Saint Leo of Catania

Also known as

• Leo the Wonderworker

Memorial

• 20 February

Profile

Learned priest in Ravenna, Italy, and then in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Bishop of Catania, Italy; legend says that an angel appeared in dreams to the people in Catania to point them to Leo. He fought to suppress blasphemous magicians that people in his diocese saw as an alternative to the Church. Leo opposed the iconoclasm ordered by the Byzantine Empire; the governor of Sicily ordered his arrest for this stance, and the bishop spent time in the mountains in exile, living as a cave hermit. Known always for his care for the poor.

Born

• 720 in Ravenna, Italy

Died

• 20 February 789 of Etna, Italy natural causes

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Patronage

• Longi, Sicily, Italy
• Rometta, Sicily, Italy
• Saracena, Sicily, Italy
• Sinagra, Sicily, Italy

Additional Information

• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Online
• Kirken i Norge
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
• Roman Martyrology
• Santi e Beati
• Wikipedia

MLA Citation

• “Saint Leo of Catania“. Saints.SQPN.com. 19 February 2013. Web. 25 May 2013. <>