The choice of Leonard as patron of women about to give birth follows from the story of Clovis's wife which is narrated below.
According to legend, Clovis promised to free every captive whom Leonard could visit. Perhaps in memory of that, in 1103 Bohemund, Prince of Antioch, came on pilgrimage to Noblac after his release from Moslem captivity. The invocation of Leonard by those in danger from brigands may stem from the fact that, because he was able to free them from captivity, he was responsible for their being a danger to the public!

Although he was one of the most 'popular' saints of western Europe in the later Middle Ages, nothing is heard of this St Leonard before the eleventh century, when a life of him was written, upon which, however, no reliance can be put. According to it he was a Frankish nobleman who was converted to the faith by St Remigius. Clovis I was his godfather, and offered St Leonard a bishopric, which he refused. He went into the country of Orleans, to the monastery of Micy, where he took the religious habit and lived until, aspiring after a closer solitude, he chose for his retirement a forest not far from Limoges. Here he built himself a cell, lived on vegetables and fruit, and had for some time no witness of his penance and virtues but God alone. One day Clovis came hunting in that forest and his queen was there brought to bed by a difficult labour. By the prayers of St Leonard she was safely delivered, and the king in gratitude gave him as much land as he could ride round in a night on his donkey. Leonard formed a community, which in succeeding times became a flourishing monastery, first called the abbey of Noblac and now identified as the town of Saint-Léonard. From it the saint evangelized the surrounding neighbourhood, and died there, it is said, about the middle of the sixth century, revered for his holiness and miracles.