St. Leonard of Port Maurice was a Franciscan proponent of the Blessed Sacrament, the devotion of the Sacred Heart, the Stations of the Cross, and the Immaculate Conception.

He was born Leonard Casanova in Port Maurice, Italy in 1676. In 1697 he joined the Franciscans of Strict Observance. He was then ordained a priest in 1703 and began preaching all over Italy.

By 1736 he was attracting huge crowds in Rome and elsewhere and he established almost six hundred Stations of the Cross.

In 1744 he was sent by Pope Benedict XIV to preach on Corsica, and then returned in 1751. Leonard died at his friary in 1751 and is named the patron saint of parish missions.