Leo the Great
Pope Saint Leo the Great is honored as a patron of popes and of theologians for the very reasons he is called “the Great”: his Tome to Flavian gave the Church the precise formula of the two natures united in the one Person of Christ, which the Council of Chalcedon in 451 acclaimed with the cry “Peter has spoken through Leo.” That triumph of doctrine over heresy makes him a fitting intercessor in theological disputes. His meeting with Attila the Hun in 452, after which the invader withdrew from Italy, gives him the further character of a protector against invasion and a model of steady leadership.
Pope Saint Leo the Great served as Pope from 440 to 461 and is one of only three popes called “the Great.” He is best known for persuading Attila the Hun to turn back from invading Rome in 452, and for his Tome, a letter defining the two natures of Christ that was accepted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
