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Patrology — Topic 12

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Patrology — Topic 12

12.1 Ambrose of Milan

Saint Ambrose (333-397) was born into a noble Christian family that belonged to political circles - his father was a prefect of Gaul. St. Ambrose himself followed in his father’s footsteps and succeeded very well in his administrative career, reaching the position of prefect of Liguria and Emilia, with its capital at Mediolanum (Milan). Like many of his contemporaries, he delayed his baptism and had to be baptized only out of necessity, when quite unexpectedly he was elected bishop of Milan. There is a semi-legendary account of this election. At the election of a bishop in Milan in 374, the people’s assembly had no way of finding a suitable candidate: the Arian unrest was coming to an end, and the election of a bishop was a delicate matter. In this moment of confusion, a child cried out: “Let Ambrose be bishop!” The people saw in this a sign from on high, and in eight days, having quickly passed through all the intermediate stages, Ambrose, hitherto a prominent dignitary of the state, was ordained bishop.

Apparently possessing some training, he very soon had an excellent grasp of Christian theology and became a renowned preacher. His sermons attracted crowds. It is known that they made an indelible impression on the young Augustine.

At that time, in spite of distance and cultural and linguistic barriers, church unity between East and West was a living reality. Thus, in one of his sermons in 381, Ambrose quotes an earlier sermon by Gregory of Nazianzene in Constantinople. But in his understanding of the Church Ambrose did not always resemble his Eastern colleagues. In this respect he was, and still is, a Roman statesman. He believed that Christianity should be legislated in the Roman Empire and that this legislation should be strict and unambiguous.

In 380 he used all his influence with the Western emperor Gratianus to have the statue of Liberty removed from the Roman Curia, despite the protests of the pagan part of the Roman aristocracy: In Rome at the time, Christianity was seen as a new, progressive religion, while paganism, to which many still adhered, was associated with conservatism, which in this case the statue of Liberty proved to be a symbol. The Roman senator Simmachus tried in vain, in an unusually eloquent and broad-minded speech, to defend paganism and the romantic commitment to ancient values associated with it. In a fervent reply letter to the emperor, Ambrose protested sharply and called for a complete cessation of all support for pagan religion.

In 388, when Christians destroyed a Jewish synagogue in Osroene, Mesopotamia, and Emperor Theodosius ordered the losses to be repaid at the expense of the local Christian church, this provoked Ambrose’s violent indignation. In an angry letter he reproached Theodosius for patronizing the Jews: surely the Christians should not have destroyed the synagogue, but since it happened-is it not God’s will? - the true faith should not be humiliated!

The enthusiasm of the bishop of Milan for the fight against heresy is evidenced by the following case. There were Gothic mercenaries in the Roman army who were Arian. The Arian empress Justina began to plead for them before Ambrose, so that he would give them the basilica of Milan for worship. Ambrose flatly refused. His reply was that God’s property was not subject to the emperor’s decrees, that “in matters of faith it is proper for bishops to judge emperors and not vice versa” and that “firstly, emperors must obey their own laws and secondly, the law of God is above any imperial law” (Letter 21).

In his assertion of Christianity St. Ambrose invariably displayed firmness and boundless courage. When there was a popular revolt in Thessalonica because of an increase in taxes, Theodosius burned the city in anger, with about seven thousand people killed. When he arrived in Milan afterwards, Ambrose, according to legend, closed the door of the church to him. In reality it was not so spectacular. Anticipating the arrival of Theodosius, Ambrose wrote him a letter in which he explained in detail the necessity of his repentance, since the emperor, like any man, belongs to the Church. As a result, Ambrose had no occasion to expel Theodosius from the Church: he arrived in Milan a repentant sinner. This episode is another example of Ambrose’s defense of the primacy of the Church over secular authority, a principle which the Roman papacy would adopt a little later.

In his writings, St. Ambrose does not go into metaphysical subtleties, but rather acts as a practical man. He wrote a small book called On Ministers , which is a kind of manual for clergymen and contains talks on moral topics. His other book, On the Sacraments , contains sermons for newly baptized Christians. “On the Sacraments ” is one of four collections of catechetical talks written in the fourth century by four famous bishops, Saint Ambrose, Saint Chrysostom, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, who lived in different parts of the empire. In comparing these four writings, one is struck by the remarkable uniformity of tradition. All four describe the same structure of the rite: threefold immersion, threefold confession of faith, anointing with oil before and after immersion. The rite of baptism is understood as death, abolishing all former life, and resurrection with Christ to new life in Him. Entrance into this new life is marked by the first communion.

In addition, St. Ambrose wrote the Hexaemeron , a treatise O n the Holy Spirit, and various works on ethical subjects, including four apologetic treatises _O n _ V irginity. In general it can be said that St. Ambrose’s writings focus on ethical rather than theological questions.

12.2 Jerome and Rufin

Jerome

Blessed Jerome was born between 340 and 350 and died in 419-420. He came from Dalmatia (Pannonia) from a wealthy Christian family. He was educated in Rome, after which his parents sent him on a journey. After years of wandering in Gaul and Palestine, Jerome arrived in Antioch, where he unexpectedly decided to become a monk. He withdrew to the desert where he lived as a hermit. He practiced extreme asceticism, went naked and never washed his face, which is why many Renaissance artists later depicted St. Jerome in the cave in a rather unsightly, though inspired, manner.

Jerome had much free time in the desert and learned Hebrew and Greek. He was ordained a priest by Pauline of Antioch, who was at odds with the same Meletius of Antioch who had ordained Chrysostom. Jerome also adhered to an extreme version of Nicene Orthodoxy, which in the last decades of the fourth century was also supported by the Roman Church.

In 381 he is in Constantinople, where the Second Ecumenical Council is taking place. Together with his friend Maximos the Cynic he polemicizes with St. Gregory the Theologian, accusing him of not being sufficiently orthodox.

Throughout these years he studied the Scriptures diligently and perfected his knowledge of the Greek language. He writes in Latin hagiographies of the eastern monks, one of the first hagiographic works in history. He translates into Latin the Chronicle of Eusebius and - most importantly - Origen’s sermons on the books of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jerome remained a lifelong devotee of Origen and his exegetical method, which later played a major role in his life.

In 382 Blessed Jerome returned to Rome, where he spent four years. Although he continued his monastic life, a small secular society gathered around him, consisting mainly of wealthy Roman women (mostly pious widows and virgins) who liked to spend their time in scholarly conversation. The protagonists of the events that follow are Marcella, Fabiana, and Paula, who, under the influence of Jerome, learned Hebrew and Greek, after which they worked together to translate the Bible into Latin. Their translation of the Psalms (the so-called “Roman Psalter”) formed the basis of the Western liturgical tradition and has been in use almost unchanged for sixteen centuries.

In 386 Jerome came to live in Bethlehem, accompanied by widows and maidens who assisted him and whom he placed in the surrounding monasteries. They continued to work together to translate the Bible, using predominantly Origen’s Hexaplas. Sometimes, but not too often, they checked their translation against the Hebrew original. The result of their labors was the Latin Bible, the Vulgate.

In addition, St. Jerome wrote several books on asceticism. Also, as a direct participant in the first outbreaks of the Origenist controversy, he wrote a treatise, Against Rufinus.

Rufinus was one of Jerome’s disciples. Sharing his teacher’s interest in Origen, he translated Origen’s classic work On the Principles into Latin. In his translation Rufinus smoothed out as much as possible all the dubious places, making Origen more orthodox than he really was. The anti-Origenist attacks of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus and Archbishop John of Jerusalem moved Rufinus to publicly repudiate Origen. On the contrary, Jerome, who perfectly understood all the controversial points of Origen’s teaching, remained faithful to his memory and issued a refutation of his enemies.

On the whole, Blessed Jerome appears to us as an unusually wholesome, consistent nature, a man who was also extremely industrious. He did not leave us any theological works, but in his letters we find a discussion of one question, still of ecclesiological interest today, connected with the problem of the origin of the episcopate. Here it should be noted that Jerome’s extensive correspondence, addressed mainly to his assistants already mentioned, is a most precious source of information about the life of the Church at that time. Also extremely interesting are his personal opinions, particularly his undisguised dislike of bishops. Jerome, himself a presbyter, was convinced that there was no difference between bishops and presbyters. Thus St. Jerome defended the necessity of preserving the collective leadership of the presbyters in the Church.

12.3 St. Augustine of Hippo

Augustine was born on November 13, 354, in Ta Gasta, North Africa, which was then part of the Roman Empire and populated by Latin-speaking Christians. His father was a pagan; his mother, St. Monica, was a deeply religious Christian. In 370 the young Augustine went to the African capital of Carthage to study rhetoric. The instruction was in Latin, and all the Greek classics were read in translations. Augustine never learned Greek, but his professional training in rhetoric took on a certain spiritual dimension for him. A brilliant writer, he was always aware of language as an instrument of creativity and was aware of all the advantages and temptations that this entailed. For him, language as a means of communication was an art that required perfection for reasons of love of others.

At the age of nineteen Augustine became acquainted with the Manichaean doctrine and adhered to it for ten years. Carthage was a cosmopolitan city, and among the diverse sects and beliefs that flourished there, Manichaeism enjoyed considerable popularity. The question of the origin of evil was solved by the Manicheans in terms of ontological dualism, that is, the existence of an evil god equal to the Creator. The Manichaean influence forever left its mark on the thought of Blessed Augustine.

Having completed his education, Augustine began to teach rhetoric privately. At this time he cohabited with a woman who had been his friend for many years and to whom he was apparently very attached. She bore him a son, whom Augustine named Adeodatus, Greek for Theodore, God-given. This was his only child, and Augustine in his writings always speaks of him with particular fondness.

In 383 he moved to Rome and spent some time there teaching rhetoric. But he did not stay long in Rome and moved from there to Milan, where the then bishop was the great Ambrose, whose sermons shocked Augustine. Yes, and the whole image of the holy Milanese made an indelible impression and gave a decidedly Christian direction to his spiritual development.

It must be said that Augustine had a highly philosophical mindset and always tried to get to the root of everything. Despite the break with Manichaeism that had already happened by that time, Augustine was looking for (as he would search all his life) the solution to the problem of coexistence in this world of good and evil. He knew already that a dualistic approach could not satisfy him, for it led to polytheism and to unacceptable ethical conclusions. The reading of the Platonic and Neoplatonist philosophers (in Latin translation) entailed a gradual disassociation from Manichaean dualism. Following Plato, Augustine believed in the monism of the Good. So his next step in his spiritual quest was Platonism and Neo-Platonism. In them he was attracted precisely by the refutation of all dualism: God is one, and everything connected with Him is good. Evil does not exist ontologically; it is only a deviation from good, something like a parasite or disease.

Although philosophically and because of the natural inclination of his mind Augustine remained an adherent of Platonism, his heart more and more inclined to the faith of his mother Monica, who always, until her death, had a very strong influence on her son. Gradually Augustine became a convinced Christian, and the only thing that kept him from being baptized was the awareness of how firmly he was still bound to the temptations of this world. He had no doubt that baptism would entail a complete change of lifestyle, and he continued to postpone it, tormented by his inability to make a final decision, repeating in his prayers to God, « Give me chastity and abstinence, but not now ».

Augustine’s final conversion is extraordinarily moving and compellingly described in Book VIII of the famous Confessions. One day, as Augustine, having given vent to the conflicting movements of his heart, was sorrowing over his sinfulness, the following happened to him:

«And now I hear a voice from a neighboring house, I don’t know if it is a boy or a girl, often repeating in a chant: “Take, read! Take it, read it!” I changed my face and began to think intensely about whether children usually hum something like that in some game. I hadn’t heard that anywhere. I got up, suppressing my sobs, and interpreted the words as a divine command to me to open the book and read the first chapter I came across. I had heard of Anthony that he had been instructed by the Gospel verses he happened to stumble upon: “Go, give away all your possessions, give to the poor, and you shall receive treasure in Heaven, and come, follow Me”; these words immediately turned him to you. Excited, I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; I left the apostolic epistles there. I grabbed them, opened them, and in silence read the chapter that first came to my attention: “Not to revelry and drunkenness, not to lust and debauchery, not to quarrels and envy; but put on the Lord … Jesus Christ, and do not turn your fleshly cares into lusts”(Romans 13-14). I did not want to read any further, and did not need to. My heart was flooded with light and peace; the darkness of my doubts disappeared”.

This event turned Augustine’s whole life upside down. He became a fully converted Christian, was baptized in April 389, and in 391 was ordained an priest and spent the rest of his life in the African city of Hippo, of which he became bishop in 395. He remained bishop of Hippo for thirty-five years, until his death. During this period he wrote a great many writings, and also took an active part in church life. He became an indispensable participant in all the African councils. The fact was that it was the custom in Nothern Africa to place a bishop over every parish of more than twelve people. Naturally, most of the bishops were uneducated, simple men. As the only theologian and rhetorician among them, Augustine was the de facto leader of African church life. His immense popularity and influence enabled him to make a great contribution to the legislative activities of the African Church. In 419, for example, he was actively involved in the case of Apiarius deposed by the local synod. Apiarius appealed to the Pope, who restored him to rank. The African Church resisted Roman interference in its affairs. This gave Augustine cause to write a harsh letter against the Pope on behalf of the African episcopate.

Blessed Augustine died on August 28, 430, during the siege of Hippo by the army of the Goths.

The Works of Blessed Augustine

1. “Confession.” In this autobiographical work Augustine describes his life in terms of mystical and spiritual experience. This book is a testimony to the indomitable power of his faith, inner honesty, fervor, imagination, and freedom of mind.

2. “Renunciation ,” written late in his life, is an amendment of his previously stated views from the perspective of his changed worldview.

3. “On the City of God.” This book is an apology of Christianity; the first ten books are devoted to the refutation of paganism, while the eleventh to eighth books describe two “cities”: the temporal and the divine. By « city » society is meant. The two cities are described symmetrically in opposition to one another. The worldview that pervades this book owes much of its origins to an event that shocked the entire Western world-the capture of Rome by Alaric in 412. Founded by divine providence, sung by Virgil the eternal city, the capital and center of civilization ceased to exist. Augustine explained the catastrophe by saying that Rome was a city of “this world”, where nothing eternal exists and cannot exist. The idea of two “cities” was deeply reflected in the medieval vision of Christian society.

4. A series of treatises “Against Manichaeism.”

5. A series of treatises “Against Donatism.” The Donatists were a sect that arose out of the persecution of Christians. They objected to the return to the fold of the Church of those bishops who had compromised themselves during the persecutions. In essence, the question was about the understanding of the sacraments: did their “efficacy” depend on the personal qualities of the clergy?

6. A series of treatises “Against Pelagius ”. Pelagius, originally from Britain, was a brilliant orator and writer who taught humanities in Rome. In his writings he protested against the low standard of Christian life in the post-Constantinian Church, preaching Christian heroism and perfection. The Church, according to Pelagius, should consist of infallible, perfect men, qualities attainable by human effort. In the polemic with Pelagius was born the doctrine of St. Augustine on salvation by grace. He also wrote against Pelagius’ disciple Julian of Eclanus, who taught that infants should not be baptized because they were sinless.

7. “On the Trinity ” is a theological treatise written later in Augustine’s life. This speculative work on the mysteries of the Blessed Trinity had a tremendous impact on Western theology. Although Augustine himself confessed the Nicene faith, and the addition of the word Filioque to the Nicene Creed arose independently of him and much later, it was nevertheless possible to justify Filioque dogmatically in the West on the basis of this work.

In considering the most interesting aspects of Blessed Augustine’s teaching, we should first of all dwell on his works Against Pelagius. According to Pelagius, our nature is neutral - neither good nor evil is inherent in it. Evil is committed by us as an abuse of free will. Babies, on the other hand, are naturally good and only potentially sin-bearers. Baptism “for the remission of sins” therefore only makes sense when one reaches adulthood, when one already has free will and is capable of consciously committing sin. Augustine argued that sin is not only the result of free choice: it is a part of the fallen nature of man himself. If one is not with Christ, one is against Christ. And how can one be against Christ if not through sin? Consequently, unbaptized infants are also sinful. As the Latin translation of Rom. 5, 12, because of Adam all mankind is under the curse of original sin.

Essentially, the argument between Augustine and Pelagius boils down to an opposition between will and grace. Pelagius argued that sin is rooted in the will. Augustine, following the Apostle Paul, insisted that we often do things we do not want to do, or, on the contrary, wish for things we cannot do, and therefore will and deeds are not related to each other - we sin against our will! This is how Augustine concludes that infants are sinful. In doing so, he continually refers to Rom. 5, 12 in the Latin translation: in quo omnis peccaverunt , “in whom (Adam) all have sinned ». Adam is understood as all mankind as a whole, so all men are sinners, “the mass of those who perish.”

This kind of psychological pessimism permeates many of Augustine’s works. Of course, he is absolutely right when he says that humanity needs salvation, but he does not stop there and argues that all are guilty of sin. The children of Christians are no exception either. For from the flesh is born flesh; the cause of sinfulness is the lust in which we partake. This kind of reasoning formed the basis of the idea of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and the celibate priesthood centuries later.

Augustine presented his theory in a three-part scheme:

Adam - could not sin.

Christ cannot sin.

We - cannot not sin.

Fortunately, Blessed Augustine was not too logical or consistent in his construction. Following pastoral needs, he forgot his theories and became a realist. When, in his writings, Blessed Augustine speaks of human life, he does acknowledge the existence of positive beginnings. The good will in man exists, as does the possibility of cooperation with the divine will. The older Augustine grew, however, the more pessimistic his worldview became. The crowning feature of his pessimism is the theory of predestination:

« Those who have not heard the Good News; those who, having heard it, have been converted, but have not received the gift of fortitude; those who, having heard the Gospel, have refused to come to Christ … those who could not believe because of their infancy and died without being washed by the water of regeneration, the only way of deliverance from original sin, they all belong - as everyone recognizes - to that mass of the lost, for all men are condemned to damnation through the fault of one man. Those who are not subject to condemnation are set free, not on their own merit, but through the grace of the Mediator, that is, they are freely justified by the blood of the Second Adam… It must be firmly known that no one is excluded from this mass of the perishing ones, which arose because of the first Adam, without the gift of the Savior’s grace. The elect are chosen by grace, not by merit, for every merit is given by grace… The elect are those who are “called according to His will” and whom He has also predestined and foreknew ».

Augustine’s enormous influence on Western thought can be explained by the fact that for many centuries, perhaps until the appearance in the thirteenth century of Thomas Aquinas, there was no thinker in the West who could match him in the scale of his talent. Augustine was a great man, a true Christian, no doubt a saint, so ahead of his time that none of his contemporaries, or even much later, were able to notice a certain inconsistency in his concepts.

Augustine was a very prolific author, touching every important aspect of Christian thought in his works. He fought against many of the heresies of his day - Arianism, Pelagianism, Donatism - and one can find in his writings much that is controversial and much that is correct from the standpoint of Orthodox doctrine. We will consider the most controversial of his ideas.

In the doctrine of Creation Augustine proceeds from the proof of the created nature of the world, from which the existence of a Creator follows with necessity. Concrete experience shows that all comprehensible objects are transient and changeable. From this Augustine deduces the existence of an immutable Being who is the Creator. This approach is based on the Platonic idea that everything that really exists is immutable and everything that is transient does not really exist.

Therefore, transient objects cannot exist by themselves: the immutable Creator creates everything by His Word. Thus, Blessed Augustine, like St. Gregory of Nyssa, understands the description of the creation of the world in Genesis in an allegorical sense. This approach is explained by the fact that Augustine used the teachings of Plato to overcome Manichaean ideas.

The assertion that man is composed of soul and body is directly related to the idea of two levels of cognition. On one level cognition is related to bodily sensations: we see, hear, etc., and thus learn about changeable objects. Such knowledge is unstable, impermanent. But there is, in addition, knowledge of the soul. The soul is able to comprehend unchanging, permanent objects.

This approach differs significantly from the absolute, apophatic theology of St. Gregory of Nyssa.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity . Augustine wrote his book On the Trinity late in life. It summarizes his whole concept of God. This book later became the basis of the classical Western, “psychological” understanding of the Holy Trinity.__

« This is how the Trinity abides: reason, love, knowledge; uncreated, but plural in themselves, mutually all in all… Thus in the mind there is a kind of image of the Trinity: knowledge, the offspring of reason, and its word concerning itself; the third element is love, and all three constitute a unity and one essence » (“On the Trinity”).

Augustine begins his reasoning with man, created in the image of God, and from his understanding of human psychology draws conclusions concerning the Holy Trinity. This distant, not very successful analogy with man represents an attempt to put an end to the Arian heresy once and for all: Augustine wants to show that the Son and the Holy Spirit belong to the very essence of God. Unlike Gregory of Nyssa, in whom the image of God represents all humanity in a collective sense, in Augustine it is one abstract person.

This logic of reasoning, from one person to the Trinity, finds its utmost expression in Sabellianism and Modalism. The Eastern approach of affirming the Trinitarian nature of God and then proving that the three constitute a unity, opens the way to Arianism. Both approaches are valid, but neither is free from the danger of heretical misunderstanding and abuse.

Obviously, everything rested on the problem of terminology, which was then still in the process of development. The term « ousia », « essence », was new

  • Basil the Great himself did not use it quite consistently. In addition, the word « persona » also has a tinge of ambiguity in Latin, and Augustine was well aware of this. The book On the Trinity also discusses the question of the Holy Spirit:

In the relationship of the Trinity… The Father, who gives birth to the Son, is His source. Whether He is also the source of the Holy Spirit is not an easy question, for “He (the Spirit) proceeds from the Father.” And if so, then by virtue of this He (the Father) is the source not only of what He gives birth to or creates, but also of what He bestows. This understanding of the Holy Spirit as a gift is also found in St. Hilary of Poitiers. Trying to reconcile this with Scripture’s assertion that “the Spirit proceeds from the Father,” Augustine has to relativize the distinction between the Father and the Son. Such an approach inevitably leads to the conclusion that the Spirit is somewhat secondary. Such a theological understanding of the Holy Trinity would later serve as a convenient justification for Filioque , whose addition to the Creed would receive dogmatic justification in the West.

Augustine understands the Eucharist realistically in terms of the unity of the Church. The Eucharist is the Eucharist insofar as there is a Church performing the Eucharist. Our “Amen” is addressed to ourselves, to our being, part of the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit must descend upon the Holy Gifts as well as upon us, and this alone makes the sacrament possible. The sacrament of the Eucharist is understood as a consequence, as a seal of our unity as the body of Christ, the Church.

Augustine expresses his views on the Church and the sacraments also in the context of his polemic with the Donatists. As already mentioned, these latter were unwilling to recognize as valid the ordinations performed by bishops who had compromised themselves during the persecutions. By Augustine’s time, this was already old history, and Donatism was firmly established in Africa as a sect with an elitist psychology, making exceptionally harsh demands concerning the validity of baptism (whether from a “legitimate” bishop or not). Augustine’s arguments against Donatism first of all affirm the synodality of the Church. In a letter addressed to the Donatist bishop Honoratus, he writes:

«…Anathema to all who proclaim the Church apart from the universal unity… for it is proclaimed to be in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins in all nations, beginning in Jerusalem (Lk. 24:47) » (Letter 93).

12.4 Leo the Great

There is very little information about the early life of Leo. The Liber Pontificalis records his Tuscan ancestry and gives the name of his father as Quintian. His ecclesiastical ministry was linked to Rome from the beginning. It is possible that Leo’s family moved to Rome during the Gothic invasion in the early fifth century. The lack of references and quotations from ancient writings in his texts probably indicates that his education was ecclesiastical, not classical. He was skeptical of pagan philosophers, and contrasted philosophical wisdom with the simplicity of the apostles. He had no knowledge of Greek, which later hindered his contact with the Eastern Churches.

The first mention of Leo is from 418. In his letter to the Roman Prelate Sixtus (now Pope Sixtus III), Blessed Augustine refers to a letter from Sixtus to Bishop Aurelian of Carthage, which was delivered to Africa by the acolythus Leo; the letter was a condemnation of the doctrine of Pelagius.

During the pontificate of Pope St. Celestine I (422-432) Leo was evidently already a sufficiently influential figure in the Roman Church. He became archdeacon and took an active part in refining the position of the Roman See in the Nestorian dispute. Leo entrusted one of the founders of Western monasticism, St. John Cassian, with the task of composing a theological treatise on Nestorian heresy. In his composition, St. John Cassian describes Leo as “an adornment of the Roman Church and of divine service”. In 431 St. Cyril of Alexandria addressed a letter to Leo. The archbishop of the capital of Egypt informs the Roman archdeacon about the unjustified attempt of St. Juvenal of Jerusalem to elevate the Jerusalem cathedra.

In 440 Leo was sent on a diplomatic mission to Gaul. Here he received the news about the death of Pope Sixtus III (August 18, 440). Despite Leo’s absence from Rome, he was elected a new Bishop of Rome in absentia. On September 29, 440, Leo was ordained and became the bishop of the Roman Church.

The early period of Leo’s episcopal ministry was marked by the strengthening of the positions of the Roman See in the West. This was mainly for historical reasons: bishops from different parts of the Western Roman Empire were inclined to look to the pope as the highest authority for dealing with the multitude of disciplinary problems that arose in the Western Churches as a result of the barbarian invasions at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries. The See of Rome was also ready to recognize the Western emperor Valentinian III, who could not fully control the church situation in his possessions, because a large part of the Western Roman territory was under control of the barbarians at the beginning of the fifth century.

Barbarian invasions had some influence on the religious situation in Rome itself. The Vandals moved to Africa and some of the Roman citizens, including Manichaeans, fled the region. Leo’s attention was drawn to the immoral religious practices of the Manicheans. In late 443 Leo organized a public trial of the Manicheans in Rome, attended not only by clerics, but also by members of the Senate and Roman plebs. This trial is a unique precedent for the late antique period for a church-state trial of heretics. The Manicheans, including their “bishop,” accepted the charges against them. Many of them repented and renounced their doctrine; those who persisted were condemned in accordance with imperial law.

The ecclesiastical situation in Vandal-ravaged Africa was also very difficult. Whereas earlier the African Episcopate had cherished its independence from the Roman See, and had even prohibited in a council meeting in 424 from appealing to the Roman Bishop, now the African Churches were in the orbit of Roman influence. To discover the state of ecclesiastical affairs in distant Mauritania, Leo sent as his representative a certain Bishop Potentius. The papal envoy discovered many canonical irregularities: there were bishops of the region who were illegitimate or married to widows. Moreover, some had been elected to the rank of bishop from laymen without having passed through all the levels of church office - a practice the Roman Church considered unacceptable. In a letter of 446, Leo indicated the necessity of depriving second-married and widows of the bishop’s dignity, but deemed it acceptable, by way of economy, to retain the episcopal dignity of lay persons who had been elevated to the chair. The Roman bishop actively intervened in church affairs in Proconsular Africa.

Of particular importance in Leo’s ecclesio-political activities were his relations with the Episcopate of Gaul. The chair of Arelata played a leading role in the life of the Church in that region in the fifth century. Pope Leo made the Gallic episcopate completely subordinate to Rome.

While the Western churches in the mid-5th century suffered from barbarian invasions, the main problem for the Eastern churches was the new escalation of Christological disputes, the other side of which was the sharp rivalry between the cathedrals of Constantinople and Alexandria. At the center of the debates was the figure of the well-known and influential at the court of Theodosius II of Constantinople archimandrite Eutyches, who, formally based on the opinions of St. Cyril of Alexandria, advocated the teaching that there is only one nature in Christ and therefore questioned His oneness with men. In his letter, Eutyches tried to draw Leo’s attention to the controversy at its earliest stage. Leo undertook the task of expounding in an exhaustive way the Orthodox doctrine of the deity of Christ. The result of his efforts was the composition of one of the most authoritative theological texts of the age of the Christological controversy, Leo’s Tomos to Flavian. In this work, addressed to the Archbishop of Constantinople, Leo fully supported the condemnation of Eutyches and formulated the doctrine of the two natures in Christ.

Held in August 449 the Council of Alexandria acquitted Eutyches and deposed his opponents - Sts. Flavian of Constantinople, Eusebius and Theodorete. Leo did not agree with the council’s decisions. It was he who first labeled the Council of Ephesus in 449 as “Robber Council” (latrocinium). The Pope demanded that a new Ecumenical Council be convened in Italy. He appealed to Emperor Theodosius II and was supported by Emperor Valentinian III whose court moved to Rome in 450. By this time St. Flavian of Constantinople died. St. Anatolius, former representative of the Alexandrian See in Constantinople, became Archbishop. The emperor Marcian, in agreement with St. Anatolius, decided to organize a new Ecumenical Council to decide the Christological controversy. Leo had been invited to be personally present, but, as he pointed out in one of his letters, this was impossible, firstly, because of the difficult political situation (the Western Roman Empire had been invaded by Huns headed by Attila), and secondly, because of the custom that Roman bishops did not take part in councils outside of Rome. In a letter to the emperor Marcian, Leo proposed postponing the convening of the council because many bishops could not attend due to barbarian invasions, but the emperor did not follow his advice.

In October 451 the Fourth Ecumenical Council was convened. In October 451 the fourth Ecumenical Council opened its sessions in Chalcedon. The Roman See was represented by the legates. The doctrinal decisions of the Council of Chalcedon were somewhat influenced by Leo’s theology. His Tomos to Flavian , which the Pope considered to be the definitive statement of the doctrine of Christology, was approved by the Council (some bishops said that Apostle Peter was speaking through him) and was included into the Council’s Declaration of Faith along with the Creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople and the two Epistles of St. Cyril of Alexandria.

The vector of Leo’s church activity was largely determined by the results of the Council of Chalcedon. In spite of the unconditional approval of the dogmatic decisions of the Council, the Pope was not ready to accept the canonical resolutions of the council, first of all recognizing the chair of Constantinople as second in honor in the hierarchy of the churches. In his correspondence with Anatolius, the emperor Marcian and the empress Pulcheria, Leo clearly communicated his view: the exaltation of the See of Constantinople was illegal and a product of the intrigues of the archbishop of Constantinople. It violated the decrees of the Council of Nicaea in 325 and belittled the thrones of Alexandria and Antioch, the thrones of the apostle Peter. In doing so, the pope evidently disapproved not only of the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon, but also the 3rd canon of the Constantinople Council in 381, which recognized the eastern capital of the empire as a New Rome and gave it the first place in honor after Ancient Rome. In order to be able to influence the situation in Constantinople, Leo appointed as his permanent representative in that city Bishop Julian, but in spite of all the efforts of the pope, the position of the imperial court and the Cathedra of Constantinople on the question remained unchanged.

When Attila’s hordes invaded Italy in 452 and many cities, including Mediolanus, Aquileia, and Ticinus (now Papia), were ruined, Leo participated in a Roman embassy to the Hun’s leader and, according to Prosperus of Aquitaine, managed to induce Attila to leave Italy and return to the Danube regions. Rome, therefore, escaped ruin. In 455, when Rome was conquered by the Vandal Heuserich, the Pope again negotiated with the barbarian ruler to persuade him not to allow Rome to be completely destroyed and the population exterminated.

Leo was an important ecclesiastical figure and theologian of his time, but his busy schedule prevented him from devoting much time to literary and theological work. In his work he limited himself to two literary genres compatible with his active church-political life - sermons and letters. From the first days of his pontificate Leo regularly prepared and delivered sermons, to which he attached great importance and regarded it as his direct duty to care not only for his flock but also for the whole Church. The primary objective of his sermons was to edify his hearers and preserve the unity of the faith. Most of his sermons bore the marks of careful rhetorical preparation, with elaborate period structures, antitheses, and rhythmic cadences. Ninety-seven sermons are known to date. Leo’s sermons are dedicated to feasts and commemorative dates of the church year. Leo’s epistolary heritage is very extensive, the largest collection of papal epistles before Pope Saint Gregory I the Great. All of Leo’s epistles were written during his pontificate.

Some of the teachings of Leo were widely accepted in his lifetime as well as after his death. Pope Leo gained his reputation as an authoritative theologian mainly through his Tomos to Flavian. Leo earned the title “Great” because of the great influence he had on the history, doctrine, liturgical practice and spirituality of the Christian Church in the West. The oros of the IV Ecumenical Council included Christological formulas from the “Tomos ” where Leo put together the best achievements of the Christological thought, and later on the positive assessment of the “Tomos ” was given by a number of church councils of the V-VIII centuries; its separate expressions were also included in the dogmatic works of St. Anastasius of Sinaitus, St. Maximus the Confessor and St. John Damascene. Leo’s contribution to the Western liturgical tradition, which bears the deep mark of his editorial activity, is also significant.

  • 12.1 Ambrose of Milan

  • 12.2 Jerome and Rufin

  • 12.3 St. Augustine of Hippo

  • 12.4 Leo the Great

Western Fathers

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