28 JUNE – SAINT LEO II (Pope and Confessor)

Leo Maneius was born in Sicily in 611. Known for his piety, he was proficient in Greek and Latin and learned in the science and literature of his times. He was also an excellent musician who reformed the music of the sacred hymns and psalms and wrote several liturgical hymns. Leo succeeded Saint Agatho to the See of Rome in 682. He approved the acts of the sixth General Council which was held at Constantinople under the Presidency of the Legates of the Apostolic See in the presence of the Emperor Constantine, the patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch, and one 170 bishops. This Council condemned Cyrus, Sergius, and Pyrrhus for teaching that there is in Christ only one Will and one Operation. Leo broke the pride of the Archbishops of Ravenna who had puffed themselves up under the power of the Exarchs, declaring that the elections of the clergy of Ravenna should be considered null until they had been confirmed by the authority of the Bishop of Rome. Leo II was a father to the poor, not only by providing money, but also by his acts, works and advice, by which he relieved the poverty and loneliness of widows and orphans. He led all to live holy and godly lives, not by mere preaching, but by the example of his own life. Leo governed the Church for only 9 months and 27 days. He died in 683 and was buried in the Basilica of Saint Peter. During his short pontificate he ordained 9 priests, 3 deacons and 23 bishops.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

It were fitting that our attention should not be diverted on this Vigil [of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul] from the august object which is occupying the Church in the preparation of her chants. But the triumph of Peter will shine out with all the more splendour in proportion as the testimony he rendered to the Son of God is shown to have been maintained with all fidelity during the long series of succeeding ages by the Pontiffs, inheritors of his primacy. For a considerable time, the twenty-eighth of June was consecrated to the memory of Saint Leo the Great. It was the day chosen by Sergius I for the Translation of the illustrious Doctor, and indeed a more magnificent usher into tomorrow’s Solemnity could hardly be desired.

From no other lips but his has Rome ever set forth in such elevated language the glories of these two Princes of the Apostles and her own fame. Never since the incomparable scene enacted at Caesarea Philippi has the Mystery of the Man-God been affirmed in manner so sublime, as on that day on which the Church, striking the impious Eutyches at Chalcedon, received from Leo the immortal formula of Christian Dogma. Peter once more spoke by the mouth of Leo. Yet far was the cause from being then ended: two centuries more were needed, and another Leo it was, he whom we this day celebrate, who had the honour of ending it at the Sixth Council.

The Spirit of God ever watchful over the development of the Sacred Liturgy, by no means wished any change to be effected on this day in the train of thought of the faithful people. Thus when towards the beginning of the fourteenth century the 11th of April was again assigned to Saint Leo I (for that was really the primitive place occupied by him on the Cycle), Saint Leo II, the anniversary of whose death was this 28th of June, and who until then had been merely commemorated on it, being now raised to the rank of a semi-double, came forward, as it were, to remind the Faithful of the glorious struggles maintained both by his predecessor and by himself in the order of Apostolic confession.

How was it that Saint Leo’s clear and complete exposition of the dogma and the anathemas of Chalcedon did not succeed in silencing the arguments of that heresy which refused to our nature its noblest title by denying that it had been assumed in its integrity by the Divine Word? Because for Truth to win the day it suffices not merely to expose the lie uttered by error. More than once, alas, history gives instances of the most solemn anathemas ending in nothing but lulling the vigilance of the guardians of the Holy City. The struggle seemed ended, the need of repose was making itself felt amid the combatants, a thousand other matters called for the attention of the Church’s rulers. And so while feigning utmost deference, ardour even, if needful for the new enactments, error went on noiselessly making profit of the silence which ensued after its defeat.

Then did its progress become all the more redoubtable at the very time it was pretending to have disappeared without leaving a track behind. Thanks, however, to the Divine Head who never ceases to watch over His work, such trials as we have been alluding to seldom reach to such a painful depth as that into which Leo II had to probe with steel and fire in order to save the Church. Once only has the terrified world beheld anathema strike the summit of the holy mount. Honorius, placed on the pinnacle of the Church, “had not made her shine with the splendour of apostolic doctrine, but by profane treason, had suffered the faith, which should be spotless, to be exposed to subversion” (Leon, II. Epist. Confirm. Concil. Constantinop. III.)

Leo II, therefore, sending forth his thunders in unison with the assembled Church against the new Eutychians and their accomplices, spared not even his predecessor. And yet, as all acknowledge, Honorius had otherwise been an irreproachable Pope. And even in the question at stake he had been far from either professing heresy or teaching error. In what, then, did his fault lie? The Emperor Heraclius, who by victory had reached the height of power, beheld with much concern how division persistently lived on between the Catholics of his Empire and the late disciples of Eutyches. The Bishop of the Imperial City, the Patriarch Sergius, fostered these misgivings in his master’s mind. Vain of a certain amount of political skill which he fancied himself to possess, he now aimed at re-establishing, by his sole effort, that unity which the Council of Chalcedon and Saint Leo the Great had failed to obtain: thus would he make himself a name. The disputants agreed in acknowledging two Natures in Jesus Christ. Hence to reply to these advances of theirs, one thing were needed, thought he: to impose silence on the question as to whether there are in Him two Wills or only one.

The enthusiasm with which this evident compromise was hailed by the various sects rebellious to the Fourth General Council showed well enough that they still preserved and hallowed all the venom of error. And the very fact of their denying or, (which came practically to the same thing), hesitating to acknowledge that in the Man-God there is any other Will than that proper to the Divine Nature, was equivalent to declaring that He had but assumed a semblance of Human Nature, since this Nature could by no means exist devoid of that Will which is proper to It. Therefore, the Monophysites or partisans of the one Nature in Christ, made no difficulty in henceforth being called by the name of Monothelites, or partisans of the one Will. Sergius, the apostle of this novel unity, might well congratulate himself: Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, hailed with one accord the benefit of this peace. Was not the whole East here represented in her patriarchates? If Rome in her turn would but acquiesce, the triumph would be complete!

Jerusalem, however, proved a jarring note in this strange concert. Jerusalem, the witness of the anguish suffered by the Man-God in His Human Nature, had heard Him cry out in the Garden of His Agony: “Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Yet, not My Will, but Yours be done! (Luke xxii. 42). The City of Dolours knew better than any other what to hold concerning these two Wills brought there face-to-face, yet which had by the heroism of Incomparable Love been maintained in such full harmony. The time for her to bear testimony was come. The Monk Sophronius, now her Bishop, was by his sanctity, courage and learning up to the mark for the task that lay before him. But while in the charity of his soul he was seeking to reclaim Sergius before appealing against him to the Roman Pontiff, the Bishop of Constantinople already took the initiative. He succeeded thus, by a hypocritical letter, in circumventing Honorius and in getting him to impose silence on the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Hence, when at last Saint Sophronius, at the head of the Bishops of his province assembled in council, thought it had become a positive duty on his own part to turn towards Rome, it was but to receive for answer a confirmation of the prohibition to disturb the peace. Woeful mistake! Yet withal, it by no means directly implicated the Infallible Magistracy. It was a measure exclusively political, but one which was, all the same, to cost bitter tears and much blood to the Church, and was to result fifty years later in the condemnation of the unfortunate Honorius.

The Holy Ghost, indeed, who has guaranteed the infallible purity of the doctrine flowing officially from the Apostolic Chair, has not pledged Himself to protect in a like degree from all failure, either the virtue, or the private judgement, or even the administrative acts of the Sovereign Pontiff. Entering into the views of this marvellous solidarity which the Creator made to reign both on Earth and in Heaven, the Man-God, when He founded the society of saints on the authentic and immutable basis of the Faith of Peter, willed that to the prayers of all should be confided the charge of completing his work by obtaining for the Successors of Peter such preservative graces as do not of themselves necessarily spring from the divine Constitution of the Church.

Meanwhile Mahomet was just letting loose his hordes upon the world. Heraclius was now to learn the worth of his Patriarch’s lying peace, and was to come down lower in shame than he had been exalted in glory by his victories over the Persians in the days when he had acted as the hero of the Cross. Palestine, Syria and Egypt fell simultaneously beneath the blows of the lieutenants of the Prophet. Sophronius, placed as he was in the very midst of the scene of invasion, grew still greater under trial. Abandoned by the Emperor where the defence of the empire was at stake, disavowed by Rome, as regarded Faith he alone intrepidly treated with Omar, as power opposed to power. And when about to die, still hoping against all hope in Rome, though thence had come a blow harder far to bear than that of the Caliph, he confided to Stephen of Dora, the supreme mission, which the latter thus relates:

“In his justice strong as a lion, contemning calumnies and intrigues, blessed Sophronius took me, unworthy as I am, and conducted me to the sacred spot of Calvary. There he bound me by an indissoluble engagement in these words: ‘You will have to render account to Him who being God was voluntarily crucified for us according to the Flesh on this spot, when on the day of His terrible Coming He will appear in glory to judge the living and the dead, if you defer or neglect the interests of His Faith now in peril. Well know you, that I cannot in the body do this thing, being hindered by the incursion of the Saracens which our sins have deserved. But set out as soon as possible, and go from these confines of the earth to to its furthest extremity until you reach the See Apostolic, there where are set the foundations of orthodox dogma. Go again and again, not once, not twice, but endlessly, and make known to the holy personages who reside in that place the shock that these lands of ours have sustained. Importunately, ceaselessly, implore and supplicate until Apostolic prudence at length determine by its canonical judgement the victory over these perfidious teachings.’”

The Bishop of Dora was faithful to the behest of Sophronius. When, twelve years later, he gave this touching narrative at the Council of Lateran in 649, it was then the third time that despite the snares and other difficulties of the times, he could say: “We have taken the wings of a dove, as David speaks, and we have come to declare our situation to this See, elevated in the sight of all, this sovereign, this principal See, where is to be found remedy for the wound that has been made on us.” Saint Martin I who received this appeal was one worthy to hear it, and soon afterwards he repaired by his own martyrdom the fault committed by Honorius, in suffering himself to be tricked by an impostor. His glorious death, followed by the tortures endured for the Truth by the saintly Abbot Maximus and his companions, prepared the victory which the heroic faith of Sophronius had announced to the Roman Pontiff. Admirable was this amends received by Holy Church for an odious silence: now were Her Doctors to be seen with tongue plucked out, still continuing by divine power to proclaim that Christian dogma which cannot be enchained, still with lopped-off hands finding means in their indomitable zeal to affix to the mutilated arm the pen whose function, now made doubly glorious, continued thus to carry throughout the world the refutation of Falsehood.

But it is time to come to the issue of this memorable contest. It is to be found in him whose feast we are this day celebrating. Saint Agatho had assembled the Sixth General Council at Constantinople at the request of another Constantine, an enemy of heresy and a victor over Islam. Faith and Justice now did the work, hand in hand. And Saint Leo II could at last sing aloud: “O holy Mother Church, put off your garb of mourning and deck in robes of gladness. Exult now with joyous confidence: your liberty is not cramped.”

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O GLORIOUS Pontiff, to you was granted the privilege of completing the Apostolic confession by giving the furthest development to the testimony rendered by Peter to the Son of the Living God who is at the same time, Son of Man. Worthy were you to finish the work of a Sylvester, of a Celestine, and of that other Leo, a Pontiff beloved of Earth and Heaven. Convoking, inspiring, confirming the illustrious Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon, they had triumphantly proved in our Emmanuel both His Divinity Consubstantial with the Father, and His Unity of Person, which causes Mary to be truly His Mother and, furthermore, His two-fold Nature without which He could not have been our Brother.

Now Satan, who had allowed himself to be more easily overcome on the first two points, defended the third with utmost rage. As on that great battle day when he was hurled from Heaven, the form of his revolt had been a refusal to adore God under human features. So now, together with all Hell enforced by Holy Church to bend the knee, his jealousy would fain pretend that at least God had taken of man but a mutilated nature. Let it be granted that the Word was made Flesh, but in this Flesh allow not that He had other impulses, other energies, save those of the Divinity Itself. Such an inert nature as this, uncrowned of its proper Will, would in reality be no Human Nature, even though It were to retain all the rest. Then would Lucifer, in his pride, have less cause to blush, for then man, the object of his infernal envy, would have nothing in common with the Divine Word save a vain appearance!

Thanks be to you, Leo, thanks be to you, in the name of all mankind! By you, in face of Heaven, Earth and Hell is promulgated authentically the incomparable title by which without any restriction our nature is established at the Right Hand of the Father in the highest heavens. By you, Our Lady consummates her crushing of the vile serpent’s head. But what craft was displayed by Satan in this campaign, prolonged as it was during two centuries, and so noiselessly too, the better to secure success! What exultation rang through the abyss when one sad day saw the representative of Him who is essential Light appear to side for a moment with the powers of darkness in bringing on a cloud, which would interpose itself betwixt Heaven and those mountains of God where He dwells with His Vicar. It is but too probable that the social aid of intercession was weaker just then than it should have been.

Be ever at hand, Leo, to ward off all similarly dangerous situations. Uphold in every age the Pastor who rules Christ’s Church that he may keep himself aloof from the darkening mists that Earth exhales. Keep ever alive in the breast of the faithful flock that strong prayer which should continually he made without ceasing for him by the Church (Acts xii. 5), and then Peter, were he even chained in the depths of the darkest dungeon, will be reached by the Sun of Justice and clearly see his way in that pure ray. Then will the whole body of the Church be light. For, Jesus has said, “the light of the body is the eye: if the eye be single the whole body will be light” (Matthew vi. 22).

Taught thus by you how great is the price of the benefit conferred by Our Lord on the world when He gave her to rest on the infallible teaching of Peter’s successors, we are all the better prepared to celebrate tomorrow’s Feast. We realise more fully the strength of the Rock on which the Church stands. We know that the gates of Hell will never prevail against her (Matthew xvi. 18). For surely the efforts of the spirits of darkness never went to such lengths as they did in that sad crisis to which you put an end: nor was their success, however great in appearance, contrary to the divine promise: for it is to the teaching of Peter, not to his silence that the unfailing assistance of the Holy Ghost is guaranteed. Loving Pontiff, obtain for us, together with uprightness of faith, that heavenly enthusiasm with which it behoves us to hail Peter and the Man-God, blended together in such unity as the same Jesus Himself has made to exist between the two. Deeply is the Liturgy indebted to you. Grant us, then, to relish ever more and more, the hidden manna it contains, and may our hearts and voices fittingly render these sacred melodies!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, in the persecution of Severus, the holy martyrs Plutarch, Serenus, Heraclides, catechumen, Heron, neophyte, another Serenus, Rhais, catechumen, Potamicena and Marcella, her mother. Among them, the virgin Potamioena is particularly distinguished. She first endured many most painful trials for the preservation of her virginity, and then cruel and unheard-of torments for the faith, after which she and her mother were consumed with fire.

The same day, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Papius, martyr, who was scourged with knotted cords, cast into a cauldron of seething oil and grease, and after other horrible torments, was decapitated and thus won an eternal crown.

At Maestricht, St. Benignus, bishop and martyr.

At Cordova, St. Argymirus, monk and martyr, who was slain for the faith of Christ during the persecution of the Arabs.

At Rome, St. Paul, pope and confessor.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.