Mike Aquilina – on Leo the Great.

Today is the memorial of Pope St. Leo the Great, who reigned 440-461 A.D. Those years were, in the words of the Chinese curse, interesting times.

Within the Church, Leo is best known for his great Tome, the doctrinal letter that served as a summary of christological doctrine — the final punctuation mark on a century of disputes over Jesus’ person and nature(s). The Tome was accepted and ratified by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. But Leo makes the secular history books because he was able to reach peace with a seemingly implacable military power — and, in doing so, he stanched the flow of blood that had soaked the lands and swelled rivers all across the Europe.