Leo

ON SAINT LEO, Bishop of Sens in Gaul,

ABOUT THE YEAR 540.

Leo, Bishop of Sens in Gaul (Saint)

BY G. H.

[1] The ancient ecclesiastical veneration of Saint Leo is shown by the more ancient Martyrologies, even those which we have written nearly a thousand years ago and afterwards: for these, after the Martyrs gathered by Saint Jerome, Sacred memory in the Martyrologies. being augmented in this matter toward the end, set him forth. Then Usuard, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Ghinius followed, with the Roman Martyrology. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology embraces the principal things done by him in this eulogy: "On the same day, April 22, at Sens of Saint Leo the Bishop and Confessor: who, a man of mercy substituted for Saint Paul, Eulogy from Saussay. sat seventeenth in order in that See: and powerful in word and work, after he had been present at various Councils of Gaul; had prudently and bravely opposed King Childebert, who was wonderfully usurping some unlawful power to himself in sacred matters; had placed Saint Aspasius as Chorepiscopus over the people of Melun, who by all means desired their own proper Bishop (through whose subsidiary labor he entirely uprooted the remaining seeds of impiety there, and subjected the whole town to the commands and service of Christ); at last having spent his age in every sanctity, and the Church being faithfully administered, he passed on to his reward. When dead, the glory of miracles, with which he had shone in life, accompanied him. For he was given burial in the church of Saints Gervase and Protase, where at his invocation many cures from diseases were heavenly performed: because of the grace of which that church at length was called by his own name: which formerly was given to the dwelling of monks, but now has become a parochial title, retaining both the protection and designation of the holy Confessor himself." So Saussay.

[2] The predecessor of Saint Leo is assigned Saint Paul, who with an ecclesiastical Office, but taken from the Common of a Confessor Pontiff, is venerated in the Church of Sens with a double rite on July 5, and after his brother Saint Heraclius (who is said to have been present at the baptism of Clovis I, King of the Franks) is said to have ruled the Church of Sens in the last years of the same King. successor of Saint Paul, We treated on February 6 in the Life of Saint Vedastus §3 on the year of the death of Sts. Remigius and Vedastus, and there we reported a letter written by Saint Remigius after the death of Clovis, of some controversy he is admonished by Saint Remigius, about the year of Christ 510, to three Bishops, Leo (as much as we gather) this one of Sens, Heraclius of Paris, and Theodosius of Auxerre, concerning Claudius the Priest, in whose case he complains that he was scorned by them. That letter is extant in Sirmond tome 1 of the Councils of Gaul p. 204. Saint Leo was present at the Council of Orléans II, but through a substitute Optatus the Priest, in the 22nd year of King Childebert, he was present at Councils in the years 531 and 536. that is of Christ 531. But at the Council of Orléans III he was present himself and signed third, in the 27th year of the said Childebert, of Christ 536. At the time when Childebert ruled as King at Paris, his brother Theodoric succeeded in the kingdom of Metz, afterwards called of the Austrasians; and to him in the year 533 his son Theodebert succeeded, who died in the year 548.

[3] The city of Sens was subject to this King Theodebert, but not the whole of that diocese: he acts with King Childebert that no episcopate be erected at Melun: for Melun, a city on the Seine between Paris and Sens, was under the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Sens, and in political rule of King Childebert, who for that reason wished to erect a bishopric at Melun: to whom Saint Leo the Bishop of Sens sent a letter, entreating that at Melun in the parish of his diocese, where there never was, no new Bishop be made. That letter Sirmond brought out from the Corbey MS. codex, and published it in tome 1 of the Councils of Gaul p. 258, which we here append, and it is of this sort.

[4] "To my Lord and most glorious Lord and in Christ son, King Childebert, Leo the Bishop. this letter sent to him I indicate that I have received the letter of your Highness with the honor which is fitting: in which you deign to hope, that for the ordaining of the Bishop of Melun, either our presence may be present or our consent. Let your glory know that we are very much astonished at this matter: that first without the command of the most glorious Lord our Prince, your son King Theodebert, to whose rule we are subject by the ordering of the kingdom, you enjoin that things which in past time were not done, should now be begun by our presence or consent. Especially, we could never suspect or believe, that you wished this injury either to our order or even to your times to be brought about: that we should permit our diocese, committed to us by God, and hitherto under God's favor guarded by the Pontifical order, as though we were negligent and slothful, to pass into the power of another, or that the solicitude should be transferred by irrational deliberation. Wherefore, greeting you with worthy and due affection of love in God, we ask and bear witness, that no Pontiff should dare to act against the statutes of the Fathers, by which he could, convicted by Synodal examination, be censured for unlawful presumption. Yet these things to your

times those things must be done by God's inspiration, so that both peace may be among the Priests, and the people may not be allowed to be torn away, by a new and unlawful ordination, from the care of their own Pastor. Keep, I beg, the statutes of the Fathers; and bound by the severity of the canons, do not suffer, as you write, at the petition of that people, another Bishop to be ordained while their own Priest still lives. For if they ask this, which is unlawful to believe, they are rather to be judged deserters than faithful: and the prayers of those whose petitions rather generate scandals, than preserve the peace beloved by God, ought not easily to be heard by the Prince. For as blessed are the feet bringing peace, so 'Woe' has been said to those through whom scandal comes. But if perchance they ask that another Bishop be made for them on this account, because we, the roads being blocked, cannot either send a Visitor to them, or come ourselves; this fault does not look upon us: for if the journey had not been blocked on your side, as you well know, for so long a time, although old or infirm, we could have sought out the people committed to us by ecclesiastical discipline, or certainly designated a Visitor, as the canons direct. For your glory ought both to believe and know well, that if contrary to the statutes of the canons any of the Bishops shall have wished without our consent to ordain a Bishop at Melun, until the notice of the Pope or a Synodal hearing, both those who have ordained, and he who has been ordained, shall be cut off from our communion." So far the said letter of Saint Leo, in what year it was written is not clear: but since in it Saint Leo calls himself an old man and infirm, he does not seem to have lived long after. He who is set up as his successor, by name Constitutus, subscribed to the Council of Orléans V, held in the 38th year of King Childebert, the year of Christ 547. We have a Breviary of Sens printed in the year 1625: in which this panegyric, distinguished in three Lessons to be recited at Matins, is prescribed.

[5] Lessons usually recited on his feast. "Today the precious one of the Lord, Leo, once the distinguished Prelate of the Church of Sens, now the excellent protector of the whole country before God, by a glorious passage, forsaking the earth and penetrating the heavens, has been restored to the presence of God. Let us not call that day of our blessed Father a funeral day but a festive day; not mournful but healthful; on which, putting an end to the long contest, having trampled on the world, cast down the devil, he shone forth a glorious victor. And like another Elijah, carried up in an angelic chariot, the triumphant athlete, wholly singular, ascended the heavenly Capitol. Not undeservedly Mother Church rejoices in his triumphs: whose singular examples she is adorned with. And universally indeed in every commemoration of Saints, reason persuades us to rejoice: but in the excellence of this Father rightly more copiously must we glory, who as our Pastor in the city, Teacher in the whole world, in that body whose head is Christ, has obtained so much dignity, that among its principal members he is consecrated both by name and by merit. Wherefore, although his exceeding sanctity has deserved renown in all the world; yet with us, and by us, is he more intently to be venerated: whom the presence of his sacred body magnifies, enriches with benefits, preserves by his intercession. For this is the man through whom the Gospel light shone forth for you, O Gaul, and through whom the radiance of sanctity and of miracles shone upon you: of whose glory, since we can say nothing worthy, let us now turn our voices and vows to him, let us solicit his sanctity with lowered minds, let us entreat him with fruitful prayers. Remember, most splendid Father Leo, remember your sons through the ages, and let not the ever-vigilant care of the Pastor forget his flock. Ask for correction of morals, pardon of sins, and the rewards of eternal joys."

[6] The parish church of Saint Leo at Sens These things from the said Breviary of Sens, which was afterwards reprinted, and the lessons of Saint Leo either augmented or changed; from which Charles le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 538 no. 71 cites this: "The people of Melun, not yet fully converted, he gained for Christ through Saint Aspasius, Bishop of Eauze." Of Aspasius, Patron of Melun, we treated on January 2, and we observed that he alone is called a Confessor, not a Bishop; and so he is different from Aspasius Bishop of Eauze; which the said le Cointe, living at Paris not far from Melun, could have examined better. Secondly at the year 541 no. 71 he alleges this from the Breviary of Sens: "Having worthily performed his episcopal office and obtained the eternal rewards, he was buried in the church of Saints Gervase and Protase in the suburb of Sens: at whose invocation God worked many cures of the sick and miracles. Whence it came to pass that that church, becoming a parochial title, was thereafter called by the name of Saint Leo himself": by which is confirmed what was reported above from Saussay, nor from elsewhere do we dare to hope for more about this Saint.