Pope Leo is the first and one of only three pontiffs in the nearly two-thousand-year history of the Roman Church to go down in history with the title “the Great.” The other two Roman bishops with this title are Gregory I (540–604), known in Orthodoxy as “Gregory the Dialogist”, i.e., the author of “Dialogues on the Lives of the Italian Fathers”, and Nicholas (800-867), known for his active participation in the affairs of the Bulgarian Church, his involvement in the deposition of Photius, and the break in communion with Constantinople, which became the first stage on the path to the complete separation of the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054. Saint Leo is the only one who is called that not only in Western Christianity, but also in Orthodoxy.
Leo the Great
For his local Church, in the most difficult conditions of that time, he truly became a guardian angel. For the Universal Church, he was the embodiment of the Orthodox confession of faith in the authenticity of the incarnation of God. “By this you know the Spirit of God (and the spirit of error): every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God,” says the Epistle of John (1 John 4: 2-3). These words of the Apostle John about humanity's confession of the Lord Jesus could become the true biblical motto of this great Christian saint. In 2026, it will be 1565 years since Leo's heavenly birth.
Leo was born around 400 in Rome. His family was from Tuscany. He received his education in Rome and devoted himself to serving the Church at a very early age. As secretary and then deacon to the Roman bishops Celestine I (422–432) and Sixtus III (432–440), he carried out important tasks in the service of the Church and the people. In 440, the saint was in Gaul, where he reconciled two rulers who were at war with each other. At that time, Sixtus III died in Rome, and the people elected Leo as Roman bishop by acclamation, that is, by spontaneous expression of will in consensus. A sign of their special respect for him was the willingness of the Romans and the Church to wait for his return to the city for 40 days.
In very ancient times, a teaching of enormous significance developed in the Roman Church, according to which, since the Apostle Peter had led the local Christian community for 25 years, none of his successors, the Roman popes, would exceed this time limit. Let us remember this phrase: twenty-five years or “the years of Peter.” In this sense, it is significant that the pontificate of Leo the Great was one of the longest in ancient church history, lasting from September 29, 440, to November 10, 461. It coincided with an extremely difficult period for Rome, yet it turned out to be one of the most blessed in history. The political center of the world at that time was Constantinople, while ancient Rome was increasingly approaching political catastrophe. In August 410, it had already been taken by the Goths, in 452 the Huns led by Attila were approaching it, and in 455 the Vandals did the same. Leo personally negotiated with the barbarians, he persuaded Attila to retreat and the Vandals, led by Geiseric, to spare the inhabitants when they took the city. For his contemporaries and descendants, Leo's defense of Rome from Attila became the embodiment of the saint's constant service to his flock and the city, which was the focus of his daily concerns for almost a quarter of a century. Until the time of Gregory the Great (590–604), no Roman bishop had been able to act with such boldness, strength, and benefit for the good of his Church. Incidentally, the “Years of Peter” were not surpassed until the mid-19th century. Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) ruled from 1846 to 1878. A commemorative plaque marking the achievement of the “Years of Peter” was solemnly erected in Rome. By a remarkable irony of historical fate, it was under him that the Roman Church formulated the dogma of papal infallibility. St. Leo had already taught unequivocally about the primacy of the Roman bishop, but the ancient Church would never have dared to dogmatize such things.
It is very important that at a time when the Western Roman Empire was undergoing a period of defragmentation and disintegration, it was the Church, in the person of Bishop Leo, that managed to counteract the “hatred of this age” with the unity of “the spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). Pope Leo's episcopal ministry was devoted to such labors and concerns for the people and the city. But while the Roman Church remembered the saint for his everyday ministry, he entered the memory of the Universal Church as a defender of the orthodox faith. In addition to the Chalcedonian Creed, the saint's life's work was:
The struggle against Arianism, which, having been condemned and seemingly unconditionally overthrown after the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, began to rapidly revive in the 5th century, becoming the official creed of the barbarian peoples.
Overcoming Pelagianism - condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council along with Nestorius, this false doctrine survived the change of generations and attempted to achieve ecclesiastical rehabilitation in the person of the deposed bishop Julian of Eclanum (396-455) and his circle of disciples.
Eradication of Manichaeism - in an era of political upheaval, Manichaeism spread again in Rome. Heretics pretended to be members of the Church, practiced their rites, but at the same time, through careful deception, participated in catholic sacraments.
Defense of ancient ecclesiology. In the early Church, the fundamental belief was that primacy belonged exclusively to the Apostolic Sees. These were the local churches where the Apostle Peter resided and taught: Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. Why Alexandria? Because Mark the Evangelist was a disciple of Peter and he founded the local Church. In theological terms, the primacy of these three Churches is called “Petrine primacy.” The twenty-eighth canon of the Council of Chalcedon proclaimed the abolition of this principle. The two episcopal sees founded by Emperor Constantine were declared participants in the ecclesiastical primacy. This is the so-called "Constantine primacy." The 28th rule affirmed Constantinople's primacy in ecclesiastical matters. This rule was not included in the canons approved by all the Fathers of the Council and was adopted retroactively, when the envoys of the Roman bishop had already left the meeting. Leo the Great considered this rule to be a forgery and never recognized it.
As a pastor of the Church, Leo acted with authority, knew how to teach, admonish, and reconcile. As a bishop, he fed on the Word of God. As a theologian, he always studied, first and foremost from Augustine and other Fathers who preceded him. His sermons contained no quotations from philosophers or ancient pagan authors. Throughout his life, the saint stood guard over the faith, passing on only what he had first received from the Gospel and his predecessors. "And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of the Lord, and you shall hear the word from My mouth and admonish them from Me" (Ezekiel 33:7). Leo was a true Roman: straightforward, strict in his thinking, concise in his reasoning, impeccable in his lifestyle, devoid of fear and personal ambition. He died on November 10, 461, and was buried at the entrance to St. Peter's Cathedral. His contemporaries saw this as a sign that he is not dead, but alive.