Saturday with the Saints: St. Leonard of Port Maurice

Today's randomly generated saint is  St. Leonard of  Port Maurice. His feastday is November 27th, although Franciscans celebrate it on the 26th, and he died on that day in 1751. He is the patron of parish missions. Catholic Online says he was a "Franciscan proponent of the Blessed Sacrament, the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and the Stations of the Cross, as well as the Immaculate Conception. He was born Leonard Casanova in Port Maurice, Porto Maurizio, Italy, and joined the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in 1697. Ordained in 1703, he began preaching all over the Tuscany region of Italy. By 1736 he was attracting huge crowds in Rome and elsewhere, and he erected almost six hundred Stations of the Cross throughout the lands. In 1744, Leonard was sent by Pope Benedict XIV to preach on Corsica, returning to Rome in 1751 after receiving a summons from the pope. Leonard died at his friary, St. Bonaventure, on November 26. He was canonized in 1867 and named patron of parish missions."

He was born Paul Jerome Casanova on December 20, 1676 to Dominico Casanova and Anna Maria Benza. At 13, he was placed in the care of his uncle. He studied at the Jesuit Roman College, but gave up medicine in favor of joining a Reformati branch of the the Franciscan order, the Friars Minor, where he took the name Brother Leonard after a relative who had been kind to him following his uncle disowning him for giving up a promising medical career for the Church. After making his novitiate at Ponticelli, he completed his studies at St. Bonaventura on the Palantine in Rome. 

After his ordination, he was sent back to Port Maurice due to medical problems. Four years, his health was restored and he began to preach in Porto Mauizio and the surrounding area. He began to hold missions in Tuscany after Cosmo III de'Medici handed over the monastery del Monte (Monte alle Croci) to the members of the Riformella. 

Alphonsus Liguori called St. Leonard "the great missionary of the 18th Century". His missions usually lasted 15-18 days, and he'd often stay an additional week to hear confessions. He was so popular that he often had to preach his messages outside, because the town churches could not accommodate the multitudes that came to hear him. 

He was held in high esteem by Pope Clement XII and Pope Benedict XIV, and was appointed to several diplomatic positions by Pope Benedict. He was also, for a time, the spiritual director of Clementine Sobieska of Poland, the wife of King James II of England.

In devotion to the Stations of the Cross, he allegedly set up 571 stations through out Rome, including those in the Colosseum.

In November, 1751, he was recalled to Rome from his missions in Bolognese by Pope Benedict XIV, as it was known that he was in poor health. He arrived at his beloved monastery of St. Bonaventura on November 26th, and died later that evening at 75. 

Pope Pius VI announced his beatification June 1796, and Pope Pius IX announced his canonization June 29, 1867. 

His numerous writings have been published in a multitude of languages and are often republished.

I hope you enjoyed this week's edition of Saturday with the Saints! Let me know what you think of it!
Yours always,
Tara