Saint for the month of November 2003

Leo the Great November 10th

In Jesus Christ 'was born true God in the entire and perfect nature of true man'. The words are from the famous 'Tome' of Saint Leo the Great, sent to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 through Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople, to present a proper understanding of the nature of Christ's incarnation. 'The Son of God', Leo continued, 'came down from his throne in heaven without withdrawing from his Father's glory, and entered this lower world, born  after a new order, by a new mode of birth.'

The immediate aim of Saint Leo was to combat the teachings of a monk named Eutyches, had insisted that Jesus had only one nature, since (Eutyches maintained) his human nature had been absorbed into his divine nature.

Flavian had excommunicated Eutyches. The monk had appealed, in vain, to Pope Leo for support. But the 'Tome' also greatly enhanced the papacy, for the Council of Chalcedon recognised Leo's teaching as 'the voice of Saint Peter'.

Leo the Great was a Tuscan who succeeded Sixtus111 as pope in 440. In 432 surviving letters and ninety six sermons he defends the papal primacy in the jurisdiction of the church, securing the support of Emperor Valentinian111, although he did not manage to persuade the whole eastern church to accept his jurisdiction.

'In Jesus humility was taken up into majesty, weakness into strength, mortality into eternity; and to pay the debt what we humans had incurred, an inviolable nature capable of suffering. He assumed the form of a servant without the stain of sin, enhancing what was human, not detracting from what was divine'.

Leo the Great 
(November 10)

Richard F Sibley.

Go to Next Page

Go to Previous Page

Go to Index Page

Go to Home Page