St. Leo the Great, Pope of Rome

Bishop of Rome from 440 to 461, whom the Orthodox Church keeps among the Fathers. His letter to Flavian of Constantinople, the Tome, set out that Christ is one Person in two natures, each doing what belongs to it, and at Chalcedon it was read aloud and received with the acclamation that Peter had spoken through Leo and that Cyril had taught the same: the bishops accepted it because they had checked it against St Cyril, not because Rome had spoken. He himself refused to accept the council’s twenty-eighth canon, which gave Constantinople the second place. He met Attila outside Rome in 452 and the city was spared. Feast: February 18.