Pope Leo the Great

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Pope Leo the Great

• By Allie Scanlon and Kelsie Sanbe

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Pope Leo the Great

• Date of birthUnknown
• Date of Death November 10, 481
• He reigned from 440-461

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Biography

• Also known as Pope Leo I
• Leo was a native of Tuscany.
• His fathers name was Quintinaus.

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Pope Leo the Greats Papacy

• He was elected to succeed Sixtus and was
  consecrated on September 29, 440 and governed
  the Roman Chuch for the next twenty-one years.
• His papacy was marked by greatness He tirelessly
  preached against the heresies of Manichaeism,
  Pelagianism, Priscillianism, and Nestorianism.
• Leo fought against the heresy of Eutyches, who,
  like Nestorius, denied the hypostatic union

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Education and Early Life

• Little information is known about Pope Leo the
  Greats education or early life.
• The most know about his early life is the year he
  was born.

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The Great

• He was an extraordinary shepherd of the Catholic
  Church that he came to be known not only as Pope
  Saint Leo I, but also is one of the only two
  Popes in two thousand years to be called "the
  Great.
• Leo got the name "the Great" because of his
  political achievements.

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Stance on Papal Authority

• Leo the Great played an important role in the
  development of the doctrine of papal primacy. Leo
  argued that popes were direct successors of the
  original apostles into whose care Jesus had
  entrusted the care and growth of Christianity.
  Saying, anyone who rejected papal authority was
  placed him- or herself outside the "body of
  Christ."

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• During a time of decline for the Roman Empire,
  Leo sought to strengthen the Church. He
  suppressed surviving pagan festivals and closed
  the remaining pagan temples. He sent missionaries
  to Africa, which was being ravaged by the
  barbarians. He instituted many reforms, including
  impressing strict discipline on the bishops.
  Although he spoke of the papacy as "a burden to
  shudder at," Leo met the challenge with great
  fidelity and self-sacrifice.

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Writings

• His most famous writing, commonly known as the
  Toe of St. Leo (449)was the basis of the Council
  of Chalcedon's (451) dogmatic definition of
  Christ as one Divine Person possessing two
  complete natures, human and divine.
• It condemned Eutyches and clearly taught the
  mystery of the Incarnation.

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The Tome

• The letter of Pope Leo to Flavian, bishop of
  Constantinople, about Eutyches
• Commonly known as the "Tome of Leo"

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The Tome

• At the Second Council of Ephesus, Leo's
  representatives delivered his famous Tome or
  statement of the faith of the Roman Church in the
  form of a letter addressed to Flavian, which
  repeats, in close adherence to Augustine, the
  formulas of western Christology, without really
  touching the problem that was agitating the East.
  
• The council did not read the letter, and paid no
  attention to the protests of Leo's legates, but
  deposed Flavian and Eusebius, who appealed to
  Rome.

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Leader of the Church

• Leo was also a courageous leader. In 452 he met
  Attila the Hun, known as "the Scourge of God,"
  and succeeded in saving Rome from being sacked.
• Tradition holds that at the meeting Attila saw
  Peter and Paul wielding swords above Leo, and
  this ominous threat motivated Attila to retreat.
• For this reason, Leo was called "the Shield of
  God."

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Pope Leo

• In the ninety-six sermons which have come down to
  us, we find Leo stressing the virtues of
  almsgiving, fasting, and prayer, and also
  expounding Catholic doctrine with clarity and
  conciseness, in particular the dogma of the
  Incarnation.

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• He was determined to shield his flock from
  heresy, and when he discovered that many
  Manichaeans, who had fled from the Vandals in
  Africa, had settled in Rome and were spreading
  their errors, he summoned them before a council
  of clergy and laymen.
• Against the disobedient, Leo invoked the secular
  authority their books were burned, and they
  themselves were banished or else left Rome of
  their own volition.

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Altar Piece

• Pope St. Leo the Great's altar piece in St.
  Peter's Basilica, Rome, depicting the saintly
  pontiff turning Attila away from the city in that
  justly famous episode of 452.

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Pope Leo the Great

• St. Peter and St. Paul above the serene St. Leo
  the Great who went forth to face Attila and his
  Huns

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Death

• Pope Leo the Great died in Rome, Italy.

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Pope Leos Death

• Leo died on 10 November, 461, and was buried in
  the vestibule of St. Peter's on the Vatican.
• In 688 Pope Sergius had his remains transferred
  to the basilica itself, and a special altar built
  over them.

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Death

• In 1754 Benedict XIV exalted him to the dignity
  of Doctor of the Church.
• In the Latin Church the feast day of the great
  pope is held on 11 April, and in the Eastern
  Church on 18 February.

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Works Cited

• http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/09154b.htm
• http//www.ewtn.com/library/mary/leo.htm
• http//atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/
  bldef_leogreat.htm
• http//saints.sqpn.com/saintl04.htm