Canonised Father of the Church
Leo of Rome
Bishop of Rome whose Tome to Flavian was received at Chalcedon as expressing the Church's faith, and who is honoured as a saint in the Orthodox Church.
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- Dates
- around 400 - 461 — Died on 10 November 461.
- Region
- Italy
- See
- Rome
- Language of composition
- Latin
- Commemoration
- 18 February (Orthodox Church in America and other Orthodox jurisdictions) — Julian-calendar jurisdictions observe the date thirteen days later on the civil calendar.
Life
Leo was bishop of Rome from 440 to 461, in a western empire that was visibly failing. He negotiated with Attila and with the Vandal king Geiseric, and he governed a church that was increasingly the only functioning institution in Italy.
His Tome — a letter to Flavian of Constantinople written in 449 — set out the Western understanding of the two natures in Christ. It was suppressed at the Second Council of Ephesus and read at Chalcedon two years later, where the bishops received it.
Works
Generally accepted as authentic
- Letter 28, commonly called the Tome
- The Tome as printed in the acts of Chalcedon
- Sermons and letters —
Theological and spiritual contribution
The Tome's central move is to say that each nature does what is proper to it in communion with the other: the Word does what belongs to the Word, the flesh what belongs to the flesh. That formula guarded the full reality of Christ's humanity at a moment when it was under pressure.
It is important to be precise about what the council did with it. Chalcedon received the Tome as agreeing with Cyril and with the faith of the Fathers, after examination. It did not receive it as a definition in its own right, and the acts show bishops testing it against Cyril's letters before accepting it.
Controversy and reception
Leo rejected canon XXVIII of Chalcedon, which gave Constantinople precedence after Rome on the ground that it was the imperial city. He accepted the council's doctrine and refused its ordering of sees. The claims Leo made for the Roman see are read very differently in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions, and this page does not adjudicate between them; it records that the Orthodox Church honours Leo as a saint and a Father while not receiving the later Western development of papal claims.
Related in this archive
-
The Council of Chalcedon
The council that confessed Christ in two natures, unconfused and undivided, in one person. Its definition is the classic Christological statement of the Church, and its reception divided the Church permanently.
-
Cyril of Alexandria
Archbishop of Alexandria and the decisive figure at Ephesus, whose insistence on the one incarnate subject of Christ became the Church's own; a great theologian whose conduct has been criticised since his own lifetime.
-
Jesus Christ, God and man
One person in two natures: the four councils that worked it out and the four adverbs that guard it.
Your notes
Sources for this page
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church The Tome of St. Leo annotated edition of conciliar texts As printed in the acts of Chalcedon; archived in full. Source record (opens in a new tab)
- Tier C Leo the Great and Gregory the Great Letter 28 To Flavian, commonly called 'The Tome' translated edition of primary texts Archived in full from Leo's letter collection. Source record (opens in a new tab)
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Excursus on the Later History of Canon XXVIII annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record (opens in a new tab)
Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.