St Leo the Great

Leo served as Pope of Rome from 440 to 461, in a world where the Western empire was visibly collapsing around the church he led. His enduring gift to the whole Church is the Tome — his letter to Flavian of Constantinople setting out with Roman clarity how the one Christ is true God and true man, each nature complete, united in one person. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451 the assembled bishops received it with the cry, 'Peter has spoken through Leo!' and its balance shaped the council's definition of faith. Leo was also a shepherd in crisis: in 452 he travelled north to meet Attila the Hun and persuaded him to turn back from Rome, and in 455 he could not stop the Vandal sack but won a pledge to spare the people from slaughter and the city from burning. Nearly a hundred of his sermons survive — lucid, festal, and pastoral: 'Christian, remember your dignity.'

St Leo the Great is also one of the Church Fathers — read their biography, works, and verse-by-verse commentary.