Sainted Leo I the Great, Pope of Rome
Commemorated on February 18
Sainted Leo I the
Great, Pope of Rome (440-461), received an exceedingly fine and diverse
education, which opened for him the possibility of an excellent worldly career.
But his yearning was in the spiritual life, and so he chose the different path
of becoming an archdeacon under holy Pope Sixtus III (432-440) – after whose
death Saint Leo in turn was chosen as Pope of the Roman Church, in September
440. These were difficult times for the Church, when heretics besieged the
bulwarks of Orthodoxy with their tempting false-teachings. Saint Leo combined
within himself a pastoral solicitude and goodness, together with an unshakable
firmness in questions of the confession of the faith. He was in particular one
of the basic defenders of Orthodoxy against the heresies of Eutykhios and
Dioskoros – who taught that there was only one nature in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he was a defender also against the heresy of Nestorius. He exerted
all his influence to put an end to the unrest by the heretics in the Church,
and by his missives to the holy Constantinople emperors Theodosius II (408-450)
and Marcian (450-457) he actively promoted the convening of the Fourth
OEcumenical Council, at Chalcedon in 451, for condemning the heresy of the
Monophysites. At this OEcumenical Council at Chalcedon, at which 630 bishops
were present, there was proclaimed a missive of Saint Leo to the then already
deceased Sainted Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople (447-449). Saint Flavian
had suffered for Orthodoxy under the Ephesus "Robber Council" in the
year 449. In the letter of Saint Leo was posited the Orthodox teaching about
the two natures [the Divine and the human] in the Lord Jesus Christ. And with
this teaching all the bishops present at the Council were in agreement. The
heretics Eutykhios and Dioskoros were excommunicated from the Church.
Saint Leo was
likewise a defender of his fatherland against the incursions of barbarians. In
the year 452, by the persuasive power of his word, he stopped a pillaging of
Italy by the dreadsome leader of the Huns, Attila. And again in the year 455,
when the leader of the Vandals [a Germanic tribe], Henzerich, turned towards
Rome, he boldly persuaded him not to pillage the city, burn buildings, nor
spill blood. He knew about his death beforehand and he prepared himself by
ardent prayer and good deeds, for the passing over from this world into
eternity.
He died in the year
461 and was buried at Rome, in the Vatican cathedral. His literary and
theological legacy is comprised of 96 sermons and 143 letters – of which the
best known is his missive to Saint Flavian.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
