Think about the courage it would take to stand, armed with only words, and try to convince the leader one of the most savage armies in history to spare your city. Need help facing your fears or getting ready to take on something difficult? Reflect on Leo the Great.
Leo the Great was recognized as a peacemaker and unifier during an age where the Church and its people were in desperate need of both. The decaying Roman empire was in a state of collapse, leaving room for many forms of heresy to spread and barbarian armies to infiltrate. Leo faced these challenges head on.
“Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife”
Leo was a Deacon resolving a dispute in Gaul for the Imperial Court in 440 when Pope Sixtus III passed and Leo was chosen as his successor.
Leo’s faith allowed him to use his persuasive abilities to avoid the ravages of attack by brutal enemies. He traveled unarmed to meet the notorious Attila the Hun and somehow convinced Attila to withdraw his armies advancing on Rome. The Raphael fresco depicting the meeting is located at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
Similarly, Leo was able to convince the Vandal Gaiseric not to burn Rome at the conclusion of their pillage in 455. Upon their departure, Leo actively aided those who were devastated by the ransacking and those who lost loved ones to captivity by the perpetrators.
Beyond his challenges with foreign armies, Leo also engaged in sophisticated spiritual and intellectual examinations. He is recognized as a Doctor of the Church for these pursuits.
Leo’s thought on the Incarnation, originally written in a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople, was adopted as an official doctrine of the Church at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. His teaching on the human and divine nature of Christ is captured in his famous quotation:
“It is one in the same Son of God Who exists in both natures, taking what is ours to himself without losing what is His own.”
This thinking and Leo’s persuasive abilities stemmed heresies such as Pelagianism (denying original sin, redemption through Christ and the origin of grace from God) and Manichaeism (combining elements of Christianity, Dualism, Buddhism and Babylonian folklore) to further his objective of unity for the Church.
Leo was dedicated to pastoral teaching, explaining the importance of Christ’s passion through his writings and many sermons (nearly 100 of which are still preserved today).
“No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.”
“Our sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ has no other purpose than to transform us into that which we receive”
Leo’s faith, strength, disciple and administrative talents kept the Church unified through the collapse of Rome and positioned it as one of the most influential institutions of the medieval world. More about Saint Leo the Great can be found at http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16ChrstChrch67.html
Links to Other Saints:
Bede the Venerable
Saint Christopher
Ephram the Syrian
Gregory the Great
Peter Canisius
