ST. LEO THE GREAT (NOV. 10TH)

 

St. Leo the Great, Patriarch and Pope of Rome

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

St. Leo (AD 400-461) was consecrated the Bishop of Rome in September of AD 440, and served until his death on today’s date in AD 461. He is principally known for his contributions in Trinitarian and Incarnational Theology, writing the “Tome of Leo”, which was meant as a rebuke to Monophysite theology that was sweeping the East, and sent it to the Robber Council of Ephesus in AD 449. While St. Leo’s doctrine was ignored by the followers of Eutyches and Monophysitism triumphed for a time in Byzantium, it became an important statement of theology that carried the day in AD 451 at the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. 

“...Into folly do they fall who, when hindered by some obscurity from apprehending the truth, have recourse, not to the words of the Prophets, not to the letters of the Apostles, nor to the authority of the Gospels, but to themselves; and become teachers of error, just because they have not been disciples of the truth. For what learning has he received from the sacred pages of the New and the Old Testament, who does not so much as understand the very beginning of the Creed? And that which, all the world over, is uttered by the voices of all applicants for regeneration, is still not grasped by the mind of this aged man. If, then, he knew not what he ought to think about the Incarnation of the Word of God, and was not willing, for the sake of obtaining the light of intelligence, to make laborious search through the whole extent of the Holy Scriptures, he should at least have received with heedful attention that general Confession common to all, whereby the whole body of the faithful profess that they ‘believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary.’ By which three clauses the engines of almost all heretics are shattered.” - The Tome of St. Leo the Great 

St. Leo led the Western Church as a stern and Orthodox Patriarch, defending the Church from heresy, helping the Eastern Church push back the Monophysite teachings of Eutyches, and arguing for the primacy of the Patriarchal place of the Bishop of Rome in the Pentarchy. While many scholars have read into St. Leo’s writing an understanding of the later papal innovations of “Papal Supremacy”, “Infallibility” and “Universal Jurisdiction”, it is clear that St. Leo himself submitted to the God-given process of conciliar authority that is present in the Ecumenical Councils, and is fully Orthodox and worthy of veneration by the faithful. As a Father of the Chalcedonian Theology, all Christians should rejoice in St. Leo’s holy witness and endeavor to be like him - Submitted to the Apostolic Deposit, serious, pastoral, and always ready to teach and contend for the One, True Faith! 

Greek Hymn for the Feast of St. Leo the Great: 

You were the Church's instrument

in strengthening the teaching of true doctrine;

you shone forth from the West like a sun dispelling the errors of the heretics.

Righteous Leo, entreat Christ God to grant us His great mercy.

O Champion of Orthodoxy, and teacher of holiness,

The enlightenment of the universe and the inspired glory of true believers.

O most wise Father Leo, your teachings are as music of the Holy Spirit for us!

Pray that Christ our God may save our souls!

Seated upon the throne of the priesthood, faithful Leo,

you shut the mouths of the spiritual lions.

With divinely inspired teachings of the honored Trinity,

you shed the light of the knowledge of God up-on your flock.

Therefore, you are glorified as an anointed messenger of the grace of God.