Leonard’s Day and resolved to restore the lapsed memory of this patron saint.
St. Giles; St. Theobald.—The houses of St. Giles number about twenty-five. The chief one was that “in the fields” near London. He was the cripples’ (and therefore the lepers’) patron, partly because he himself suffered from lameness, and partly on account of the legend of the wounded hart which fled to him, an incident depicted upon seals at Norwich, Wilton and Kepier. Another French hermit, St. Theobald, shares the dedication of the leper-house at Tavistock with St. Mary Magdalene.
St. Denys; St. Martin; St. Leger; St. Laud; St. Eligius.—The hospital at Devizes built by the Bishop of Salisbury was in honour of St. James and St. Denys; the fair granted to the lepers was held on the vigil and day of St. Dionysius. The charitable St. Martin occurs, with or without St. John Baptist, at Piriho. St. Leger was commemorated at Grimsby. St. Laud (or Lo) is an alternative patron at Hoddesdon. St. Eligius (or Eloy) was venerated in houses at York, Stoke-upon-Trent, Cambridge and Hereford.
St. Louis; St. Roch.—These unique dedications are welcome among our patron saints. That to the saintly king occurs in the Ely Registers, contributions being invited in 1393 towards a chapel newly constructed at Brentford (Braynford) in honour of the Blessed Anne and St. Louis (Ludovicus) with houses for the reception of travellers. St. Roch, who ministered to the plague-stricken of Italian hospitals in the fourteenth century, p263 was commemorated at Bonville’s almshouse in Exeter, Rock Lane being a reminder of its chapel of St. Roch.