LEANDER OF DIGNONE. – Capuchin preacher and writer, of the Lyon province, born in Dignone c. 1598, died there in 1667. He served as guardian in Tournon (1627–30), in Lyon (1633, 1659–60), and as definitor provincial (1644–64).
He was the spiritual advisor of the Lyonnais mystic J. Cretenet and instructor of the missionary priests of St Joseph. A theologian of humanistic tendency, following the school of St Francis de Sales, in his discourses *Les vérités de l'Evangile ou l'idée de l'amour divin exprimée dans l'intelligence cachée du Cantique des Cantiques* (2 vols., Paris 1661–62), he popularizes the problem of the soul’s love for God by treating various theological, ascetical and moral subjects; in *Discursos praedicaebiles in aureas sententias Doctoris Gentium* (ibid. 1665), he treats in particular of the love of God, of perfection and of union with Christ through grace.