[Rank]
S. Leonis I. Papee Confessoris Ecclesise Doctoris;;Duplex;;3;;vide C4a

[Rule]
vide C4a;mtv
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that the worshipful Feast of thy blessed Confessor and Pope Leo, may avail us to the in crease both of godliness toward thee, and healthfulness to our own souls.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio1]
Lesson from the first letter of St Peter the Apostle
!1 Pet 1:1-5
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect,
2 According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you and peace be multiplied.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that can not fade, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who, by the power of God, are kept by faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

[Lectio2]
!1 Pet 1:6-12
6 Wherein you shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8 Whom having not seen, you love: in whom also now, though you see him not, you believe: and believing shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified;
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and diligently searched, who prophesied of the grace to come in you.
11 Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did signify: when it foretold those sufferings that are in Christ, and the glories that should follow:
12 To whom it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you they ministered those things which are now declared to you by them that have preached the gospel to you, the Holy Ghost being sent down from heaven, on whom the angels desire to look.

[Lectio3]
!1 Pet 1:13-21
13 Wherefore having the loins of your mind girt up, being sober, trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you in the revelation of Jesus Christ,
14 As children of obedience, not fashioned according to the former desires of your ignorance:
15 But according to him that hath called you, who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy:
16 Because it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy.
17 And if you invoke as Father him who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every one's work: converse in fear during the time of your sojourning here.
18 Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers:
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled,
20 Foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times for you,
21 Who through him are faithful in God, who raised him up from the dead, and hath given him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

[Lectio4]
Leo was an Etruscan who ruled the Church at the time when Attila, king of the Huns, whose surname is the Scourge of God, invaded Italy, and after a siege of three years, took, sacked, and burnt Aquileia. Thence he was hurrying to Rome, on fire with anger, and his troops were already preparing to cross the Po, at the place where that river is joined by the Mincio, when he was met by Leo, moved with compassion at the thought of the ruin which hung over Italy. By his God-given eloquence, Attila was persuaded to turn back, and when he was afterwards asked by his servants why, contrary to his custom, he had so meekly yielded to the entreaties of the Bishop of Rome, he answered that he had been alarmed by a figure dressed like a Priest, which had appeared at the side of Leo while he was speaking, holding a drawn sword, and had made as though to kill the king unless he consented. And so he returned into Pannonia.

[Lectio5]
While Leo went back to Rome, where he was received with rejoicing by all men. A while later, Genseric entered the city, but Leo, by the power of his eloquence and the authority of his holy life, persuaded him to abstain from fire, insult,~
and slaughter. When Leo beheld how the Church was assailed by many heresies, and in dire trouble through the Nestorians and Eutychians, to purify the same and establish her in the Catholic Faith, he called the Council of Chalcedon, where, in an assembly of six hundred and thirty Bishops Nestorius was again condemned, along with Eutyches and Dioscorus; the decrees of which Council were confirmed by the authority of Leo.

[Lectio6]
After these matters, this holy Pope set himself to the restoration and building of Churches. By his advice that godly woman Demetria built the Church of St Stephen upon her farm on the Latin Road, at the third milestone from the city. He himself built another Church upon the Appian Way, which Church is called that of St Cornelius. He restored likewise many other Churches, and the holy vessels used therein. He built Clergy -houses at the three Basilicas of Peter, Paul, and~
Constantine. He built a monastery hard by the Basilica of St Peter. He appointed for the graves of the Apostles certain keepers, whom he called the Chamberlains of the said Apostles. He ordained that in the action of the Mystery should be uttered the words An holy sacrifice, an offering without spot. He ordered that no nun should have the covering of her head blessed 4 until she had made trial of her virginity for forty years. After doing all these and other illustrious works, and after he had written much that is both godly and easy to be understood, he fell asleep in the Lord on the eleventh day of April, (in the year 461.) He held the Papal See for twenty years, one month, and thirteen days.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 16:13-19
At that time Jesus came into the coasts of Cassarea Philippi, and He asked His disciples, saying Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And so on.
_
Homily by Pope St Leo (the Great)
!2nd on the anniversary of his own election.
When the Lord, as we read in the Evangelist, asked His disciples Who did men, amid their divers speculations, believe that He, the Son of Man, was; blessed Peter answered and said Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father, Which is in heaven and I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Thus therefore standeth the ordinance of the Truth, and blessed Peter, abiding still that firm rock which God hath made him, hath never lost that right to rule in the Church which God hath given unto him.

[Lectio8]
In the universal Church it is Peter that doth still say every day, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and every tongue which confesseth that Jesus~
is Lord is taught that confession by the teaching of Peter. This is the faith that overcometh the devil and looseth the bands of his prisoners. This is the faith which maketh men free of the world and bringeth them to heaven, and the gates of hell are impotent to prevail against it. With such ramparts of salvation hath God fortified this rock, that the contagion of heresy will never be able to infect it, nor idolatry and unbelief to overcome it. This teaching it is, my dearly beloved brethren, which maketh the keeping of this Feast to-day to be our reasonable service, even the teaching which maketh you to know and honour in myself, lowly though I be, that Peter who is still entrusted with the care of all other shepherds and of all the flocks to them committed, and whose authority I have, albeit unworthy to be his heir.

[Lectio9]
When, therefore, we address our exhortations to your godly ears, believe ye that ye are hearing him speak whose office we are discharging. Yea, it is with his love for you that we warn you, and we preach unto you no other thing than that which he taught, entreating you that ye would gird up the loins of your mind and lead pure and sober lives in the fear of God. My disciples dearly beloved, ye are to me, as the disciples of the Apostle Paul were to him, (Phil.~
iv. 1,) a crown and a joy, if your faith, which, in the first times of the Gospel, was spoken of throughout the whole world, (Rom. i. 8,) abide still lovely and holy. For, albeit it behoveth the whole Church which is spread throughout all the world, to be strong in righteousness, you it chiefly becometh above all other peoples to excel in worth and godliness, whose house is built upon the very crown of the Rock of the Apostle, and whom not only hath our Lord Jesus Christ, as He hath redeemed all men, but whom also His blessed Apostle Peter hath made the foremost object of his teaching.
&teDeum

[Lectio94]
Leo I, an Etruscan, ruled over the Church at the time when Attila, King of the Huns and called the Scourge of God, was invading Italy ; he had taken and burned Aquileia and was preparing his forces to attack Rome. Leo went out to meet him and, by God-given eloquence, persuaded him to withdraw ; then Leo was welcomed back to Rome with great rejoicing. A little later, when Genseric was invading the city, Leo persuaded him, with the same forceful eloquence, to abstain from burning, outrages and slaughter. When Leo saw the Church harassed by many heresies, and especially by the Nestorians and the Eutychians, he called the Council of Chalcedon at which, with six hundred and thirty bishops assembled, Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemned and the condemnation of Nestorius repeated. The decrees of this Council were then confirmed by Leo's authority. He constructed many churches and built a monastery near the Basilica of St. Peter. After a life filled with these and other admirable works, including a great number of holy and eloquent writings, he fell asleep in the Lord on the tenth day of November, in the twenty-first year of his pontificate.
&teDeum
