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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Leo I Biography Leo I, Saint (Pope, 440–461), surnamed "the Great," one of the most eminent of the Latin fathers. He was born in Tuscany. By Pope Celestine I (422–432) he was made one of the seven Roman deacons. His influence is attested by Cassian's dedication to him of his De Incarnatione contra Nestorium (430), and Cyril of Alexandria appealed to his aid against Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem, who desired to be made a patriarch (431). The Emperor Valentinian III sent him on an embassy to Gaul, while absent on which he was elected Pope. Leo’s letters, addressed to all parts of the Church, exhibit prodigious activity and zeal, and are used by Catholic controversialists as an evidence of the extent of the jurisdiction of the Roman see at this early time. In a council held at Rome in 449 he set aside the proceedings of the so-called Robber Synod of Ephesus, which had been held that year and had pronounced in favor of Eutyches (q.v.), summoned a new council at Chalcedon, in which his legates presided, and in which Leo’s celebrated "dogmatical letter" was accepted "as the voice of Peter" and adopted as the authentic exposition of the orthodox doctrine on the person of Christ. The history of Leo’s interposition with Attila (452) in defense of the Roman city and people will be found in the article Attila; and his subsequent similar interposition with Genseric (455), if less dramatic in the incidents with which history or legend has invested it, was at least so far successful as to save the lives of the citizens, and the public and private buildings of the city of Rome. He formulated clearly the monarchical idea of the papacy, which he conceived to be built upon Peter and the divinely constituted head of the Christian world. Accordingly he acted consistently in the character of universal bishop. He regulated affairs in Africa no less than in Gaul and Spain. When he found that the Council of Chalcedon (451) had put Constantinople above all other apostolic patriarchates, he required the Emperor to cancel the offensive 28th canon, and as the Emperor declared that its confirmation depended upon the Pope, Leo asserted that the Greeks had given it up. Leo endeavored to extirpate heresy (Manichæism, Priscillianism), but rather unsuccessfully. He died in Rome, Nov. 10, 461. His day is April 11 in the Latin church, and February 18 in the Greek church. His sermons and letters, of great interest and value, are in Migne, Patrologia Latina, liv–lvi, and a partial English translation in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, xii. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 776. |