Pope St. Leo I

St. Leo the Great, born in the early years of the fifth century, likely in Tuscany, rose amidst the waning grandeur of the Western Roman Empire to become one of the most commanding and venerable pontiffs in the annals of the Church. Elected Bishop of Rome in the year of Our Lord 440, Leo ascended the Chair of St. Peter at a time of immense peril, both from theological tumult and from the encroaching chaos of barbarian invasions.

A man of stately eloquence, formidable intellect, and unwavering orthodoxy, Pope Leo laboured ceaselessly to defend the unity and authority of the Church. In his famous Tome of Leo, he articulated with astonishing clarity the dual nature of Christ, fully God and fully man, in a manner so profound that it became the cornerstone of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. There, the assembled bishops exclaimed, “Peter has spoken through the mouth of Leo.”

Yet perhaps the most renowned moment of his illustrious pontificate came not within the halls of doctrine, but upon the field of diplomacy. In 452, as the dreaded Attila the Hun advanced upon the city of Rome, leaving ruin in his wake, Pope Leo, clad not in armour but in priestly vesture, ventured forth to meet the scourge of God himself. Through words whose power remains a marvel, Leo persuaded Attila to withdraw, sparing the Eternal City from the sword. Though the full details of the encounter remain shrouded in mystery, its outcome was heralded as nothing short of providential.

St. Leo’s pontificate endured until his death in 461. He was the first pope to be called “the Great,” a title earned not by temporal might, but by the majesty of his faith, his defense of truth, and his fatherly care for both souls and civilization. Declared a Doctor of the Church, his legacy abides as a steadfast beacon of doctrinal clarity and pastoral courage, uniting spiritual authority with a heart attuned to both Heaven and history.

Experts from Leo's Tome

"To hunger, to thirst, to tire, and to sleep are evidently human, but to satisfy five thousand people with five loaves and to bestow living water to the Samaritan woman, the drinking of which would maintain the one drinking so as not to thirst anymore, to walk upon the back of the sea with unsinking steps and to subdue the rising of the waves with the increased storm without doubt is divine"

"For although in the Lord Jesus Christ there is one person of God and man, nevertheless it is from one whence the insult is common in each, from the other whence the glory is common. For from ours it happens that the humanity is less than the Father, from the Father it happens that the divinity is equal to the Father. Therefore, because of this unity of person that is to be understood in each nature both the son of man is observed to have descended from heaven, when the son of God assumed flesh from the virgin from whom he was born, and again the son of God is said to have been crucified and died"

This full letter is available as a free printable booklet in my collection of Ave Maria Resources