LEANDRO da DIGIONE. — Capuchin preacher and writer, of the province of Lyon, born at Dijon around 1598, died there in 1667. He was superior at Tournon (1627–30), at Lyon (1633, 1659–60), and provincial definitor (1644–64).
He was the spiritual director of the Lyonnais mystic J. Cretenet, founder of the missionary priests of St Joseph. A theologian of humanistic inclination, following the school of s. Francesco di Sales, in the discourses Les vertés de l'Évangile ou l'idée de l'amour divin exprimée dans l'intelligence cachée du Cantique des Cantiques (2 vols., Paris 1661–62), he presents in vernacular form the question of the soul’s love for God, treating various theological, ascetical, and moral subjects; in the Discursus praedicabies in aureus sententiis Doctoris Gentium (ibid. 1665), he deals especially with the love of God, perfection, and the soul’s affection for Christ through Grace.