Complete Works of Pope Leo the Great

THE LIFE OF SAINT LEO

...[Eu]tropius Likely referring to the historian Eutropius, though the text here focuses on the ecclesiastical history., Attila was appeased by this intercession of Leo. Although he was otherwise a man of fury, he departed immediately, having confirmed a most firm peace and vowing never to return from beyond the Danube. Indeed, he did not long survive among human affairs, and by his death, he finally brought an end to his long-standing harassment of the human race.

It is said that when those who had stood closest to him asked why he had so easily surrendered such a beautiful victory to the prayers of his enemies, and why he had ordered them—prostrated at his feet—to rise and stand (saying, "Be of good cheer, you are granted pardon"), he replied openly that it was necessary to do so. He claimed that in the middle of the petitioners' speech, such great and magnificent men appeared to him According to tradition, the Apostles Peter and Paul appeared behind Leo, brandishing swords to protect Rome. and forced him to suddenly change his mind. Thus, you may see in Leo a second Moses, who overcomes the strength of the Barbarians with spiritual weapons and reconciles an angry God to a sinful nation.

As a result of this remarkable service, he bound the Emperor Valentinian and the entire city to himself as never before, and he repeatedly confirmed the widely held opinion of his holiness among all people. Following these events, he returned to the city amidst the universal applause of everyone—as they looked upon the "Father of the Fatherland" Latin: Pater Patriae, a title of highest honor., to whom they rightly attributed, after God, all their fortunes, their safety, and the salvation of not only the city but the world itself. First and foremost, he gave thanks to God the Best and Greatest, and to His apostles Peter and Paul, ascribing all the glory of the successful outcome to them—through whose patronage he was also accustomed to attribute his fellowship in the granted Roman See Referring to the papacy as the seat of St. Peter..

Then, he turned his full attention to strengthening and protecting the Catholic faith, which was then being hostilely attacked by many heretics, such as the Manichaeans, Donatists, Arians, and Priscillianists, but especially by the Nestorians and Eutychians. Certainly, that Nestorius, the Bishop of Constantinople (originally from Germanicia Modern-day Maraş, Turkey.), whose heresies Saint Cyril had refuted and the first Council of Ephesus had condemned, denied that the incomparable and thrice-blessed Virgin Mary was the Mother of God Original: Deipara (Greek: Theotokos). This was the central theological debate of the age: whether Mary birthed God or merely the human vessel of Jesus.. That is, he judged her to be only the mother of a man, so that he created one person for the flesh and another for the divinity in Christ; thus, he impiously established one separate son of God and another son of man.

But Eutyches, a priest and archimandrite archimandrite: the superior or abbot of a monastery or group of monasteries of Constantinople—an old man, slippery and impudent—caused just as much trouble for Leo and the Council of Chalcedon. Lest he seem to openly agree with the blasphemous Nestorius, he taught that the divine and human natures had merged into one and the same composition, becoming a single nature that should not be distinguished in any way.

However, Dioscorus, the successor of Cyril in the Church of Alexandria, a crafty, violent, and clearly seditious man, used great force to claim that the authority of Emperor Theodosius and the "Robber Council" of Ephesus stood on his side. He even rejected the Legates of the Apostolic See who were meant to preside over the synod, and most unjustly condemned Flavian of Constantinople along with the other orthodox bishops. Thus, this treacherous man pleaded Eutyches' cause among the treacherous, so that had not the care of Leo, the Emperor, and the August The title "Augusta" was used for the Empress. Pulcheria renewed the council at Chalcedon, he surely would have crushed...