The pope who talked Attila the Hun into turning around — and gave the Church its clearest words on who Christ is.

The Facts

Leo was real. He was born about 400, probably in Tuscany, and became Pope on September 29, 440, reigning until his death on November 10, 461 — which is why his feast is today. His paperwork is unusually good for a fifth-century pope: nearly a hundred of his sermons survive, and more than a hundred of his letters. In 451 his Tome — a letter to Flavian of Constantinople setting out what the Church believes about Christ, fully God and fully man in one person — was read aloud at the Council of Chalcedon and acclaimed by the bishops there. The next year, 452, he rode out to meet Attila the Hun at the River Mincio in northern Italy, and Attila turned his army back. Three years later, in 455, he met Genseric the Vandal outside Rome and persuaded him to spare the city from burning and slaughter, though the Vandals still looted it for two weeks. The Church named him a Doctor of the Church in 1754, and "the Great" is a title only two other popes share.

The Story

Now the whisper everybody knows him by: Attila, the Scourge of God, at the head of an army that had flattened cities across Europe, and one unarmed old pope riding out to meet him. The story goes — and it is a good one — that Attila saw two figures with drawn swords standing beside Leo, and turned around rather than face them. Tradition says they were St. Peter and St. Paul; nobody can prove a vision, and the meeting itself is the history. What the record does give us is the scene at Chalcedon: when Leo's Tome was read, the bishops cried out, "Peter has spoken through Leo!" — the loudest review a letter ever got. He was, by every account, a man whose voice carried further than his army ever could.

The Following

His feast is November 10. Churches and schools carry his name across the world, and his sermons are still read aloud in the Church's daily prayer on his feast and through Advent, when his words about Christ's coming fit the season. Theologians still quote the Tome whenever the question of who Christ is comes up — seventeen centuries on, it has never been retired.

The Rituals & Customs

Leo keeps no lantern procession and no bakery shelf — his rite is quieter, and it suits him. On his feast, his people read one of his sermons aloud, often the Christmas sermon that begins "Christian, recognize your dignity," and light a candle for peacemakers and for anyone who must speak steadily into a frightening room. In Rome, his tomb in St. Peter's Basilica is visited by pilgrims who stop, pray, and remember the pope who met an army with words. The Grove-sized version: light one candle tonight, read his dignity line aloud once, and name the one conversation you have been avoiding — then take its first step tomorrow.

In His Own Words

From his Christmas sermon, Sermon 21: "Christian, recognize your dignity, and now that you share in God's own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition." It is the most quoted line he ever wrote, and it is the whole of Leo in one sentence: you are more than you think, so act like it.

Where to Find His Writings

Yes — his writings survive in good shape: nearly a hundred sermons and more than a hundred letters. In English, look for the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 12, which carries his sermons and letters in full, or for modern selections of his sermons published for Advent and Christmas reading.

Reach for him when: you need a steady voice in a frightening room, a clear word when everyone else is shouting, or the nerve to meet something big with nothing but the truth.