ON ST. LEO THE WONDERWORKER, BISHOP OF CATANIA IN SICILY
AROUND THE YEAR 780.
Preliminary Commentary.
Leo the Wonderworker, Bishop of Catania in Sicily (Saint)
By I. B.
[1] At Catania, a celebrated city of Sicily, around the year of Christ 600, Leo was Bishop, of whom there is frequent mention in the epistles of St. Gregory the Great, both to him and to others. A second Leo administered the same Church approximately 170 years after him, distinguished for holiness and miracles, and for that reason enrolled in the registers of the Saints. Born at Ravenna, he is reported to have been a Priest of that Church in the Greek Anthology of Antonius Arcudius St. Leo of Ravenna and the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy by Philippus Ferrarius, and thence called to the episcopal dignity at Catania. It is remarkable that the most accurate writer of Ravennese history, Hieronymus Rubeus, made no mention of him — although he records another Leo of Ravenna, a contemporary of his, who was Archbishop and died in the year 777.
[2] Roccus Pirrus, in the Notice of the Church of Catania, page 7, writes that Leo II, on account of the remarkable multitude of his miracles, was surnamed the Wonderworker — perhaps a Benedictine monk... born in the territory of Ravenna, and, moved by the fame of the holiness of Cyrillus, Bishop of Reggio, he set out to him without his parents' knowledge.
he was kindly received by him, was made a Priest, and made the greatest progress by word and example. perhaps educated at Reggio? When, however, at Catania, upon the death of Bishop Sabinus, the whole city, having proclaimed a three-day fast, was petitioning the Lord for a Bishop to be chosen, the name of Leo entered the minds of each one by divine inspiration. Although he was unwillingly assumed to the episcopate, he becomes Bishop of Catania he was led from Reggio to Catania with the greatest honor. So writes Pirrus, who cites a Breviary, I know not which, nor how ancient. The Life relates that he was born from the most celebrated Metropolis of Ravenna, where he had also vigorously administered the care of ecclesiastical affairs entrusted to him.
[3] That Life, or rather the oration written in his praise, was sent here from Catania in the year 1626 to Heribert Rosweyde by our Francis Blanditius, translated from the Greek — whether by him or by another, praised in an oration by a contemporary writer I do not know. Some words are occasionally missing, which I believe were absent from the Greek codex itself. Moreover, that oration appears to have been written before the year 787, in which the seventh Ecumenical Synod, or the second of Nicaea, was held. For in the Exordium it speaks thus: "We orthodox, adhering to the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles, and with steadfast minds preserving the faith intact according to the sacred six Synods." At that time, therefore, only six Synods had been held. before the year 787 And in number 8 it says: "Having received the report, our Emperors Leo and Constantine," etc. Since the orator calls them "ours," he shows that he lived under them.
[4] And from this also the age of St. Leo is established, who held the Church of Catania during the reign of Leo, the son of Constantine Copronymus, and was summoned to Constantinople by him and by his son Constantine Porphyrogennetus. Nor should anyone suspect that this occurred under Leo the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus, since St. James, who presided over the Church of Catania before St. Sabinus — the predecessor of St. Leo — is said to have undergone martyrdom under Copronymus, of which we shall treat on March 21. Upon the most unhappy death of Copronymus on September 14, 776, his son Leo took up the empire, and in the following year, on Easter Day itself, he arranged for his son Constantine to be crowned Emperor. The same Emperor Leo afterward died in September of the year 780. he lived around 780 Constantine, ten years old, assumed the governance of the state under the guardianship of his mother Irene. Before that year, therefore, St. Leo the Bishop had been summoned to Constantinople. He died, moreover, before the year 787, in which Theodore, Bishop of Catania and his successor, was present at the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, or the Second of Nicaea (as can be seen in the Acts).
[5] St. Leo is venerated on February 20, as is evident from the Greek Menaea, from which we shall append an epitome of his life to the oration written by a contemporary (as we said), inscribed in the Martyrologies as well as a shorter one from the Greek Anthology of Antonius Arcudius. He is also celebrated with this eulogy in the Roman Martyrology: "At Catania in Sicily, St. Leo the Bishop, who shone with virtues and miracles." Franciscus Maurolycus writes: "At Catania in Sicily, Leo the Bishop, who, armed with the power of Christ, destroyed the renowned magician Heliodorus by flames." Constantius Felicius has the same. But Petrus Galesinius: "At Catania in Sicily, St. Leo the Bishop and Confessor, most illustrious for the innocence of his life, his piety, his learning in sacred letters, and the praise of things divinely and wonderfully accomplished." Canisius also treats of him in the German Martyrology, Constantinus Ghinius in the Birthdays of the Canonized Saints, Molanus in his supplement to Usuard, and our Octavius Caietanus in his Outline of the Work on the Saints of Sicily; likewise Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy from the Anthology and other sources — but he erroneously adds that the fire which consumed the magician at Leo's prayers was sent down from heaven.
[6] Thomas Fazellus also makes mention of St. Leo in his work On Sicilian Affairs, decade 1, book 3, chapter 1, page 59, writing thus: "Diodorus also — whom the common people call Liodorus — a man imbued with the magical art, flourished at Catania with a marvelous contrivance of illusions. Heliodorus, or Liodorus, a wicked magician For by the powerful force of his spells he seemed to be able to change men into brute animals, to pour the forms of nearly all things into new metamorphoses, and suddenly to draw to himself persons situated at very great distances from him. Moreover, he so harassed the citizens of Catania with frequent injuries and dishonored them with insults that, ensnared in the toils of the most vain credulity, they were stirred up to eagerness in paying him worship. When he was guilty of a capital crime and was to be delivered to the cross, by the most effective art of his enchanting spells he ordered himself to be carried through the air from Catania to Byzantium — whose rule Sicily was then subject to — and back again from Byzantium to Catania, having slipped from the hands of the executioners, within a short space of time. By which sorceries he became so admired by the people, and matters at last reached such a point, that, believing there was a certain divine power in him, with sacrilegious error they rendered to him the worship due to sacred things. But at last, by Leo, Bishop of Catania, he delivers him to the fire he was unexpectedly seized by divine power, in a great assembly of people in the middle of the city, cast into a fiery furnace, and consumed by fire."
[7] Thus Fazellus, exaggerating somewhat the things that are contained in the Life, from which Pirrus, cited above, transcribed some things; and he adds the following, expressed succinctly in the Life and the Menaea: "This also is found to be memorable: he overthrows profane idols by his prayers that by Leo's prayers a shrine of the utmost superstition — on whose summit two enormous idols, fashioned with marvelous skill and placed there by magical art, stood forth (and which could never be overthrown by his predecessor Bishops, since earthquakes and the violence of thunderbolts were accustomed to arise whenever they attempted it) — was split into four parts, and the idols were crushed into the tiniest fragments." He cites certain other authors who make mention of the illustrious deeds of St. Leo; we have not yet seen them.
[8] Pirrus adds that St. Leo was buried in his own monastery not far from the walls of the city, on the tenth day before the Kalends of March. What was that monastery? Why does he call it his own, that is, Leo's? his relics now unknown Finally he adds that the sacred relics of the body have not yet been found. That his tomb was once famous, at least before Sicily was occupied by the Saracens, is evident from the Menaea, which in a certain canticle assert: "Divine oil, as if flowing from a fountain, ceaselessly gushing from the honored coffin of the wise chief shepherd." once renowned for miracles Whether these words signify only that the healing of various ailments was customarily obtained at his sepulchre, or that from it, as from the tombs of many other Saints, some health-giving ointment flowed forth, is not sufficiently clear. The Menaea proclaim certain things about his virtues, from which it would seem possible to conjecture that another history of his life and miracles once existed.
LIFE BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR, from a Greek Manuscript Codex.
Leo the Wonderworker, Bishop of Catania in Sicily (Saint)
By a contemporary author, from a Greek manuscript.
EXORDIUM.
[1] Fathers, sons, and brethren: the Catholic and Apostolic Church — that sweet and spiritual mother of ours — exhorts us that, having cast aside the profane opinions of the heathen and heretics, we should embrace the wisdom sent to us from God, and, as befits Christians, peruse the books of both the New and Old Testaments. For in these resides the fountain of our life, from which fountain the mystical garden of the Church is irrigated by the streams of the sacred pool. God is to be trusted against heretics Whence also the ancient enemy of our nature, the devil, and the heresiarchs — disciples and satellites of Satan — Manes, Arius, Nestorius, Sabellius, Marcellus, Basilides, and all the rest, were laid low and utterly crushed by the tireless zeal, vigilance, and labors of the holy Fathers. Thus therefore we also, as orthodox, adhering to the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and with steadfast minds preserving the faith intact according to the sacred six Synods, ought always to fix our hope in Him who through the Evangelists provokes us to ask and says: "Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." Luke 11:9
[2] Supported indeed by this hope, I — devoid of eloquence — have come forward to praise Leo, most illustrious by his own praise, Leo of Ravenna born from the most celebrated Metropolis of Ravenna, where he also vigorously administered the care of ecclesiastical affairs entrusted to him. When Bishop Sabinus had died, and the inhabitants of this city were in tumult investigating who might be worthy of the office of the priesthood as his successor, God sent hither this most suitable one, Blessed Leo — the pillar of all virtues, illustrious not only in name but far more in deeds and character — to adorn the Chair of our Archbishop St. Beryllus. For, earnestly striving to carry out the precepts of God, by whom he had been chosen, he becomes Bishop of Catania he omitted no part of his duty. Above all, he bore constant care for the poor, embraced widows and orphans, and often repeated in prayer: and lives in holiness "Let Your eyes, O Lord, be open and Your ears attentive to the prayers of those who come to You."
[3] In his time, therefore, there was a certain magician named Heliodorus, the son of Barbara the Patrician — a wicked cooperator of demons in word and deed. A Christian indeed, and born of Christians; but since he burned with the desire of obtaining a prefecture and dared not speak of it, lest he be rendered hateful on account of his ambition, Heliodorus the ambitious one, by the fraud of a Jewish magician he summoned to himself a certain Jew renowned for magical arts and asked him whether he could accomplish what he wished. The Jew replied: "If you wish to carry out whatever is set in your mind, behold, I offer you this paper. Go at the dead of night to the tombs of the heroes, climb the great column, and there tear the paper into the air. Nor need you concern yourself with anything else, except that when you see someone coming to you, have no fear; and if he orders you to come down, do not come down — for soon he will comply with whatever you demand of him." Without delay, Heliodorus obeyed: he climbed the column, he is given over to the demon tore up the paper, and immediately the demon presented himself to his sight, saying: "Why are you here, young man?" And he replied: "For your sake." Then the demon, mounted on a stag, said: "If you now abjure Christ from your heart, I command one of my servants, Gaspar, to attend you, who shall be your constant companion and obey you in all things." The wretched Heliodorus, having abjured Christ, descended, kissed the demon's right hand; and the demon, having assigned Gaspar to him, immediately vanished.
[4] It is worth the effort, in praise of Blessed Leo, to relate some of the things that Heliodorus afterward did by the aid of the demon. For the wretch, not knowing the gifts of grace, he rises against St. Leo and because the Lord "made wonderful the Saints who are upon His earth," at last did not fear to weave his arts against the blessed man. But just as his master, exalting himself against his Creator and saying, "I will set my throne above the pillars of heaven," Isa. 14 was the author of his own ruin by his pride, so Heliodorus, bringing evil upon himself, fell into the pit that he had made. On a certain day, therefore, when the Circus games were being celebrated, as is the custom at Catania, he addressed Chrysis, a kinsman of St. Leo, saying: "I can, if you have a mind to it, give you a horse that will outrun all others before the Prefect." Chrysis, however, suspecting nothing of his magical art, he procures a swift horse for his kinsman at the games said that he desired it, and immediately a white horse was brought to him. The young man, having mounted it, defeated all the others by a great distance, to such a degree that everyone was astonished, and especially the Prefect himself. He forthwith sent two soldiers to bring the horse together with its rider to him. But when the spectacle was over, the horse was suddenly removed from sight — for it was a demon. which was the devil The young man, speechless, was left alone. They therefore led him to Lucius the Prefect. When the Prefect saw him, he said: "Come now, hand over that horse, so that it may be sent to the Augusti in the capital; for it is not fitting to keep so fine a horse, but rather to send it to the Emperors, to serve in their Circus games." But the young man, hearing these things, was struck dumb with consternation and was thrown into prison.
[5] Meanwhile, when the report had reached Blessed Leo, he went to the Prefect and explained to him that that young man had never had either a black or a white horse, but that the author of all these things was Heliodorus. accused by St. Leo When the Prefect learned this, he summoned the man, questioned him whether he had seduced Chrysis or given him a horse. And when he had ascertained for certain that he was a magician and had deceived the young man, he immediately ordered the young man to be returned to Blessed Leo, but the magician to be thrown into chains. When, however, Heliodorus was being led away by the soldiers, having bargained with them that he would give them three pounds of gold if he were released, he secretly picked up a stone from the road, gilded it by his art, and gave it in place of gold, and was released a free man. he eludes the executioners with false gold The soldiers, returning to the Prefect, concocted a story that Heliodorus had escaped on a horse fabricated for him by magic. And since the Prefect, considering that it concerned a magician, judged this plausible, he pronounced them innocent and ordered them to be held blameless. When therefore they thoroughly examined the gold they had received, they discovered it was a stone — and placed on the scale, it weighed three pounds.
[6] Doing such things publicly, Heliodorus disturbed not only the city of Catania but all of Sicily as well. For so great was the power of his illusions that he surpassed Simon Magus, whom Peter and Paul, those inseparable companions, laid low by their prayer. When some women had once come upon him, he creates the appearance of a river on dry land he said in the presence of his impure companions: "What if, friends, I make these women strip naked in the sight of all?" And immediately, applying his wicked art, he showed to their senses as it were a river flowing by, so that, as if about to enter water, they lifted their tunics to their knees. Nor was that all — he also defrauded the shopkeepers and buyers, he impoverishes the shopkeepers very often presenting a stone or some other such thing with the appearance of gold; and when it afterward returned to its original form, the wretched victims lamented their loss and damage — to such a degree that they could no longer sell or buy, on account of their poverty. When they recognized that all these things were being done by Heliodorus's fraud, they brought serious charges against him before the Prefect, adding that the daughters of the most distinguished men had been so aroused by his love potion he drives maidens mad with a potion that they leaped from their fathers' houses and flocked wherever they pleased and to whomever they wished.
[7] The Prefect, therefore, hearing these things, sent a report in these words to the Emperors: "To our Most Magnificent Emperors and Lords, from Lucius the Prefect. It is right, Lords, that your sacred ears should not be concealed from what is happening among us, but that everything which has befallen us under your happy reign should be carefully disclosed. made known through the Prefect's letter For there is indeed in this city of ours a certain magician named Heliodorus, the son of Barbara the Patrician, so pestilent and powerful that he yields nothing to Simon Magus. He has miserably afflicted the entire city. We have seen the daughters of the most distinguished citizens, incited to love by his arts, leaping from their fathers' houses and wandering abroad. Likewise, he compelled other women traveling on the road to strip themselves indecently by interposing a false appearance of a river, and to walk through dry dust as though through water. He persuaded people that stones were gold. Moreover, he incited the populace to idolatry. For this present statue is the element of air, lest the flame of Etna should ever burst forth and set fire to the city, because the mountain is a fiery one... of Vulcan. These are the things that needed to be brought before your sacred ears, Emperors. Farewell, our Lords."
[8] Having received the report, our Emperors Leo and Constantine, equally enraged above all that he should assail the Church itself, immediately sent Heraclides the Protocursor to Sicily, the Emperors order him to be seized commanding him to bring Heliodorus to Constantinople within thirty days. "See to it," they said, "that you carry out the matter diligently. Accept no excuse from him, but present him here on the appointed day." Heraclides therefore set sail with his retinue and landed on the island within the same month. Then by chance Heliodorus himself was walking on the shore, he presents himself willingly to the officers and catching sight of the sailors, said: "Greetings, brethren. Are you perhaps looking for a certain Heliodorus? Do not trouble yourselves — I am the man, and assuredly no other Heliodorus is to be found. And certainly I would rather die at the feet of the Emperors than live with them as my adversaries. Therefore I did not wish to flee, though I easily could have, but came to meet you of my own accord."
[9] Hearing this, Heraclides marveled that he had come of his own accord and by no means ordered him to be held; instead he offered him a certain safe-conduct to return to the city and to bring back wine, bread, water, and other necessities. While Heraclides lingered, doubting whether this was really the man he sought, Heliodorus said: "Grant me your safe-conduct and that of the Emperors, and I will bring it about that you reach Byzantium in a single day." he transports them from Catania to Constantinople Heraclides, marveling, said: "Thirty days were allotted to us, and already fifteen have passed." Then he said: "Rest, therefore, for these remaining days, and when the last has dawned, we shall set sail from here together, and we shall arrive at Byzantium on that very same day, as I said." To which Heraclides replied: "But if you do not accomplish this as you have said, I shall plunge you into the deep." Then Heliodorus said: "Let us therefore enter the baths, if you please." And when they had entered, he ordered them all to descend to the lowest chamber and forbade him to name Christ in any way. Soon he pressed their heads down into the water. This done, they suddenly saw that they had been transported to the baths of the imperial city. And Heraclides, looking about carefully, recognized that it was indeed the imperial bath. Coming out, therefore, they found their clothes untouched, with no guard. Proceeding immediately to the Emperors, they presented Heliodorus, narrated everything, and how, although they had been at Catania only the day before, they had arrived at Byzantium that very day.
[10] At all of which the Emperors were so enraged that they judged there was no need even to investigate further, but immediately condemned the man by a capital sentence and ordered him to be beheaded. But Heliodorus, adjuring the Caesars by Christ, asked that at least water be given to him. The Emperors ordered it given; and because he could not be satisfied with drinking in the ordinary way, he vanishes from the sight of the Emperors a basin was ordered brought. But when it was brought, he immediately threw himself into it and disappeared from sight with these words: "Farewell, Emperor — seek me at Catania." The Emperors, astonished by so great a prodigy, and at last coming to themselves, because he had named Catania, ordered Heraclides to return to Sicily. But he had scarcely landed again when Heliodorus likewise came to meet him. "And lest you doubt," he said, "that it is I myself, take this proof: I will bring it about once more that you reach Byzantium in one day." Which indeed Heraclides, not doubting that he would do, remained in the city of Catania until the last day.
[11] And now the appointed day had arrived, when Heliodorus was the first to hasten to the port — for all the citizens were pursuing him snatched from the wrath of the Catanians and desired to deliver him to the flames. Seeing this, Heraclides said: "Far be it — it is not fitting that one against whom Kings themselves exercise judgment should be punished by others." Heliodorus therefore, having seized a laurel branch, fashioned a ship on the sea, distributed rowers at the stern and the prow, and when all provisions and whatever else they had brought with them had been loaded, he himself was the last to board with Heraclides. Immediately the ship began to be carried into the deep, with no one propelling it. he fashions a phantom ship Presently he asked the helmsman: "Where are we?" And he answered: "In sight of Reggio." Soon again: "Where are we now?" "At Crotone," he said. And again: "Where?" And he replied: "At Otranto." And thus in the space of a single day they sailed to Byzantium. And when the ship had entered the harbor of Bucoleon, once they had disembarked, it immediately vanished.
[12] and sails to Constantinople in a single day When the Stratorissa Thalia, coming out of her dining room at the sight of her husband Heraclides, saw Heliodorus together with him, she spat the saliva she had compressed in her mouth upon him and sprinkled his face, saying: "See what a liar this man is, who compelled my husband to sail to Sicily twice." Heliodorus, inflamed by this insult, looked at the woman and said: "If I do not make you infamous in this city, I am not who I am." And immediately, by his magical devices, he extinguished all fire throughout the entire city. he extinguishes all fire throughout the entire city When, therefore, the Emperors heard for what reason the fire had been extinguished, they ordered Heliodorus to be starved to death. But the people... urgently requested as quickly as possible, because the city itself was being tormented by hunger. Heliodorus was therefore brought before the Emperors, who said: "Was it you who did this, that the city should waste away from hunger?" "Indeed," said the magician. "And if you publicly vindicate me against that insult, I will make fire burst forth from it; otherwise you shall not see fire." The Caesars, gravely disturbed by these words, immediately ordered him to be struck down. once again he escapes But when the executioner raised his right hand to deliver the blow with his sword, suddenly two orbs, as it were, sprang forth, split the roof in two, and Heliodorus, borne up between the two, departed, repeating: "Farewell, Emperor — seek me at Catania."
[13] The citizens, meanwhile, being vexed that the magician's illusions had gone so far as to extinguish the fire, dragged the Stratorissa Thalia into the midst. What they further determined concerning her, I deem it superfluous to relate. Indeed, we have related these things for no other reason than that the virtue of Blessed Leo might shine forth. For he often attempted to bring the man back to his senses; and for this reason, when Lucius was preparing to put him to death, the holy man dissuaded him, often admonished by St. Leo waiting for him to come to repentance. But so far was Heliodorus from obeying his counsels that he did not hesitate to assail the Saint himself with his arts. For on one occasion, when the sacred mysteries were being performed, Heliodorus entered the church — as being a Christian — in the church he provokes laughter and in the dense crowd of people began to kick like mules, partly causing laughter in some, and partly pain and indignation in others.
[14] Indeed, he even boasted that he would cause the Bishop with his Priests to dance publicly, leading the choir. When Blessed Leo perceived that he was contemplating this in his mind, bound with the stole by St. Leo falling on his knees before the altar and having completed his prayers, he hastened to Heliodorus, cast his own m stole around his neck, and said: "By Christ my Lord, your magical arts shall avail nothing here." And he led him to the place called Achilleus, and there gave him over to be burned by the flames. he is burned Nor did he withdraw his own hand — which remained unharmed together with the stole — before the wretch was reduced to ashes. Thus the most holy man delivered us by his present aid from the dangers of that most importunate magician.
[15] By no means should it be passed over, what happened to the wife of a certain senator, who, suffering from a flow of blood in the metropolis of Syracuse, and having spent great sums on physicians, could nowhere be healed. By God's admonition she hastened to this holy Pastor of ours, Leo. the relics of St. Leo stop a flow of blood But when she had arrived at the Arian Gate and, hearing the signal given in the church, inquired the cause, she learned of the death of the divine worker of miracles, Leo. Hurrying with quickened step, as soon as she touched his sacred relics with faith, she was immediately restored from her deadly disease by the grace of God.
[16] But neither should this be covered in silence, which was wondrously performed by Blessed Leo. he himself overthrows an ancient idol By his prayers and tears he destroyed with very little effort the detestable n idol that the impious Decius used to worship — which was in what was formerly indeed a pagan shrine but is now the venerable temple of the most holy Forty o Martyrs — and in its place he set up the life-giving and saving Cross.
[17] But that the oration may come to its conclusion: since, as Paul says, "the memory of the just is with praise," and "their memorial is from generation to generation" — namely those for whom "to live was Christ, and to die was gain" Phil. 1:21 — our admirable Bishop and father Leo fell asleep on the twentieth day of February, he dies on February 20 rendering his holy and resplendent soul to the Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Annotationsp. These are not all from St. Paul. For "The memory of the just is with praises" is from Solomon, Proverbs 10:7. And "Your memorial is from generation to generation" is from David, Psalm 101:13, and these words are spoken of God Himself. But the last is from Paul: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain," Philippians 1:21.
EPITOME OF THE LIFE from the Greek Menaea.
Leo the Wonderworker, Bishop of Catania in Sicily (Saint)
[1] This Saint was of Ravennese origin, born of noble and pious parents; and on account of the innocence of his life and the integrity of his character, having legitimately passed through all the grades of Holy Orders, St. Leo advanced through all grades to the episcopate he was at last appointed Bishop by divine suffrage in the metropolis of Catania — a city situated on the most illustrious island of Sicily, upon which the fire of Etna is still accustomed to flow from time to time. He therefore, b in accordance with his name, breathing something great-souled and lion-like, and shining forth like a star, he provides for his own illuminated the minds of all those for whom he bore the care, defending widows and providing for the poor. he builds a temple Moreover, by his prayers alone he cast to the ground the image of an idol. He built a magnificent temple for the renowned Martyr c Lucy, himself being its designer and architect.
[2] He reduced the wicked magician Heliodorus to ashes. For when this man was troublesome to all, he drags the most wicked magician with him into the fire and by his illusions was everywhere bewitching the eyes and minds of men, and when the impure trickster had now dared to assail the very Church of God with his enchantments, the holy man, having skillfully seized him, bound him with his sacred stole and ordered in the meantime that a very great pyre be raised in the middle of the city. Then, with all his evil deeds publicly proclaimed, dragging him bound to his own neck, he entered the midst of the flames and did not come out before the wretched man was reduced to ashes. unharmed after the magician is burned This deed astonished everyone. For not only was that Great One not burned, but not even did the flame in any way touch his sacred vestments.
[3] The fame of the miracle, spread in every direction, reached even the Emperors d Leo and Constantine themselves, who summoned him to their presence, he is summoned to Constantinople; after death renowned for miracles and prostrating themselves at his feet, asked him to pour forth prayers to God on their behalf. He was not only the greatest worker of miracles while he lived, but after he was committed to the earth, he performs even more astonishing deeds.
AnnotationsANOTHER EPITOME from the Greek Anthology of Arcudius.
Leo the Wonderworker, Bishop of Catania in Sicily (Saint)
Our holy father Leo the Wonderworker was born in the city of Ravenna, of noble and religious parents. When he had already learned all of Sacred Scripture and had advanced so far in the pursuit of virtues St. Leo, learned that he also performed miracles, he was consecrated a Priest of the Church of Ravenna; then he became Bishop of the city of Catania. He undertook such great combats against the heretics he performs miracles even before his priesthood that he overcame all and overwhelmed them with shame — not only by the force of his discourse but also by demonstrations a drawn from Scripture. He was also a worker of miracles; for Heliodorus the magician, who was deceiving many with his illusions and boasting that he could do all things and did not fear fire, he consumed by fire through the power of his prayers. already a Bishop, he confutes the heretics When the Roman Emperors heard about this Saint, they marveled and, summoning him to themselves, asked him to pray to God on their behalf. When they had obtained this, they sent him home with honor. he obtains by his prayers the burning of the magician When he had returned to his own Church, God received him into heaven.
Annotation