Leo I
Pope from 440 to 461 (390–461)
b. c. 390 · d. 11 Nov 461
45th Bishop of Rome (Pope) · 29 Sep 440–10 Nov 461
Offices
- Bishop of Rome (Pope) № 45 · 29 Sep 440 – 10 Nov 461
Pope Leo I, also known as Leo the Great, was Bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death on 10 November 461. He is the first of the three Popes listed in the Annuario Pontificio with the title "the Great", alongside Popes Gregory I and Nicholas I.
Related people
- Sixtus III succeeded · traditional
- Hilarius preceded · traditional
Works
Events
Commemorated
Places
- Tuscany birth
- Old St. Peter's Basilica burial
- Rome ministry
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- Liber Pontificalis 1 claim — Liber Pontificalis, the life of Leo I
- The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) 1 claim — Council of Chalcedon
Documents
- Tome of Leo author
Written about
Sayings
- Christian, acknowledge thy dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Agnosce, o Christiane, dignitatem tuam. The most reproduced sentence Leo wrote outside the Tome, read in the Roman office at Christmas and still quoted in the Catechism. The…
- Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Salvator noster, dilectissimi, hodie natus est: gaudeamus. The opening words of the first Nativity sermon and the sentence that opens Christmas in the Roman rite. He gives the…
- These are the men, through whom the light of Christ’s gospel shone on thee, O Rome, and through whom thou, who wast the teacher of error, wast made the… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — On the feast of Peter and Paul, addressed to the city itself. It is the clearest statement of how Christian Rome understood its own succession from pagan Rome — not continuity…
Show all 5
- And so that which till then was visible of our Redeemer was changed into a sacramental presence, and that faith might be more excellent and stronger, sight… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Quod Redemptoris nostri conspicuum fuit in sacramenta transivit. Preached on the Ascension, and the sentence Western sacramental theology has used ever since to say what was left…
- For the solidity of that faith which was praised in the chief of the Apostles is perpetual: and as that remains which Peter believed in Christ, so that… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Preached on an anniversary of his own consecration. It is the Roman claim stated as a syllogism rather than a boast — the see is what it is because the faith Peter confessed does…
What he held
- Constantinople is the second see The bishop of Constantinople has the prerogatives of honour after the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is New Rome.
- Two natures in one person One and the same Christ is made known in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the difference of the natures being in no way taken away by the union.
In the disputes
- The Eutychian dispute Eutyches, pressed at a synod in his own city in 448, would not say that Christ is of one substance with us.