A Holy Lion of the Fifth Century

At every Mass in our church we hear the names of St Mungo and St Leo. Most people know that Mungo was an important figure in the early church in Glasgow, that the city’s medieval cathedral is dedicated to him and that his tomb is believed to be in its crypt. But who was St Leo the Great?

Leo (pope from 440 to 461) was probably born in Rome and before becoming pope was both a churchman and a diplomat in the service of the Roman emperor; he was elected pope when he was on a mission for the emperor to Gaul, modern France. The empire was at this period in turmoil, invaded by barbarians and in danger of collapse, so men with Leo’s diplomatic skill were sorely needed and kept busy.

That skill was needed by the Church, too, - the barbarians were not Christians, and would plunder and persecute it as readily as they would anything else in the empire. In 452, Pope Leo was asked to go to northern Italy by the emperor to negotiate with Attila the Hun, one of the most feared invaders of the empire, and he succeeded in persuading him to retreat from Italy. Three years later, he was less successful in negotiating outside Rome with another invading army, the Vandals (the ferocious people from whom we get our word vandalism). They looted Rome and many of its churches, but at least Leo secured an undertaking that the lives of the Romans would be spared.

We can already see one of Leo’s basic aims, to avoid war and the human suffering which comes with it, and to work for peace and harmony. In one of his sermons he wrote that peacemakers have to be united not just in friendship but in true love of God and of each other, so that when all strife and trials are ended they may rest in God’s perfect peace.

As pope, Leo was convinced that he had inherited as the successor St Peter the right and duty of upholding unity within the Church. He live dat a time when the Church’s unity was threatened by theological disputes which could have torn it apart, and during his lifetime two General Councils of the Church were called (at Ephesus in 431 and Chalcedon in in 451, both in modern Turkey) to discuss and settle them. By 451 Leo had been pope for eleven years, and though the emperor convened the council of Chalcedon and Leo did not attend it in person he sent five legates from Rome to represent him, and played a decisive part in restoring the Church’s unity. The best known story about Leo is that when his statement about Catholic doctrine was read out at the council it was accepted enthusiastically by the 500-600 bishops present who applauded and exclaimed, ‘the voice of Peter has spoken through Leo!’

Though Leo was determined to uphold and extend papal authority, he did so not just by issuing commands but also by the moral authority and wise judgement he displayed. He was so trusted that the bishops from East and West brought their difficulties and disputes to him in the confidence that the pope would use his authority to restore mutual love, harmony and agreement between them.

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Further Links on the Internet on St Leo

Biography

Biography

St Leo the Great on Lent

A Homily on the Beatitudes

 

See if you can find more links of interest and email us with them.