LEONE I, POPE, called THE GREAT, saint. – He is the first Pope to whom posterity rightly attributed the title of Great: his was one of the longest and most glorious pontificates recorded by history (440–61). Benedict XIV proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church on 15 October 1754.
The Liber Pontificalis calls him «nazione Tuscus», and from this adjective it was inferred that he was born in Volterra, where the cult of this Pope is ancient and widespread; but most historians consider him a native of Rome, relying on a passage from the Epistola XXXI, 4, and another from the Cronaca di Prospero (PL 51, 748), in which Rome is called his homeland, although some believe that patria here has a metaphorical meaning. The most probable opinion is that L. was born in Rome to a family originating in Etruria. Since he was elected pope in 440, his birth must be placed toward the end of the fourth century. He almost certainly studied in the Roman schools, where he had the opportunity to become skilled in the use of polished and harmonious Latin and to acquire a broad theological culture.
Having entered the Roman clergy, he was ordained a deacon and, through his learning and his ability in the conduct of affairs, became one of the most authoritative members of the papal court.
In 430 he urged Cassian to write a work on the Incarnation to refute the errors of Nestorius. Cassian obeyed and, in the preface, called L. the pride of the Roman Church and of the ecclesiastical ministry. The following year, Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, addressed himself to him in order to thwart the ambitious designs of John, patriarch of Jerusalem (cf. Epist., CXIX, 4). In 439 he frustrated the attempts of the Pelagian bishop Julian of Eclanum to be readmitted to his episcopal see. Moreover, he was, if not the author, at least the inspirer of the work De vocatione omnium gentium, attributed by the majority of critics to Prosper of Aquitaine.
When a dispute broke out in 439 between the Roman generals Aetius and Albinus, which threatened to degenerate into a disastrous civil war, L. was sent by the emperor Valentinian III to Gaul to reconcile the two rivals. While he was successfully carrying out his mission, Pope Sixtus III died, and the clergy and people of Rome, unanimously, called him to the pontifical throne. Contemporary chroniclers note that, whereas papal elections had at times given rise to prolonged disputes, L.’s took place «mirabili pace», and that with equal «mirabili patientia» the Roman people waited a full forty days for his return from Gaul. On 29 September 440 the deacon L. was consecrated bishop of Rome and supreme pontiff. L.’s activity during his pontificate was directed principally toward preserving the integrity and purity of the faith by combating the various heresies, reorganizing and strengthening ecclesiastical organization, supervising the conduct of clergy and faithful, and establishing regulations concerning the administration of property and liturgical functions. His letters and sermons remain testimony to this grand activity and are also a first-rate historical source.
Because of the invasion of Africa by the Vandals, many Manichaeans had taken refuge in Italy, and a number of them were discovered in Rome. The Pope began to combat them with the utmost energy. He obtained an imperial rescript which, renewing the ancient edicts, placed the Manichaeans under ban throughout the Empire; in his sermons he fought their doctrines; he promoted a strict investigation into their meetings, and serious scandals came to light. In a circular letter (Epist., VII) he informed the Italian bishops of what had occurred and exhorted them to ensure that the evil plant of Manichaeism, uprooted in Rome, did not take root elsewhere.
The doctrines of the heretic Priscillian were spreading widely in Spain. Bishop Turibius informed the Pope, who, in a lengthy letter (Epist., XV), refuted the errors of the Priscillianists and set forth the true Catholic doctrine with precision and clarity.
L. also intervened effectively against the heresy of Pelagius, both by having its errors refuted and by inviting the bishop of Aquileia to convene a synod to investigate priests infected with Pelagianism.
Most of L.’s activity was devoted to combating the Eutychian or Monophysite heresy, which admitted only one nature in the Redeemer. Eutyches, after being condemned, appealed to the Pope and the Emperor. The latter proposed convening a council at Ephesus to settle the question. At this assembly, which L. branded with the name «latrocinium Ephesinum», Eutyches, through the devious intervention of the imperial envoys, was rehabilitated. L. protested. Meanwhile, the emperor Theodosius II, Eutyches’ protector, died, and the devout empress Pulcheria succeeded to the throne. L. obtained the convocation of a new ecumenical council at Chalcedon. There the errors of Eutyches were condemned, and a profession of faith was issued affirming the existence in Christ of two natures, the divine and the human, in one person. The Pope’s letter to the patriarch of Constantinople, commonly called the Tomus ad Flavianum, was accepted in its entirety by the Fathers of the Council, who acknowledged that «through the mouth of L. Peter had spoken». It has always enjoyed great authority in both East and West, and the bishops of Gaul, writing to the Pope, stated that they accepted it as a symbol of faith.
The collections of Decretals have also preserved several of L.’s letters, which reveal his vigilant and solicitous care in correcting the abuses that were infiltrating ecclesiastical organization.
Bishops were elected by the clergy and the people; some bishops attempted to designate their own successors; in time this could have transformed the dioceses into a number of more or less hereditary minor princedoms. L. intervened energetically to put an end to this abuse. He also intervened to condemn irregular elections of priests elected bishops against their will or imposed by force. The Council of Nicaea had established that every bishop should remain for life in the see to which he had been elected. Some Spanish bishops had attempted to have themselves transferred from a humbler see to a richer one. Here too L. intervened and decreed that a bishop who, despising his own town, sought to obtain a larger see should have neither one nor the other.
He defended with unyielding firmness the rights of the Church of Rome against the claims of the patriarchs of Constantinople; he threatened the Sicilian bishops who had alienated ecclesiastical property with severe punishment; he prohibited one bishop from taking a cleric away from another bishop and ordered the metropolitans to gather the bishops of the province in synod twice a year. He displayed an equal firmness of energy toward Hilary, bishop of Arles, a certainly pious and zealous man who had nevertheless on occasion gone beyond the bounds of prudence in his zeal. He issued regulations concerning the administration of Baptism, Holy Orders, Penance, and Matrimony.
The most glorious episode of L.’s pontificate was his meeting with Attila. The king of the Huns had unleashed his hordes against the Western Roman Empire, advancing as far as the heart of Gaul. Defeated by the Roman general Aetius and the Visigoths, commanded by Theodoric, in the summer of 451, he had withdrawn into Pannonia.
There, having reorganized his forces, in the spring of the following year, and having crossed the Julian Alps, imprudently left undefended by Ezio, he advanced to plunder the Po Valley and from there move against Rome. After destroying Aquileia, he had taken up position near Mantua and was sending his hordes to occupy the principal cities of northern Italy. Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo, Pavia, and even Milan had fallen into his power. The imperial court and the Roman citizens were prey to the darkest terror and deepest despair. In this grievous circumstance, the emperor Valentinian III, the Senate, and the Roman people found no better course than to send an embassy headed by L. to negotiate with the king of the Huns. L. accepted the difficult mission and, together with the senators Gennadius, Avienus, and Trigetius, departed from Rome “confident,” as Prosper of Aquitaine says, “in the help of Heaven, which never abandons the good in their misfortunes.”
Contemporary chroniclers assert that Attila showed himself very pleased and full of joy at the coming of the Supreme Priest, head of the Roman Church, who, having left his see, had gone to him.
The Thracian historian Priscus, who was then in the Huns’ camp, says that Attila and his court were seized by great terror as they recalled the sudden end of the Gothic king stalarico after the capture of Rome; it was feared that Attila might be struck by divine wrath if he plundered the Holy City. It may with great probability be conjectured that this was one of the arguments which L.’s eloquence employed to induce the “Scourge of God” to abandon his plan of marching against Rome. Be that as it may, the certain fact is that, immediately after his meeting with the Pope, Attila ordered his forces to cease all hostilities against the regions of northern Italy. Moreover, having promised to conclude a peace with the emperor, he withdrew beyond the Danube.
Having landed at Porto after crossing the African shores, he set out for Rome. The Emperor, the court, the magistrates, and the aristocrats abandoned the city. In this terrible circumstance as well, the Roman people turned to the Pope. L. obtained from Genseric a promise that no blood would be shed, that no Roman citizen would be killed or tortured, and that no building would be set on fire.
The Roman plebs, terrified and weeping, took refuge in the churches of Rome, while the Vandals plundered public buildings and private dwellings. The sack lasted three weeks, from 1 to 28 June, the eve of the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul. On that day Genseric, taking with him as a prisoner the unhappy Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III, and an immense quantity of precious objects, embarked to return to Africa.
In memory of Rome’s liberation from the fires and massacres of the Vandals, it was established that a solemn ceremony of penance and thanksgiving to the apostles Peter and Paul should be celebrated each year. The initiative, however, was not always observed. A discourse of L. has come down to us in which the Pope reproaches the Roman people because, forgetful of the past troubles and the graces they had received, on the anniversary of the sack of Rome they had preferred to attend some extraordinary games being held in the circus rather than go to the basilica of the Holy Apostles.
Perhaps no figure of the fifth century had, like L., a full awareness that the political and military power of imperial Rome was now inexorably moving toward its decline; yet at the same time no one possessed, like this steadfast Pope, such firm confidence and such a clear vision that a new Rome was arising, whose empire would be much broader and more glorious than that of antiquity. The new Christian Rome, founded by the apostles Peter and Paul, was by divine will taking the place of the ancient pagan Rome, founded by Romulus and Remus. This theme is the predominant motif of a group of sermons delivered on the occasion of the solemn commemoration of SS. Peter and Paul.
L. is the first pope whose sermons have survived. His is a calm and dignified eloquence, though not lacking in lyrical flights and vivid images. The discourse proceeds in a serene and affectionate tone, but at the same time a firm and solemn one. The period unfolds in a series of propositions with sonorous cadence and sometimes with rhyme and assonance. L. is the most classical and elegant writer of his century, because in his discourses and letters he succeeded in bringing together the firmness and dignity of the ancient Roman with the affability and piety of the Christian bishop. His writings are of particular importance for the study of relations between Church and State and for the primacy of the Roman See. Some prayers of the Leonine Sacramentary, whose Roman origin is certain, certainly go back to L., revealing affinities of language and style with his authentic works.
L. died on 10 November 461 and was buried in the portico of the basilica of St. Peter. In 688, Pope Sergius I transferred his body into the interior of the Basilica, placing on the tomb an epitaph that has come down to us. His ashes now rest beneath the altar of the chapel dedicated to him in the new basilica of St. Peter. His feast falls on 11 April in the West and on 18 February in the East.
Studi: V. specialmente: H. Grisar, Analecta Romana, Roma 1901, V. indice; id., Roma alla fine del mondo antico, nuova ed., ivi 1930, V. indice; H. Gentzeny, Stil und Form der ältesten Papstbriefe bis auf Leo d. G., Tubinga 1901; L. Sallet, Lerecueil patristique de st Léon, in Revue d'hist. ecclés., 6 (1905), pp. 290-14 e 301-303; Th. Steeger, Die Klauseltechnik Leos d. G. in seinen Sermonen, Hassfurt 1908; A. Regnier, St Léon le Grand, Parigi 1910; A. Wille, Bischof Julian von Kios, der Nunzius Leos in Konst., Kempten 1910; C. Turner, The Collection of the dogmatic letters of st Leo, in Miscellanea Ceriani, Milano 1910, pp. 687-95; J. Pachmadt, Leo d. Gr. als Prediger, Elberfeld 1912; R. Galli, S. L. M., in Didakhaleion, nuova serie, 9 (1930), pp. 51-235; C. Silva-Tarouca, Nuovi studi sulle antiche lettere dei papi, Roma 1932, pp. 94-186; L. Prestige, The greek translation of the Tome of st. Leo, in Journ. of theol. Studies, 32 (1930), pp. 182-84; P. Mouterde, Les versions syriaques du Tome de st Léon, in Mélanges de l'Université de St-Joseph, Beyrut 1932, pp. 119-66; P. Santini, Il primato e l'infallibilità del romano pontefice in s. L. M. e gli scrittori greco-russi, Grottaferrata 1936; C. Silva-Tarouca, La tradizione manoscritta del Tomas Leonis, in Studi dedicati alla memoria di P. Ubaldi, Milano 1937, pp. 151-70; F. Di Capua, Il ritmo prosaico nella lettera dei papi e nei documenti della Cancelleria romana. I: S. L., Roma 1937; W. I. Halliwell, The style of pape st. Leo, Washington 1939; M. Pellegrino, La dottrina del corpo mistico in s. L. M., in La scuola cattolica, 1939, pp. 611-615; P. Brezzi, S. L. M., Roma 1945. Francesco Di Capua
ICONOGRAPHY. – Among the earliest known representations of L. M. are those found in S. Maria Antiqua (8th century). He is also represented in the scene of his meeting with Attila. The most famous is Raphael’s in the Vatican Stanze.
The Pope, riding a white steed in all the splendor of his dignity and with an intrepid bearing, confronts the barbarian captain, preventing him from entering Rome and violating the sacred tombs of the Apostles. The encounter takes place among armed troops, against the backdrop of a romantic reconstruction of the monuments of the imperial city and its ruins: in the stormy sky, torn by sudden flashes of light, s. Peter and s. Paul appear miraculously, striking terror into the ranks of the Huns. Through this pictorial representation, Leone X intended to celebrate, more than his predecessor, his own political virtue and his victory over the French at Novara in 1513. The same event, besides being depicted in a stained-glass window in the choir of the cathedral of Freiburg im Breisgau, executed through a bequest from Charles V, is represented in the Palazzo Rosa of Amelia (16th century) and by Algardì in a relief of 1648 on the tomb of L. M. in S. Pietro.