Letter to the Editor Did Saint Leonard suffer from Madura foot at the time of death? Infectious disease diagnosis by paleo-proteotyping Leonard was one of the most renowned saints during the Western Middle Ages. His biography, written in the 11th century, reports that he was a noble man converted to Christianity by Saint Remi, in 496, therefore at the same time as Clovis, one of the oldest kings of France. 1 Leonardo obtained from his sovereign the right to visit and possibly release the prisoners he deemed worthy of release, at any time. And it is because he freed a large number of prisoners that he became the patron saint of prisoners. Clovis offers him to be elevated to the dignity of bishop, but he refuses, and enters the Saint-Mesmin abbey of Micy near Orléans, in central France. Then he became a hermit in the forests of Limousin, further south, where a large number of disciples came to join him. Clovis asks him to pray so that his wife gives birth to a male to whom the throne can be passed. and it was indeed a boy to whom she gave birth; to thank him, the sovereign offered him land in Noblat, where he founded an abbey, around which a village (Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat) was established. Always very close to the community of prisoners, Leonardo was joined by those who escaped-sometimes with miraculous helpand worked alongside him to drain the swamps or domesticate the woods and fields.