Labadists

 Laban

 Labarum

 Jean-Baptiste Labat

 Philippe Labbe

 Labour and Labour Legislation

 Moral Aspects of Labour Unions

 Jean de La Bruyère

 Labyrinth

 Stanislas Du Lac

 Lace

 Diocese of Lacedonia

 François d'Aix de la Chaise

 Jean-Baptiste-Henri Dominique Lacordaire

 Diocese of La Crosse

 Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius

 James Laderchi

 St. Ladislaus

 René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec

 Laetare Sunday

 Pomponius Laetus

 Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette

 Joseph-François Lafitau

 Louis-François Richer Laflèche

 Jean de La Fontaine

 Nicolas-Joseph Laforêt

 Charles de La Fosse

 Modesto Lafuente y Zamalloa

 Lagania

 Pierre Lagrené

 Jean-François La Harpe

 Jean de La Haye (Jesuit Biblical scholar)

 Jean de La Haye

 Philippe de la Hire

 Diocese of Lahore

 Diocese of Laibach

 Laicization

 James Lainez

 Laity

 Lake Indians

 Charles Lalemant

 Gabriel Lalemant

 Jerome Lalemant

 Jacques-Philippe Lallemant

 Louis Lallemant

 Teresa Lalor

 César-Guillaume La Luzerne

 Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck

 Alphonse de Lamartine

 Paschal Lamb

 Lamb in Early Christian Symbolism

 Peter Lambeck

 St. Lambert

 Lambert Le Bègue

 Lambert of Hersfeld

 Lambert of St-Bertin

 Jacques and Jean de Lamberville

 Louis Lambillotte

 Denis Lambin

 Luigi Lambruschini

 Ven. Joseph Lambton

 Diocese of Lamego

 Félicité Robert de Lamennais

 Jean-Marie-Robert de Lamennais

 Family of Lamoignon

 Johann von Lamont

 Louis-Christophe-Leon Juchault de la Moricière

 Wilhelm Lamormaini

 Lampa

 Lamp and Lampadarii

 Lamprecht

 Early Christian Lamps

 Lampsacus

 Lamuel

 Lamus

 Bernard Lamy

 François Lamy

 Thomas Joseph Lamy

 Francesco Lana

 The Holy Lance

 Giovanni Paolo Lancelotti

 Archdiocese of Lanciano and Ortona

 Land-Tenure in the Christian Era

 Pope Lando

 Jean-François-Anne Landriot

 Lanfranc

 Giovanni Lanfranco

 Matthew Lang

 Rudolph von Langen

 Benoit-Marie Langénieux

 Simon Langham

 Langheim

 Ven. Richard Langhorne

 Richard Langley

 Diocese of Langres

 Stephen Langton

 Lanspergius

 Lantern

 Luigi Lanzi

 Laodicea

 Vicariate Apostolic of Laos

 Diocese of La Paz

 Pierre-Simon Laplace

 Lapland and Lapps

 Diocese of La Plata

 Archdiocese of La Plata

 Albert Auguste de Lapparent

 Volume 10

 Victor de Laprade

 Lapsi

 Ven. Luis de Lapuente

 Laranda

 Lares

 Armand de La Richardie

 Diocese of Larino

 Larissa

 Joseph de La Roche Daillon

 The Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

 Henri-Auguste-Georges du Vergier, Comte de la Rochejacquelein

 Diocese of La Rochelle

 Dominique-Jean Larrey

 Charles de Larue

 Charles de La Rue

 La Salette

 Missionaries of La Salette

 René-Robert-Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

 Ernst von Lasaulx

 Constantine Lascaris

 Janus Lascaris

 John Laski

 Baron Joseph Maria Christoph von Lassberg

 Orlandus de Lassus

 Marie Lataste

 Flaminius Annibali de Latera

 Christian Museum of Lateran

 Saint John Lateran

 Lateran Councils

 Ecclesiastical Latin

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 Christian Latin Literature

 Classical Latin Literature in the Church

 Brunetto Latini

 La Trappe

 Pierre-André Latreille

 Latria

 Lauda Sion

 Lauds

 Laura

 Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie

 Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva

 Jean de Lauzon

 Pierre de Lauzon

 Lavabo

 Diocese of Laval

 François de Montmorency Laval

 Jean Parisot de La Valette

 Laval University of Quebec

 Lavant

 Charles-Honoré Laverdière

 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de Lavérendrye

 Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère

 Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie

 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

 Law

 Canon Law

 Influence of the Church on Civil Law

 Common Law

 Moral Aspect of Divine Law

 International Law

 Natural Law

 Roman Law

 St. Lawrence (2)

 St. Lawrence (1)

 St. Lawrence Justinian

 St. Lawrence O'Toole

 Lay Abbot

 Lay Brothers

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 Paul Laymann

 Lay Tithes

 Lazarus

 Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem

 St. Lazarus of Bethany

 Diocese of Lead

 The League

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 St. Leander of Seville

 Diocese of Leavenworth

 Lebanon

 Lebedus

 Edmond-Frederic Le Blant

 Charles Lebrun

 St. Lebwin

 Emile-Paul-Constant-Ange Le Camus

 Etienne Le Camus

 Joseph Le Caron

 Diocese of Lecce

 François Leclerc du Tremblay

 Chrestien Leclercq

 Lecoy de La Marche

 Claude Le Coz

 Lectern

 Lectionary

 Lector

 Miecislas Halka Ledochowski

 Diocese of Leeds

 Camille Lefebvre

 Family of Lefèvre

 Jacques Le Fèvre

 Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie

 Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples

 Legacies

 Legate

 Literary or Profane Legends

 Legends of the Saints

 Diocese of Leghorn

 Legio

 Oliver Legipont

 Legists

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 Charles Le Gobien

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 Abbey of Lehnin

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 Leipzig

 University of Leipzig

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 Pierre-Charles L'Enfant

 Adam Franz Lennig

 Charles Lenormant

 François Lenormant

 Denis-Nicolas Le Nourry

 Lent

 Publius Lentulus

 Pope St. Leo I (the Great)

 Pope St. Leo II

 Pope St. Leo III

 Pope St. Leo IV

 Pope Leo V

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 Pope St. Leo IX

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 Brother Leo

 St. Leocadia

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 Leo Diaconus

 Diocese and Civil Province of Leon

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 Alain-René Le Sage

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Brother Leo


Friar Minor, companion of St. Francis of Assisi, date of birth uncertain; died at Assisi, 15 November, 1271. He appears to have been a native of Assisi and not of Viterbo, 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 him after the approbation of the first Rule of the Friars 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 the time of Francis's death Leo was his constant companion. He was with the "Poverello" when the latter retired to Fonte Colombo near Rieti in 1223; to re-write the rule of the 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 Verna when Francis received the stigmata and he has left us a clear and simple account of that great miracle. This statement he wrote across the face of the autograph blessing which St. Francis had given him on La Verna, as a talisman against temptation, and which is still preserved at S. Francesco in Assisi. The text of a letter written by the saint to Leo some time before is also extant. It is a word of tender encouragement and counsel to the "Frate Pecorello di Dio" (little brother sheep of God) as the Saint had named his faithful disciple because of his simplicity and tenderness. And one of the most golden chapters in the "Fioretti" (Chapter 7) tells how St. Francis showed to Brother Leo "which things were perfect joy". Leo nursed his master during his last illness and as the saint lay dying it was he, together with Angelo, another favourite companion, who consoled Francis by singing the "Canticle of the Sun".

Leo had entered deeply into the bitter disappointments experienced by the saint during the last few years of his life, and soon after Francis's death he came into conflict with those whom he considered traitors to the Poverello and his ideal of poverty. Having protested against the collection of money for the erection of the basilica of San Francesco and having actually smashed the vase which Brother Elias had set up for contributions (see Elias), Leo was whipped by order of Elias and expelled from Assisi. He thereupon 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 death-bed of St. Clare of whom he was a life-long friend. Leo appears to have passed much of his latter years at the Porziuncola and to have employed himself in writing those works which exerted such a marked influence on Conrad d'Offida, Angelo Clareno, Ubertino da Casale, and other "Spirituals" of a later generation. These writings, in which Leo set forth what he considered to be the real intention of St. Francis regarding the observance of poverty, he is said to have confided to the nuns of S. Chiara in Assisi in order to save them to posterity. Leo died at the Porziuncola on 15 November, 1271, at an advanced age and was buried in the lower church of San Francesco near the tomb of his seraphic father. He is commemorated in the Franciscan 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 companions of St. Francis.

Considerable doubt still exists as to how much Leo actually wrote. The famous "rotuli" and "cedulae" 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 Perfectionis" and some other compilations of 'materia seraphica' were more or less directly derived. This "Speculum Perfectionis" was first published as a separate work in 1898 by Paul Sabatier, who called it the "Legenda Antiguissima S. Francisci" and claimed that it was written by Leo as early as 1227, as a manifesto against Elias and the other abettors of laxity among the friars. This claim gave rise to a large controversial literature. The majority of critics ascribe the "Speculum Perfectionis" to a later date and regard 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 mitigati in Leo's day--and its shortcomings from a literary standpoint if compared with the "Legends" of Thomas of Celano 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 insight 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 celebrated "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 Aegidius 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.

PASCHAL ROBINSON