Leo: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Leo the Great received a fine education and could have made a career in the world, but he longed for the spiritual life. He served as archdeacon of the Church of Rome under Pope Sixtus III, and in September 440 he was chosen Bishop of Rome. For twenty-one years he joined pastoral kindness with firmness in the faith. When Eutyches taught that Christ had only one nature, Leo wrote his famous letter to St Flavian of Constantinople, setting out that our Lord is one Person in two natures, truly God and truly man. At the council of Ephesus in 449, which Leo himself named the Robber Council, the letter was kept from being read. But at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451 it was read before the gathered bishops, who received it as the Orthodox faith; it is still called the Tome of Leo. Leo also stood before his flock in danger. In 452 his words persuaded Attila the Hun to stop ravaging Italy, and in 455 he persuaded the Vandal king Gaiseric not to burn Rome or shed blood. Knowing that his death was near, he prepared for it with fasting and prayer, and he reposed in 461. His 96 sermons and 143 letters are still read. The Church keeps his memory on 18 February (3 March on the Old Calendar). Its hymns call him a sun shining from the West that scattered the errors of heretics, and the faithful ask him to pray to Christ for mercy and for the salvation of their souls.

What the faithful pray for

• a right and steadfast confession of Christ, true God and true man
• the unity of the Church in the true faith
• shepherds and teachers of the faith
• peace and protection in times of danger
• God’s mercy and the salvation of our souls