As a man of doctrine, he ably harmonized the West with the East, giving the Church its universal character. A Pontiff convinced of his mission, he defended the true Faith, certain that his works were fruit of the abundance of Christ’s grace.
Among all the animals, the lion merits the undisputed title of king. His presence imposes respect and his overpowering strength, which defies intimidation, assures his supremacy in both savannah and jungle. He is also considered a symbol of loyalty; he faces the fight for survival head on and with pride. This is a reminder of how the perfect ordering of nature consists in each creature fulfilling the end for which it was created.
These characteristics of the king of the beasts turn our minds to higher truths, of which they are but a pale reflection. Through the image of the lion, God wanted us to grasp something of His grandeur and infinite power. But when divine majesty is reflected, not in an irrational creature, but in a human being distinguished by grace, the reflection is incomparably more sublime and fills souls with awe.
We experience this awe in contemplating the figure of a Successor of Peter who reigned in the mid-fifth century, a crucial history epoch, with vicissitudes in the political and dogmatic fields that underscore this Pontiff’s brilliant personality and his gifts for governing and organization. His name—which he kept upon elevation to the Papal throne—portrays in his person “one of the noblest titles of our Divine Resurrected One”:1 Leo [lion], the great defender of the Church.
He was the first Pope to use this name. “He chose it because he felt an interior breath of the Holy Spirit that compelled him to choose everything that was grand. He liked great things and he knew exactly how to harmonize various currents and to defend the Church outstandingly.”2
The stability of the Church rests upon an unshakeable rock
It was the year 440 when Pope St. Sixtus III died suddenly. The conclave gathered, and Leo, Archdeacon of the Roman Church and Pontifical councillor, was elected to succeed him. At this time, he was already highly admired and esteemed for “his theological wisdom, his magnificent eloquence and his diplomatic expertise.”3 However, at the moment of his election, he was in Gaul as papal delegate, and had to make the slow journey across the Alps to arrive in Rome for his installation on September 29, amid manifestations of joy and goodwill from the clergy and the people.
His acclaimers could not foresee the great struggles and difficulties that would assail him during his 21-year pontificate. St. Leo would confront the fury of invading hordes bent on conquering Europe and Rome, as well as the treachery of heresies, no less dangerous to the Church, while maintaining the certainty that her stability rests upon an unshakeable rock, which is not the natural virtue of any Pontiff, but the promise of Christ to Peter, when the latter expressed Faith in His divinity and received the Papacy from His hands.
In a homily referring to his ascension to the Petrine Chair, some years later, he proclaimed this conviction with a powerful voice, and deep feeling: “Whatever devoted and vigorous action we desire to do, we are found both weak and slothful in fulfilling the duties of our office, because we are hindered by the frailty of our very condition; yet with the the unceasing aid of the Almighty and perpetual Priest Who, being like us and yet equal with the Father, brought down His Godhead even to things human, and raised His Manhood even to things Divine, we worthily and piously rejoice over His determination, whereby, though He has delegated the care of His sheep to many shepherds, yet He has not Himself abandoned the guardianship of His beloved flock. And from His ruling and eternal protection we have received the support of the Apostles’ aid also, which assuredly does not cease from its operation: and the strength of the foundation, on which the whole superstructure of the Church is reared, is not weakened by the weight of the temple that rests upon it. […]. For throughout the Church Peter daily says, ‘Thou art Christ, Son of the living God,’ and every tongue that confesses the Lord accepts the instruction his voice conveys. This Faith […] uproots us from this earth and plants us in Heaven, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. For with such solidity is it endued by God that the depravity of heretics cannot mar it nor the unbelief of the heathen overcome it.”4
Defender of the Church against heresies
Those times saw the spreading of various heresies which threatened the unity of the Mystical Body by confusing and dragging down many souls lacking vigilance. Northern Africa became infested with Arians, Donatists and Manicheans, many of whom sought refuge from the Vandal invasions in Italy. At the same time, the Priscillianists, who had spread their ideology in Spain by the end of the fourth century, were multiplying despite condemnation by the Council of Toledo in 400.
However, the worst enemy to emerge was from the East. The echoes of the pernicious doctrine of Nestorius—which “saw two persons placed side by side in Christ, united externally and morally”5—had still not been totally silenced when Eutyches, the Archimandrite of a monastery of Constantinople, began defending the opposite error. According to him, there was in Jesus Christ “only one nature composed of divinity and humanity,”6 the reason for which his followers called themselves Monophysites.
Against these adversaries, St. Leo did justice to his name, “intervening in various circumstances with caution, firmness and lucidity through his writings and legates. In this manner he showed how exercising the Roman Primacy was as necessary then as it is today to effectively serve communion, a characteristic of Christ’s one Church.”7
Becoming aware of the presence of the Manicheans in Rome, he hastened to warn the flock entrusted to his safekeeping, exhorting them to vigilance in his preaching. St. Leo also wrote a letter against the Priscillianists to St. Turibius, Bishop of Astorga, denouncing the principal errors of this nefarious sect.
Peter has spoken through the mouth of Leo!
His greatest victory in the dogmatic field, however, was the decisive condemnation of the doctrinal deviations of Eutyches, who, under the cloak of anti-Nestorian orthodoxy, found wide acceptance among the people. As St. Paul himself had already written to the Corinthians, “there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized” (1 Cor 11:19). The Monophysite deceptions also stimulated the clear and brilliant definition of the Christological doctrine of the union of two natures, human and divine, in the one Person of the Word.
In the famous letter addressed to Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople, St. Leo affirmed: “Thus in the whole and perfect nature of true man was true God born, complete in what was His own, complete in what was ours. […] For He who is true God is also true man: and in this union there is no falsity, since the humility of manhood and the loftiness of the Godhead meet therein. […] For each nature does what is proper to it with the cooperation of the other; that is, the Word performing what appertains to the Word, and the flesh, what appertains to the flesh. One of them shines with miracles, the other succumbs to injuries. And as the Word does not cease to be on an equality with His Father’s glory, so the flesh does not forego the nature of our race.”8
This document, beautiful for its theological purity and its superb literary style, was proclaimed in the Council of Chalcedon, convoked in 451 to settle the question. At the end of the reading, the Bishops present united in “an eloquent acclamation. Information on it has been preserved in the proceedings of the Council: ‘Peter has spoken through the mouth of Leo,’ the Council Fathers announced in unison.”9
“In this debate, which placed the Faith of the Church at stake, St. Leo’s merit was in giving a precise formulation to the traditional dogma, which brought an immediate end to the ambiguities so prejudicial to orthodoxy. […] Uniting Tradition with the infallible charism of the Roman Pontiff, St. Leo enunciated in simple terms the formula of Faith, which the Fathers of Chalcedon adopted right away: there are in Christ two complete natures, and only one Person.”10
A “lion” against pagan barbarism
No sooner had he defeated the perversity of the heresy that sought to undermine the Church, than a wave of pagan barbarism began advancing in a whirlwind of fire, blood and devastation in the north of Italy. Attila, the terrible ruler of the Huns, the “scourge of God”, had crossed the Alps, taken Milan and Pavia, and was camped in Mantua, with the way open to attack Rome, where a terrified population awaited, abandoned by their rulers, incapable of offering defence. The hope for the Urbe and the entire Peninsula rested on the shoulders of the Vicar of Christ. Now he would not be wielding the sword of speech to confound heretics, but rather putting his own life at risk to save his flock.
St. Leo resolutely set out, followed by some cardinals and the principal members of the Roman clergy. Clothed in the pontifical insignia, on a humble mount, he appeared before Attila and demanded an end of the war of pillage and devastation. Against all human hope, the barbarian received this aged man who came to him with neither arms nor soldiers with fearful respect. He promised to live in peace with the Empire by means of a small annual tribute, and turned back. Later, asked by his warriors about the baffling change of plan, the “scourge of God” replied: “While he was speaking to me, I saw, standing as his side, a Pontiff of superhuman majesty. From his eyes streamed rays of light, and he held in his hand an unsheathed sword; his frightful gaze and his threatening demeanour commanded me to grant everything that the messenger of the Romans asked.”11
It is not known what the holy Pope said to the barbarian chief. According to the account of a contemporary chronicler, he “abandoned himself to divine assistance, which is never lacking in the endeavours of the just, and his faith was crowned with success.”12 From the heights of Heaven, St. Peter favoured his successor’s mission, confirming it by a miracle. “This important event soon became memorable and lives on as an emblematic sign of the Pontiff’s action for peace.”13 The victory was celebrated with pomp and solemnity in Rome and, as a perpetual act of gratitude, St. Leo ordered that the bronze statue of the Capitoline Jupiter be melted down and used to make a large statue of the Apostle Peter, which until today is venerated in the Vatican Basilica.
Three years later, when Genseric, king of the Vandals, arrived at the gates of the Eternal City, it was once again this holy shepherd who saved it, persuading the invader to neither burn it nor shed any blood.
A gentle and generous Shepherd
St. Leo dedicated the final years of his life to the organization of ecclesiastical discipline, preaching and perfecting the Liturgy. It was he who added to the Canon of the Mass the words: Sanctum sacrificium (holy sacrifice), and Immaculatam Hostiam (immaculate Host), which unmistakably attest to his theological sense and intense devotion to the Eucharistic Mystery. He restored ancient basilicas, erected new temples and donated rich vessels for the celebrations.
Great in every aspect of his pontificate, St. Leo was also the same in charity, as demonstrated by his gentle care for the flock entrusted to him by the Holy Spirit and by his generosity in distributing alms among the needy.
On November 10, 461, surrounded by the love of his faithful, he surrendered his noble soul to God, leaving to posterity an unrivalled example of integrity and zeal for the House of the Lord.
The golden key is more powerful
A man of doctrine, writings and eloquent oration, he ably harmonized the West with the East, giving the Church its universal character. A figure with an incomparable personality, he helped to reinforce the primacy of the See of Rome, thanks to the prestige and authority of his persona. A Pontiff convinced of his mission, he defended the true Faith, certain that his works were not a result of his human capacity, but rather the abundance of Christ’s grace.
Such was St. Leo I, known as the Great, due to the majestic sanctity with which he distinguished himself throughout his life, leaving future centuries a powerful lesson: the flesh is of no avail before the spirit (cf. Jn 6:63). No matter what circumstances of affliction or trial the Holy Church must undergo, the spiritual power given to Peter by Jesus will always make the truth shine forth and finally triumph. Of the two keys that adorn the pontifical tiara, one of silver and one of gold—symbols of the temporal and spiritual power—the most powerful is that of gold: “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!” (Mt 16:18). ◊
