The folklore world has lost a leading light with the death of Leonard Norman Primiano (1957–2021). Leonard was a major contributor to the development of a theory of religion in folklore studies. His methodological and theoretical developments reflected the influence of the postmodern critique in the social sciences and humanities. He focused primarily on lived religion—religion as it is experienced in everyday life by practitioners—as well as on religious materiality, the sacred objects and material culture associated with religious practice. From the practices of gay Catholics in the Dignity Movement to the foodways and architecture of followers of Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement in Philadelphia, and from Americans’ experiences with angels and Catholic ex-votos to the hooked rugs of a Newfoundland mystic, Leonard's scholarship covered a wide range of religious expression, including narrative, belief, song, photography, material culture and vernacular architecture, and popular culture.Born and raised in Philadelphia, Leonard attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies degree in 1978. He received a master's degree in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 1980, then returned to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an MA in Folklore and Folklife in 1982 and the only dual PhD ever granted in both Folklore and Folklife and Religious Studies, in 1993. A student of Don Yoder, he was profoundly influenced by Yoder's approach to religious folklife. Leonard taught at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of Pennsylvania, and as Professor of Religious Studies at Cabrini College and University from 1993 until 2021. His regularly offered courses included the history of Christianity, American Catholicism, American religion and religious movements, vernacular religion, and a popular course called “The Search for Meaning.”A master of the scholarly article, Leonard published extensively on a variety of topics in religious folklife. His most significant theoretical contribution to folklore studies was the concept of “vernacular religion,” intended as a necessary corrective to what he saw as a history of disparagement of unofficial religious praxis through the use of terms such as “folk religion” and “religious folklore,” presented in the article “Vernacular Religion and the Search for Method in Religious Folklife” (Western Folklore, 1995). Both a methodology and a theoretical orientation, vernacular religion takes seriously the experiences and perceptions of individual believers, while balancing them with an empathic scholarly perspective that situates them within their cultural and performative context. Leonard's scholarship changed the landscape of the folkloristic study of religion by successfully shifting the terminology used by many folklorists in reference to religious practice, and ushering in a spate of studies focused on individual religious practice and experience.Leonard became an authority on Father Divine's International Peace Mission Movement, from which he learned the greeting he came to use in all his presentations, contacts, and correspondence: “Peace!” Often accompanied by some of his students from Cabrini, he spent many Sundays at their headquarters in the Woodmont estate outside of Philadelphia, enjoying the lavish meals prepared by the brethren. He was an avid collector of popular religious art; his home and office were crammed with a bricolage of sacred objects from a variety of religious traditions. He curated several exhibits based on his collections, including Graces Received: Painted and Metal Ex-Votos from Italy at the John D. Calandra Institute's Manhattan Gallery (September 2011–January 2012) and The Religious Mind: The Art of Science, Religion, and Healing at Cabrini College (January 14–February 21, 2010). He developed Cabrini College's Religious Folk, Popular, Liturgical Arts Collection, beginning with the acquisition of The Don Yoder Collection of Religious Folk Art in 2006.For many years, Leonard chaired the Department of Religious Studies at Cabrini, which he grew and developed to be more diverse, all while carrying a four-course teaching load standard at the small Catholic university. He genuinely loved teaching, and was beloved by his students, many of whom recall the way he held them to high standards while building their confidence and opening them up to new ideas and perspectives. He headed the Honors Program at Cabrini and received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award and prestigious Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award in 2014. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Leonard was elected Fellow of the American Folklore Society and served on the Society's Executive Board from 2010–2013. He also co-chaired the Folk Belief and Religious Folklife section of the Society, as well as the Folklore and Religion Seminar of the American Academy of Religion.As fulsome as this portrait of his professional achievements is, it does not capture the essence of Leonard as a person, colleague, and friend. He was truly an original. He had a cherubic face and youthful demeanor that made him appear as an eternal altar boy in horn rims with a mischievous grin. He had a rare combination of sincere devotion and the ability to step back from his own religious beliefs to see them in perspective. He was endlessly curious about other religions, as well as about people in general, never hesitating to ask penetrating questions, both in his research and in discussions with colleagues. A man of caustic wit, he was nonetheless disarmingly charming, with a knack for using his charm to persuade his friends to do his will. He possessed an insatiable appetite for life, foodways, and shopping; he was always elegantly attired, with a penchant for dapper ties, pocket squares, and matching socks. Whenever we went shopping together, he would inevitably choose the most expensive of the items I was looking at and announce: “It's fabulous on you; you should buy it.” As a lover of the arts, Leonard patronized the opera and the symphony. One of my favorite memories is of going with him to Walt Disney Concert Hall to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic directed by Esa-Pekka Salonen. As he sat in a state of ecstasy, letting the music wash over him, he remarked on how like a cathedral the building was, and how the performance was for him another kind of religious experience. My conference companion, counterpart, co-conspirator, and collaborator: I shall miss him terribly. He goes forth shining; what is remembered lives.