Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 12 (Leo the Great, Gregory the Great)

Thus, Leo's joy was finally complete, as his latest letters testify. Late in the year 461, he died after a reign of twenty-one years, during which he had won a major victory for the Faith and given the See of Rome a prestige that has lasted to the present day.

His body was buried in the church of St. Peter, where it has since been moved three times: once toward the end of the 7th century by Pope Sergius, again in 1607 after the church was rebuilt in its present form, and lastly in 1715. As a "saint" and "confessor" from the earliest times, and a "doctor of the church" since 1754, he is commemorated in the East on Feb. 18 and in the West on April 11.

"It will not be out of place," says Mr. Gore Life, p. 165., "to mention that tradition looks back to Leo as the benefactor of many Roman churches. He is said to have restored their silver ornaments after the ravages of the Vandals and to have repaired the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, placing a mosaic in the latter that represented the adoration of the twenty-four elders. We are also told he built a church of St. Cornelius, established monks at St. Peter's, instituted guardians for the tombs of the Apostles, and erected a fountain before St. Paul's where the people might wash before entering the church."

The only writings of Leo generally accepted as authentic are his numerous sermons and letters. Certain anti-Pelagian treatises and a long tract on Humility, in the form of a letter to the virgin Demetrias, have been ascribed to him. However, the most important work among the doubtful ones is a "Sacramentary," one of the earliest extant documents of the Roman church, which is sometimes considered to be Leo's composition or compilation. Many of the collects and prayers it contains bear a remarkable resemblance to his teaching and may well have come from his pen. There is, indeed, good reason for the opinion that the "Collect" prayer—a distinct feature of the Western Church—originated with Leo.

As a theologian, Leo is thoroughly Western: not speculative, but dogmatic. In God's providence, no one was better suited to complete the Church's doctrine of the Incarnation than this clear-sighted, unimaginative, and persistent bishop of Rome. His theological position on the core doctrines of the Faith is identical with that of the Athanasian symbol, to which his own language often bears a close resemblance. Most English-speaking people will have little sympathy for his theory of the Pope as the universal ruler of the Church by virtue of being the successor of St. Peter; yet, it must be admired from an objective standpoint as a bold, grand, and almost original Milman attributes the real initiation of the Papal theory to the imperious Innocent I, who held the See of Rome at the beginning of the fifth century (402–417). conception. There are, no doubt, smaller details in his writings—connected more with discipline than doctrine—that may now be considered either objectionable or belonging to a bygone system. Among these are his objection to slaves serving as clergy, his restriction on celebrating the Eucharist more than once a day (except on festivals when the church is too small for all worshippers), his advocacy of private rather than public confession, and his insistence on the old rule that baptism should be administered only twice a year (at Easter and Whitsuntide). Finally, there is the undue prominence he gives to fasting and almsgiving, placing them on a level with prayer for Lenten or Ember exercises, as well as his emphasis on the intercessions of the saints—particularly the patron saints of Rome: SS. Peter, Paul, and Lawrence.