Download This week we continue our survey of the Fathers of the Church with

This week we continue our survey of the Fathers of the Church with a look at two more Fathers
from the Western Church.
St. Leo the Great was Pope from 440 A.D. until his death in 461 A.D. The year of his birth is
unknown. He was from Tuscany, in the region around present day Florence, but became an
archdeacon of the church of Rome, serving in important missions under popes Celestine and
Sixtus III.
Leo was pope during a time of great upheaval, both in the Church and in the State. The Roman
Empire in the West was in the last stages of political disintegration, as barbarian invaders
overran Roman territory and pillaged at will. In 452, Leo was instrumental in persuading Attila,
the fearsome leader of the Huns, to forgo his planned invasion of Italy, and when Geseric, the
leader of the Vandals, entered Rome in 455 at the head of a conquering army, he convinced the
barbarian commander to spare the lives of the Roman citizenry.
Leo also confronted a profound crisis in the Church. The unity of the Eastern Church was
threatened by doctrinal disagreements and jealous rivalries among the principal sees of
Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople. Leo vigorously promoted the primacy of the Roman
see—and his role as the successor of St. Peter—as the divinely appointed means of preserving
the doctrinal and ecclesiastical unity of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Leo
formulated his famous Tome in 449 to articulate the Church’s faith that Jesus Christ was true
God and true man in response to those in the East who denied that Jesus possessed a human
nature distinct from his divine nature. This latter position, called monophysitism (meaning ‘one
nature’), was held by a prominent priest in Constantinople called Eutyches, who was supported
both by the Roman emperor, Theodosius II, and the patriarch of Alexandria, Dioscorus.
In 449, Theodosius summoned an ecumenical council to meet in Ephesus under the presidency
of Dioscorus. With the emperor’s backing, the council rejected Leo’s Tome, affirmed
monophysitism as the faith of the Church, and deposed Flavian, the patriarch of Constantinople,
who had condemned the teaching of Eutyches as contrary to the apostolic faith. Leo
subsequently called the council of 449 a ‘robbers’ synod’ and refused to recognize it as a true
ecumenical council. The situation changed in 450 with the death of Theodosius II. The new
emperor called for a new council to meet in 451 at Chalcedon. There, Leo’s Tome on the two
natures of Christ was proclaimed as a true statement of the apostolic faith and the council
fathers declared, “Peter has spoken through Leo.” Leo’s feast day is December 10.
The following is from a letter of Leo to Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople, concerning the
two natures of Christ:
“No doubt the Son of God in his omnipotence could have taught and sanctified men by
appearing to them in a semblance of human form as he did to the patriarchs and prophets,
when for instance he engaged in a wrestling contest or entered into conversation with them, or
when he accepted their hospitality and even ate the food they set before him. But these
appearances were only types, signs that mysteriously foretold the coming of one who would
take a true human nature from the stock of the patriarchs who had gone before him. For unless
the new man, by being made in the likeness of sinful humanity, had taken on himself the nature
of our first parents, unless he had stooped to be one in substance with his mother while sharing
the Father’s substance and, being alone free from sin, united our nature to his, the whole
human race would still be held captive under the dominion of Satan. The Conqueror’s victory
would have profited us nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition. But
through this wonderful blending the mystery of new birth shone upon us, so that through the
same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and brought forth we too might be born again in a
spiritual birth; and in consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been born not of
blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Letter 31, 3)
St. Gregory the Great lived from 540-604 A.D. He was pope from 590 A.D. until his death. He
was a Roman from a wealthy and politically influential family. His father was a senator and
Gregory, while yet in his late twenties, became prefect of the city of Rome. In his early thirties,
he abandoned his worldly career, sold all his possessions, and entered monastic life as a
member of a monastery he founded in Rome.
Gregory was compelled to leave monastic life by Pope Benedict I, who ordained him a deacon
and put him in charge of providing for the poor living in the city of Rome. In 578, Benedict’s
successor, Pope Pelagius II, appointed Gregory papal representative to the imperial court in
Constantinople, where he served for seven years, returning to Rome in 585 to resume his life as
a monk. In 590, at the death of Pelagius, the clergy and people of Rome elected him pope.
By the late 6th century, Italy was beset by famine and pestilence. The Empire, centered in
Constantinople, was no longer able to provide for the civil administration of the Italian peninsula
or defend it against the incursion of German barbarians. Gregory, therefore, took matters into
hand and used the prestige of the papal office to bring political order to Italy independently of
the Empire, thus laying the groundwork for the medieval papacy. Gregory inaugurated a mission
to England that resulted in the conversion of the Angles and Saxons to Catholic Christianity. He
was also an ardent promoter of monasticism. His feast day is September 3.
Gregory was a pastor of eminent skill and practicality, stressing the importance of living a wellordered life of faith. In the following sermon on Ezekiel, he reflects on the challenges of his own
ministry as pope:
“We read in Ezekiel, Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Note that
a man whom the Lord sends forth as a preacher is called a watchman. A watchman always
stands on a height so that he can see from afar what is coming. Anyone appointed to be a
watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight. How
hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any
competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my
own preaching.
I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the
acknowledgement of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge. Indeed when I was in the
monastery I could curb my idle talk and usually be absorbed in my prayers. Since I assumed the
burden of pastoral care, my mind can no longer be collected; it is concerned with so many
matters.
With my mind divided and torn to pieces by so many problems, how can I meditate or preach
wholeheartedly without neglecting the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel? Moreover, in my
position I must often communicate with worldly men. At time I let my tongue run, for if I am
always sever in my judgments, the worldly will avoid me, and I can never attack them as I
would. As a result I often listen patiently to chatter. And because I too am weak, I find myself
drawn little by little into idle conversation, and I begin to talk freely about matters which once I
would have avoided. What once I found tedious I now enjoy.
So who am I to be watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the
valley of weakness? Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in
spite of my weaknesses, a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare
myself in speaking of him.”
Next week, we will conclude our survey of the Fathers of the Church by considering the greatest
of all the Western Fathers of the Church and perhaps, of the entire Church, East or West, the
great St. Augustine.
Have a great week!
Father Tappe