LEO IX, POPE, saint. — Bruno, bishop of Toul, b. 21 June 1002 at Egisheim from the family of the counts of Dagsburg in Alsace, d. 19 April 1054 at Rome. Educated in the Cluniac monastery of St. Evre near Toul, he entered the imperial court. In 1026 he was elected bishop of Toul and consecrated on 9 September 1027. He worked diligently for the spread of the Cluniac monastic reform, especially in the three monasteries of his diocese, namely St. Evre, St. Mansuy, and St. Hidulf of Moyenmoutier in the Vosges (cf. R. Bloch, Die Klosterpolitik Leos IX. in Deutschland, Burgund und Italien, in Archiv für Urkundenforschung, 11 [1930], especially pp. 190-94).
As a prince of the Empire, he was most faithful to Emperor Conrad II and his son Henry III, of whom he was a cousin. Henry III designated him pope at the Diet of Worms in December 1048, but Bruno accepted the tiara only on condition that the clergy and people of Rome canonically elect him. After donning the pilgrim’s habit rather than the pontifical insignia—
LEO IV, POPE, saint. — Portrait of L. IV (with the square nimbus, signum viventis), detail of the fresco depicting the Ascension (847-55) — Rome, church of S. Clemente.
Leo sought to secure Byzantine intervention against the Saracens, even at the cost of diminishing Carolingian influence. On other occasions he asserted the high dignity of the papal office, for example by refusing to recognize Incmar of Reims as apostolic vicar for France and by insisting that the bishop of Ravenna, despite imperial favor, respect the rights of the Holy See. He died on 17 July 855.