< SAINT POLYCARP

Saint Leo The Great, Dr. of the Church 

( 461 AD )

Saint Leo I the Great, Pope of Rome (440-461), received an exceedingly fine and diverse education, which opened for him the possibility of an excellent worldly career. His success earned him the title of "the Great", a distinction accorded to only two other popes, St Gregory I and St. Nicholas I. The church also has honored him by declaring him amongst her doctors on the strength of his significant ecclesiastical, theological, and political achievements.

There is no record of his birth date or his early years. He seems to have been born in Rome. It is clear from his writings that he received a good education, with inclination to the spiritual life.  We first heard of him as deacon, then under holy Pope Sixtus III (432-44o) he occupied a position so important that St. Cyril and Cassian communicated directly with him. After Pope Sixtus' death, Saint Leo was chosen as Pope of the Roman Church, in 440. These were difficult times for the Church, when heretics besieged the bulwarks of Orthodoxy with their tempting false-teachings. Saint Leo solidified the office of the pope, combined within himself a pastoral solicitude and goodness, together with an unshakable firmness formulated the doctrine of the Incarnation. He was in particular one of the basic defenders of Orthodoxy against the heresy of Eutyches, who taught that there was only one nature in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was a defender also against the Nestorian heresy. He exerted all his influence to put an end to the unrest by the heretics in the Church, and by his missives to the holy Constantinople emperors Theodosius II (408-450) and Marcian (450-457) he actively promoted the convening of the Council at Chalcedon in 451, condemning the heresy of the Monophysites. At the council  which 630 bishops were present, there was proclaimed a message of Saint Leo  to bishop Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople (447-449).  In the letter of Saint Leo was the Orthodox teaching about the two natures [the Divine and the human] in the Lord Jesus Christ.  With this teaching all the bishops present at the Council were in agreement, and The heretics were excommunicated from the Church.

Saint Leo was likewise a defender of his fatherland against the incursions of barbarians. In the year 452, by the persuasive power of his word, he stopped a pillaging of Italy by the dread some leader of the Huns, Attila. And again in the year 455, when the leader of the Vandals [a Germanic tribe], Henzerich, turned towards Rome, he boldly persuaded him not to pillage the city, burn buildings, nor spill blood. He knew about his death beforehand and he prepared himself by ardent prayer and good deeds, for the passing over from this world into eternity.

He died in the year 461 and was buried at Rome, in the Vatican cathedral. His literary and theological legacy is comprised of 96 sermons and 143 letters , of which the best known is his message to Saint Flavian.  In the following selection he clearly describes the dual nature of Christ, defining the doctrine of the incarnation:

" Without detriment to the properties of the divine and the human that came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality. When the Son of God entered the lower part of the world -descending from his heavenly" home and yet quitting his Father's glory, begotten in a new order by a new birthing. Invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. And he whom nothing could contain was content to be contained.

Abiding before all time, he began to be in time. The Lord of all things, he obscured his immeasurable majesty and took on the form of a servant. Being God who cannot suffer, he did not disdain to be man that can suffer and, immortal as he is, to subject himself to the laws of death.

 The Lord assumed his mother's nature without faultiness. Nor does the marvel of his birth make his nature unlike ours. For he who is true God is also true man. In this union there no deceit, since the humility of humanness and the loftiness of the Godhead both meet here.

To be hungry and thirsty, to be weary and to sleep is human. But to satisfy five thousand men with five loaves, to walk on the surface of the water with feet that do not sink and to quell the risings of waves by rebuking the winds is without any doubt divine. For as  God is not changed by the showing of pity, so man is not swallowed up in the dignity of the divine."

 

Saint Leo the Great (? – around 461), Pope and Doctor of the Church
20th Sermon on the Passion
 

 ( Unless you turn back )


To work, brothers! Let us make an effort so as to be found associated with Christ’s resurrection and to pass from death to life while we are still in this body. All who go through a conversion of whatever kind, all who pass from one state to another, experience an end: they are no longer what they were. And they also experience a beginning: they become what they were not. But it is important to know for whom one is dying and for whom one lives, for there is a death that gives life and a life that gives death.

Nowhere other than in this fleeting world does a person seek both, so that the difference in the eternal retributions will depend on the quality of our actions here below. So let us die to the devil and let us live for God; let us die to sin in order to rise to righteousness. May the former being disappear so that the new being might rise up. Since, according to the word of Truth, “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24), let us take as our master not the one who! causes those who are standing to fall so as to lead them to ruin, but rather the one who raises up those who have fallen in order to lead them to glory.


 

 Commentary of the day : Saint Leo the Great
“It was in order to gather into one all the dispersed children of God”   ( 1 )

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11,45-57.

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, "What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation."
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish."
He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves.
They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?"
For the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should inform them, so that they might arrest him.

 

Saint Leo the Great (? – around 461), Pope and Doctor of the Church
8th homily on the Passion, 7

“It was in order to gather into one all the dispersed children of God”  ( 2 )


“Once I am lifted up from earth, I will draw all men to myself.” (Jn 12:32) O admirable power of the cross! O unspeakable glory of the passion! That is where the Lord’s tribunal is, there the world is judged, there is the power of the crucified. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, and when you stretched out your hands all day to an unbelieving and rebellious people (Isa 65:2; Rom 10:21), the whole world received the knowledge to confess your majesty. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, for all of nature’s elements gave their verdict…, the whole of creation refused to serve the ungodly (Mt 27:45ff.). You drew all things to yourself, Lord, for when the curtain in the Temple was torn, the symbol of the Holy of Holies truly manifested itself …, and the Law led to the Gospel. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, so that the worship of all nations might be celebrated in a complete sacrament that was finally manifested…

For your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. From the weakness of the cross, the believers receive strength; from its disgrace, glory; from your death, life. For now the diversity of sacrifices has come to an end; the one and only offering of your body and blood consummates all the various victims offered by the world, for you are the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). In yourself, you accomplish all the religions of all humankind, so that all peoples might now form but one Kingdom.
 


 

  
 

 

 

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Page Written By  H. G. H     ăCopyright  2001