St. Leo the Great
St. Leo served as Pope of Rome from 440 to 461, during an age of upheaval for both the Church and the crumbling Western Empire.
His famous Tome to Flavian, defending the two natures of Christ against the heresy of Eutyches, was acclaimed at the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451 with the cry, "Peter has spoken through Leo." He also persuaded Attila the Hun to spare Rome in 452 and moderated the Vandal sack of the city in 455. His surviving legacy includes 96 sermons and 143 letters, treasured for their clarity of doctrine and pastoral warmth.
Christian, acknowledge your dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct.
Without detriment therefore to the properties of either nature and substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality.
There are no works of power, dearly-beloved, without the trials of temptations, there is no faith without proof, no contest without a foe, no victory without conflict.
Let us remit, that we may have remission: let us grant the pardon which we crave.
Troparion · Tone 3
You were the Church's instrument in strengthening the teaching of true doctrine; you shone forth from the West like a sun dispelling the errors of the heretics. Righteous Leo, entreat Christ God to grant us His great mercy.
Kontakion · Tone 3
Seated upon the throne of the priesthood, glorious Leo, you shut the mouths of the spiritual lions. With divinely inspired teachings of the honored Trinity, you shed the light of the knowledge of God upon your flock. Therefore, you are glorified as a divine initiate of the grace of God.
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