Saint Leonard, patron saint of prisoners, frees two captives. Late Gothic fresco, painted in 1468 by Sebastian Gerumer, in the Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church) in Lienz, East Tyrol, Austria.
Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church), Muchargasse, Lienz, East Tyrol, Austria: Late Gothic fresco. One of three panels telling the Legend of Saint Leonard, painted by Sebastian Gerumer in 1468. This panel depicts captives joining their hands in prayer as they are freed by by St Leonard, while a jailer comes through a door on the right. St Leonard is the patron saint of prisoners and is considered a helper for women who have recently given birth. He was a Frankish nobleman born circa 500 AD who converted to Christianity and became a hermit. His intercession was credited with miracles for the release of prisoners and women in labour. He was given royal lands at Noblac, 13 miles from Limoges, as a reward for saving the heavily pregnant queen when she went into labour and ensuring she bore a male child. At Noblac, he founded an abbey around which a village grew, Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat. The Franciscan Church and Convent in Lienz was founded in 1349 by Countess Eutemia of Görz (now Gorizia in Italy) and was originally intended to house the Carmelite order. The friary was unable to avoid a wave of monastic suppressions under Joseph II (1741 - 1790), Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1780. In March 1785, the community was instructed to vacate its premises and the convent buildings were given to the Franciscan order. Lienz is a medieval town, chartered in the 1200s AD. Throughout the Middle Ages, its strategic position and access to trade routes made it important. In the late 1000s or early 1100s AD, it was purchased by a dynasty from Aquileia in Italy who, from about 1127, called themselves the Counts of Görz. When the House of Görz died out in 1500, the town went to the Habsburgs, then ruled by Emperor Maximilian I.
Size: 3008px × 2000px
Location: Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church), Muchargasse, Lienz, East Tyrol, Austria
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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