Fr. Timothy Leonard was an Irish priest from Ballysimon, Co. Limerick. He went as part of the first group of priests from the

Maynooth Mission to China The Missionary Society of St. Columban ( la, Societas Sancti Columbani pro Missionibus ad Exteros) (abbreviated as S.S.C.M.E. or SSC), commonly known as the Columbans, is a missionary Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right foun ...

in 1920 and he was killed by Communist bandits in July 1929. He was the first Columban Father to be killed on mission. Timothy was born in July 1893 to William a Farmer and his wife Maryanne Leonard, in the parish of Killmurray, Killronan, Ballysimon,

Co. Limerick "Remember Limerick" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Munster , subdivision ...

. He attended Monaleen National School and later as a boarder at

St Munchin's College St. Munchin's College is a second-level education college located in Corbally, Limerick, Ireland. The school was founded in 1796. It is a Diocesan CollegeDiocese of Limerick > Education > Post Primary or minor seminary. College Crest The colle ...

in Limerick.Famous people from Monaleen - Fr Timothy Leonard
/ref> Fr. Leonard studied in

Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth ( ga, Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad), is the "National Seminary for Ireland" (a Roman Catholic college), and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, from Dublin, Ireland. ...

and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Limerick in 1918. In 1928, the Holy See assigned the Columbans a new district in the Province of Kiangsi previously ministered by the Vincentians, Fr. Tim was one of the Columbans who moved to Kiangsi. Two of his brothers Joseph and William also became priests.

Death

In July 1929 after a raid by Communist bandits who had targeted him, as he said mass, he was badly wounded and put 'on trial' before three of the Communists in their twenties who acted as Judges, he was found guilty of being hostile to the people of China, friendly with the Nationalists, and being a foreign spy, he was taken out thrown on the ground and hacked to death,The Red Lacquered Gate
by William E. Barrett his body was found on 18 July.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Timothy 1893 births 1931 deaths Clergy from County Limerick Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Missionary Society of St. Columban