St. Leo the Great - Tome of Leo

“This is the faith by which the Catholic Church lives and progresses, namely, that humanity is believed to exist in Jesus Christ not without real divinity, and divinity, not without real humanity.”

The papacy of Pope Leo I  saw the convening of the Catholic Church’s fourth ecumenical council: the Council of Chalcedon. 

The Tome of Leo was a central document debated during the Church's fourth ecumenical council, the Council of Chalcedon, at which the hypostatic union of Christ’s twofold nature—human and divine—was definitively set forth. This council took place during the papacy of Pope Leo I, described by Pope Benedict XVI as “undoubtedly one of the most important in Church history.”

Written in the form of a letter, the Tome is addressed to Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople. Flavian had recently excommunicated a certain presbyter by the name of Eutyches, who had taught what would come to be known as the heresy of Monophysitism: the denial of Christ’s twofold nature and the insistence that in Christ there is only one nature, wholly divine.

Leo invokes the text of the Nicene Creed and references Scripture throughout. He illustrates that humanity and divinity both truly exist in the Person of Christ, the Incarnate Word, and that other mysteries of the faith—notably, Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary and our Redemption—depend upon this mystery.

The Tome was eventually accepted as doctrinal. To this day it remains a foundational text of Christology, and it is perhaps the theological contribution for which St. Leo the Great is most remembered.

Links

Translation courtesy of Catholic University of America Press: https://verbum.com/product/120407/saint-augustine-christian-instruction-admonition-and-grace-the-christian-combat-faith-hope-and-charity

Alternate Translation at CatholicCulture.org: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2133

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