- St Leo the Great, pope of Rome(461)
- Pope Leo was one of the great
bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its
offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but
according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the
archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448,
when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today],
summoned
Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his
teaching that there
was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed
to St Leo in Rome.
After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an
epistle to St Flavian,
setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two
natures, and also
counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error,
he should be
received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in
449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and
which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was
the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military
might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be
read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council
was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches
back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to
the wars of Attila the Hum and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four
delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered
in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of
Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian
was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as
the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also
called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he
reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion).
-
St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila
drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal
vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless
Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
source: http://www.abbamoses.com
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