San Leonardo de Alba de Tormes was a monastery near
Alba de Tormes
Alba de Tormes is a municipality in the province of Salamanca, western Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. The town is on the River Tormes upstream from the city of Salamanca. Alba gave its name to one of Spain's most i ...
in Spain. It was
suppressed in the 19th century.
The date of San Leonardo's foundation is uncertain. It may be referred to in the ''
fuero
(), (), () or () is a Spanish legal term and concept. The word comes from Latin , an open space used as a market, tribunal and meeting place. The same Latin root is the origin of the French terms and , and the Portuguese terms and ; all ...
'' given to Alba de Tormes in 1140, although the latter only mentions a garden named San Leonardo. The monastery was founded as a mixed
Praemonstratensian community of monks and nuns, most likely in 1154 by the
Emperor Alfonso VII. Alfonso granted the lordship of Alba de Tormes to Sancho, the abbot of
Retuerta, the father house of San Leonardo. In 1164 the nuns were removed and the foundation became male-only. In 1168 some monks from San Leonardo left to found the
monastery of La Caridad in
Ciudad Rodrigo
Ciudad Rodrigo () is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population in 2016 of 12,896. It is also the seat of a judicial district.
The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky rise on the right ban ...
. The house of
San Miguel de Groz in Portugal was also a product of San Leonardo until it was absorbed back into it as a dependency in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The convent of
Santa Sofía de Toro was probably a daughter house, since its necrology lists many of the abbots of San Leonardo. One abbot, Fernando, attended the
Council of Basel
The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in ...
in 1434 as part of the Spanish Praemonstratensian delegation.
In 1439, on account of the relaxed discipline prevailing there, San Leonardo was turned over to the
Hieronymites
The Hieronymites, also formally known as the Order of Saint Jerome ( la, Ordo Sancti Hieronymi; abbreviated OSH), is a Catholic cloistered religious order and a common name for several congregations of hermit monks living according to the Rule o ...
by the archbishop
Gutierre Álvarez de Toledo
Gutierre Álvarez de Toledo was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Plasencia (1496–1506). ''(in Latin)'' ''(in Latin)'' He was also appointed as Archbishop of Seville in 1506, but it is unlikely that he ever took possession of th ...
, who was also lord of Alba. Sources disagree whether he was acting on orders from
Pope Eugene IV
Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...
, or on his own initiative. The historian of the Hieronymites,
José de Sigüenza, cited a
papal bull of 2 February 1442 authorising a new foundation with Hieronymites from the monastery of
Montamarta. In 1446 the transfer was confirmed by a bull of
Nicholas IV, now in the national archives. The ceremony was performed by the archdeacon of
Medina
Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the second-holiest city in Islam, and the capital of the ...
on 7 November 1447 in the presence of
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the first count of Alba. Numerous members of the
House of Alba
The House of Alba de Tormes ( es, Casa de Alba de Tormes), commonly known as the House of Alba, is a prominent Spanish noble family that descended from 12th-century nobility of post-conquest Toledo. The family's claim to Alba de Tormes dates fr ...
were eventually buried in San Leonardo.
Notes
Sources
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{{Coord missing, Spain
1154 establishments in Europe
Monasteries in Spain
12th-century establishments in the Kingdom of León