Between the Limousin and the Holy Land: Prisoners, Performance, and the Portal of San Leonardo at Siponto

Abstract

AbstractThis article discusses two little-studied reliefs on the north portal of San Leonardo at Siponto. Long noted as a site on the road to the important sanctuary of St. Michael on Monte Gargano, the north facade of the church contains some of the most celebrated sculpture of twelfth-century Apulia, which has traditionally been viewed in relation to pilgrimage. Through consideration of the cult of its titular saint, Leonard of Noblat—patron of prisoners, whose main shrine is located in the Limousin region of central France—I argue that the carved figures represent one of the saint’s principal miracles, first recorded at the beginning of the twelfth century. Additionally, they provide insight into a significant and overlooked aspect of Leonard’s cult and its gestation, explaining how a little-known saint purportedly born in sixth-century France became the focus of one of the most popular cults in twelfth-century Europe and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The interpretation proposed here participates in ...