St. Leonhard's International English-Speaking Catholic Parish was officially recognized as a parish of the Diocese of Limburg, Germany, on 1st December 1995. In its short history, the parish has evolved into a true international community. People from more than fifty nations gather each week to celebrate the Liturgy in St. Leonhard's Church (founded in 1219) in the heart of the City of Frankfurt.


History of our church building
The building that is currently St. Leonhard's Church has developed over the centuries from an initial Romanesque chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. George, built under a 15th August, 1219 decree by Emperor Friedrich II granting the site for a chapel near Frankfurt's grain market (Kornmarkt). The first document indicating the name of a clergyman is one from 1259 mentioning a curate named Reinhold. The church was administered as part of the overall Parish of St. Bartholomew (Frankfurt's Cathedral, or Dom), similar to its status today.

A collegiate chapter associated with the church in 1317 obtained a relic of St. Leonard in 1323, with the help of an Abbot Mauritius of the Scots Monastery in Vienna and his doctor, Heinrich of Wiener-Neustadt. It is thought that the relic was obtained because of the Frankfurt church's role as a way station on a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain; St. Leonard's burial place at St. Leonard-de-Noblat in France played a similar role. Eventually, St. Leonard (Leonhard) supplanted the Virgin Mary and St. George as the church's main patron saint. A 1989 sculpture by Franziska Lenz-Gerharz depicting three figures, one pointing upward, stands in the church courtyard in commemoration of its place on the pilgrimage route.

The church is located near the Buchgasse, where Frankfurt's book fair took place during the late Middle Ages. The building's current Gothic design emerged in the 1400s and 1500s, including the north aisle, which leads left from the church's current entrance to a chapel that houses a baptismal font. Romanesque portals, one of which is walled up, form the right side of the aisle.

The portal that visitors pass through from the north aisle to enter the main part of the church dates from 1220; sculpted figures in the archway include Jesus seated on a throne in the center, the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist to the left and St. Peter and the church's patron St. George to the right. The walled-in portal further to the left is decorated with another image of St. John, this time symbolizing the church's role as a way station for pilgrims visiting Santiago. The excavated base of the portal shows how St. Leonhard's floor was raised in the 19th Century in an engineering project to preserve it from flooding by the nearby River Main.

The building's role shifted during and after the Reformation. The city council in 1533 banned Catholic Masses in all of Frankfurt's churches until the Interim of Augsburg revoked the ban in 1548. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, another collegiate chapter, the Obermockstadt in Upper Hesse, alternated with the original St. Leonhard chapter to celebrate Mass.

When Swedish forces occupied Frankfurt in 1631 to 1635 during the Thirty Years War, St. Leonhard's was the only church where the Catholic Mass was permitted rather than Protestant services. The building was at times in the 1600s used as a warehouse for the book fair; in the late 1700s it was used as an ammunition magazine. In between, however, it hosted a thriving Catholic parish, revived especially by immigrants from Italy.

During the Secularization campaign of the early 1800s, St. Leonhard's and other churches in what is today downtown Frankfurt became municipal property, a status the buildings still hold. The church was nearly knocked down and replaced by a stock exchange; the plan was blocked by Karl Theodor von Dalberg, Prince Primate of the Confederation of the Rhine and Grand Duke of Frankfurt. Mass was reintroduced in 1809 by the former dean of the now dissolved chapter, Bishop Suffragan Kolborn.

Many of the furnishings (including altarpieces) now in the building were acquired during the 1800s, donated by von Dalberg or purchased by the pastor of the St. Bartholomew-St. Leonard parish in the middle of that century, Father Müenzenberger. Items of special interest include, on the left, the Mary Altar, a late Gothic Flemish work depicting the life of Mary and crowned by a statue of St. Leonard; on the right, the Crucifixion Altar, believed to have been built in Lower Saxony in about 1520; the High Altar, probably built in Bavarian Swabia in 1500 and featuring Swabian patron St. Ullrich and a range of other saints; and, at the end of the so-called river aisle on the south side of the church, a painting depicting St. Leonard liberating prisoners from the early 1800s by Munich court painter Joseph Stieler. Stained glass windows behind the High Altar range in date from the 1420s to the 1800s.

During the bombing of Frankfurt by Allied forces in World War II, a phosphor bomb came through the roof; a quick-thinking nun, Sister Margarita of the Franciscan Order in Erlenbad, is said to have cleaned up the fuel with bucket and mop before it ignited. Most of the artworks had been removed to the countryside for safekeeping and survived; however, many windows were broken and have since replaced by the modern works -- designed by Professor Ludwig Schaffrath of Stuttgart -- seen today on the south, west and north sides of the building. The most recent window was installed behind the organ and dedicated in November 2002.

Further details of the St. Leonhard Church building's history and art works can be found in the English Edition of the St. Leonhard FRANKFURT brochure, written by Matthias Theodor Kloft and translated by Katherine Vanovitch and the source of most of the information in this paper. The brochure, published by Verlag Schnell & Steiner GmbH Regensburg, is available in the back of the church.

Who was Saint Leonhard?
St. Leonard of Limousin, whose name is spelled "Leonhard" in German, lived in the late 400s and early 500s in what is now France. Little is known of his life. Legends say that Leonard was part of a noble Frankish family under King Clovis, the first king of France, and St. Remy of Rhiems was his godfather. One version of his biography says that when Clovis was baptized – the event which led to France becoming a Christian nation – Leonard was as well.

The saint chose prisoners as his ministry and is said to have arranged with King Clovis to be allowed to free those he deemed to be deserving. He preached in Limoges, which at the time was predominantly pagan, and people began following him. One tale says that detainees' chains were broken when they prayed for his intercession, and those released would come to him carrying the broken links. He eventually founded a monastery at Noblac (now called St. Leonard), near Limoges, after the local king gave him land in thanks for prayers that helped the queen through a difficult delivery. The 1999 edition of the Catholic Encyclopaedia says that "no trace" of veneration of St. Leonard is found until after the year 1000.

St. Leonhard Church in Frankfurt received its name after it served as a way station for pilgrims journeying via Noblac to Santiago de Compostela in the Middle Ages. (See also "History of our church building"). November 6 is St. Leonard's feast day, commemorating the date of his death.

Information for this page came from the following sources:

Last updated : 29th June 2008.
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