Saint Leo III

The new Pope immediately wrote to C harlemagne Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. to ask for his protection, informing him of the death of his predecessor and his own elevation to the sovereign Pontificate. Charlemagne replied at once and sent him Angilbert, his secretary. "Confer with him," he said, "on what you believe necessary for the exaltation of the holy Church, for the glory of your Pontificate, and for the strengthening of our fatherland; for, in order to merit the apostolic blessing and the glory of always being the protector of the Holy See, I wish to keep inviolably, with Your Holiness, the treaty that I made with your predecessor. It is for us, with the help of the Lord, to defend everywhere, by our arms, the Church of God; from without against incursions and ravages, and from within against heretics."

Saint Leo omitted nothing, for his part, to merit the protection of Charlemagne; he sent him a solemn embassy to carry on his behalf the keys of the confession of Saint Peter and the standard of the city of Rome. Protestants claim that by these keys and this standard the Pontiff intended to put Charlemagne in possession of the Church and the city of Rome; but these innovators are unaware that, at that time, the custom was to address these keys as a sign of devotion, not only to emperors, but also to other princes who did not attribute to themselves any right over the Roman Church. Bellarmine and Baronius assert that these keys were nothing other than boxes filled with relics. Indeed, the custom of sending boxes in the shape of keys, containing relics, dates back to Saint Gregory the Great, who addressed such ones to King Childebert and to Reccared, King of Spain.

The following year, the Pope received from Charlemagne what was most precious from the treasure of the Hun kings that had been delivered to him. These wer rois Huns Invading people led by Attila. e the spoils of ancient Rome, which these barbarians had pillaged more than three hundred years earlier, and which their kings had kept in their palace to serve as a trophy of their valor and the glorious exploits of the nation. The rest was distributed to the churches of Rome and France.

Pope Saint Leo, to show his gratitude, wished to leave to posterity a monument of the patriciate of Charlemagne. He had represented in mosaic, in the great dining hall of the Lateran Palace, Saint Peter seated, who gives to Charlemagne, kneeling at his left, a standard on which one sees six roses, while, with his right hand, he gives the stole to Pope Leo, who is also kneeling. This monument still exists.

Such were the relations between the Pope and the King of the Franks, when the latter had the opportunity to exercise his office as patrician and defender of the Roman Church. Some of the principal members of the Roman clergy, Pa Pascal, primicier Antipope or rival claimant who opposed the election of Sergius. schal , the primicerius, Campolo, chapelain Chaplain of the Roman Church, accomplice of Pascal in the attack. and Campulus, the sacellarius of the Roman Church, relatives of the late Pope Adrian, could not forgive Saint Leo III for his election to the Pontificate, which they believed had been made to their prejudice. Spite and jealousy inspired them with the design of taking revenge, and they meditated upon it for so long only to make the vengeance more cruel.

Saint Leo was very pious, very gentle, very devoted to God and no less charitable toward his neighbor; prudent in the administration of affairs, the father of the poor and the afflicted, the intrepid defender of the Church and the constant promoter of divine worship. An ardent servant of Christ and His Church, he recoiled before no hardship or pain to fulfill his duty. But his virtues and his good deeds only embittered his envious enemies all the more. They went so far as to conceive the most cruel attack; and so that nothing would be lacking in the atrocity of the crime, they chose to commit it on a day particularly destined to appease the wrath of God.

On April 25, 799, the feast of Saint Mark, the Pope having left his palace to go to the church of Saint Lawrence, from where the procession was to depart, the primicerius Paschal came to approach him and apologize for a pretended illness for appearing in his presence without a chasuble. Leo III received his excuses with kindness. Campulus having joined Paschal, they accompanied the Pope, conversing familiarly with him, until they arrived in front of the monastery of Saint Stephen and that of Saint Sylvester, where the ambush was set.

Then a troop of men lying in wait threw themselves upon the Pope, and while Paschal held him by the head and Campulus by the feet, they endeavored to gouge out his eyes and cut out his tongue, and left him thus stretched out on the square. The fury of these henchmen was sated; that of Paschal and Campulus was not yet. They dragged the Pope into the monastery church and finished gouging out his eyes and mutilating his tongue at the foot of the altar, where they left him swimming in his blood, under the guard of their men. But, not believing him safe enough there, they had him transferred at night to the prison of the monastery of Saint Erasmus.

Such an execrable attack filled the whole city of Rome with tumult and horror. Men of good will and courage took the Pope from his prison and carried him to the church of Saint Peter, where Vironde, abbot of Stavelot, an envoy of Charlemagne, was present. Winigise, Duke of Spoleto, hastened with his troops to the aid of the Pope and had him taken to Spoleto. But what filled all the faithful with consolation is that the holy Pope perfectly recovered the use of his eyes and tongue; which was regarded as a miracle, and attributed to the protection of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Charlemagne was deeply afflicted by such an atrocious violence committed against the common father of the faithful, and sent an embassy to the Pope to testify how touched he was by the outrage that had been done to him, and to deliberate with him on the measures that should be taken to punish the guilty and repair the scandal. The Pope was extremely consoled by this gesture, and, as he had no resource but in the King of the Franks, he resolved to go himself to implore him. This news caused great joy to Charlemagne, who immediately left Aachen to go and await him in Paderborn. He first sent Hildebold, Archbishop of Cologne, and Count An schar to Paderborn City in Saxony where the saint's relics were transferred in 836. meet him, and then his son Pepin, King of Italy, who had just triumphed over the Huns and taken their capital.

Pe pin marched at the Pépin, roi d'Italie Son of Charlemagne, King of Italy. head of one hundred thousand men. At their sight, the holy Pontiff raised his hands to heaven and blessed the army of the Franks, which three times prostrated itself at his feet. He embraced with tenderness the young hero, who from then on marched by his side. Charlemagne himself advanced some distance from Paderborn, at the head of another army composed of the various peoples of Europe, preceded by the clergy divided into three choirs and carrying the banner of the cross. When he saw that the Pope, escorted by his son Pepin, was approaching, he arranged the multitude in an immense circle; he himself stood in the middle. At the moment the Pontiff appeared in the enclosure, this innumerable multitude prostrated itself three times, and three times the Pontiff blessed it and prayed for it.

Charlemagne himself, the father of Europe, bowed respectfully before Leo, the pastor of the world; they embraced each other cordially, not without shedding many tears. The Pope, after intoning the hymn of the angels Gloria in excelsis, which his clergy continued, was led as if in triumph to the Church of Paderborn, where new thanksgivings were rendered to God.

Meanwhile, the enemies of the holy Pontiff were not sleeping. Alarmed by his journey to France, they feared the justice of Charlemagne and tried to take him by surprise. They sent deputies to this prince who, to justify their attack, accused the Pope of the most atrocious crimes. But their accusations only served to prove their wickedness.

Charlemagne had Pope Saint Leo escorted back some distance from Paderborn by his son, the prince, and by all the prelates who had come from all parts to pay their respects to His Holiness. He had him accompanied to Rome by the archbishops Hildebold of Cologne and Arno of Salzburg, and by the bishops Bernhar of Worms, Atto of Freising, and Jesse of Amiens. In every city through which the holy Pope passed, he was received as if it were Saint Peter himself. He re-entered Rome as if in triumph on November 29, the feast day of Saint Andrew. All the Roman clergy, the senate, the schools of the Franks, Saxons, Frisians, and Lombards, the companies of the militia with their standards and banners, the Roman ladies, the nuns, and the deaconesses went out to meet him as far as the Milvian Bridge, and led him, singing hymns, to the church of Saint Peter, where he celebrated Mass.

The Frankish bishops who had accompanied the Pope conducted legal inquiries against the perpetrators of the attack committed against his person, and they sent the guilty parties to France, to Charlemagne, in whose name and by whose authority these proceedings were carried out, in his capacity as Patrician of the Romans. This prince had resolved to go himself to restore order in Rome, where he arrived on November 24 of the year 800. The Pope sent the companies and standards of the city to meet him, and awaited him with his clergy on the steps of the basilica of Saint Peter.

A few days later, the king convened an assembly of archbishops, bishops, and lay lords, both Frankish and Roman, with the goal of examining the accusations brought against the Pope. But all the archbishops, bishops, and abbots cried out with one voice: "We dare not judge the Apostolic See, which is the head of all the churches of God, for we are all judged by this See and by its Vicar; this See is judged by no one: such is the ancient custom; but as the sovereign Pontiff shall judge himself, we shall obey canonically." The holy Pope Leo said: "I walk in the footsteps of my predecessors, and I am ready to purge myself of the calumnies with which they have tried to blacken me."

The following day, in the presence of the bishops and lords gathered in the church of Saint Peter, the Pope, from the ambo, pronounced the following oath: "I, Leo, Pope of the holy Roman Church, having been neither judged nor constrained by anyone, but of my own free will, I justify myself before you, in the presence of God, who probes the depths of consciences, in the presence of the angels, of Saint Peter, prince of the Apostles, before whom we stand, and I call God to witness, at whose tribunal we shall all appear, that I have neither committed nor caused to be committed the crimes of which I am accused." After this oath, the bishops with the clergy, the king, and the people intoned the Te Deum and recited the litanies in thanksgiving.

Saint Leo had something even closer to his heart than his own justification; it was to restore, in the person of Charlemagne, the Roman Empire in the West, to be the armed defender of the Roman Church and of all Christendom. On Christmas Day in the year 800, while the king was at prayer before the tomb of Saint Peter, in the church of the Prince of the Apostles, the Pope, accompanied by the bishops, priests, and Roman and Frankish lords, came to place a golden crown upon his head, and all the people cried out: "To Charles, the most pious , Augus Charles Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. tus, great and peace-loving, crowned by God, life and victory." The Pope then anointed Charles with holy oil, as well as King Pepin, his son. On this occasion, the new Emperor of the Romans bestowed upon the churches of Rome liberalities worthy of his greatness.

The following year (804), a terrible earthquake ruined several cities in Italy, and particularly the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. After ordering it to be rebuilt, the Pope commanded that, during the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension, the Litanies should be sung in a solemn procession, which, for the same reason, Saint Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, had established in France, institutions and rites known as the Rogations.

In 804, Saint Leo returned to France to celebrate the feast of Christmas with Emperor Charlemagne. The latter came to meet His Holiness as far as Reims. He received Leo there in the church of Saint-Remi, and went to celebrate the feast of Christmas with him at Quiercy. The Pope remained in France for only eight days, and returned to Italy via Bavaria, laden with the Emperor's gifts. In 806, he confirmed the testament of Charlemagne, which the bishops and lords of France had already confirmed. In 809, the Pope informed Charlemagne of a difficulty that was being raised for Frankish monks, established in Jerusalem, regarding the addition of the word Filioqu Filioque Theological controversy regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit. e to the Creed. Charlemagne assembled a Council at Aachen to justify this addition. The Church of Rome had not deemed it appropriate to make it, and the Pope even disapproved of it; for, pure of all heresy, it had no need to make a profession of its faith. However, to please his devout defender Charlemagne, and as the thing was otherwise good in itself, it adopted its use, without however ordering it or imitating it. In Spain, the word Filioque had been added to the Nicene Creed, to signify that the Holy Spirit also proceeded from the Son.

From Spain, this addition was received imperceptibly in several churches of France, where, with the chanting of the Creed, it prevailed over time. But Saint Leo III, to spare the Greeks, in whom he saw an irremediable itch for criticism and dispute, and to give striking proof that he did not approve of the addition, had two large silver shields made in the shape of bucklers, weighing ninety-four pounds and six ounces, had the Creed written on them without the addition, on one in Greek and on the other in Latin, and had them placed to the right and left of the confession of Saint Peter, as public monuments of the care with which the Church of Rome preserved the Creed as it had received it.

In 813, he restored the feast of the Assumption, which Sergius had already celebrated, and which had fallen into a sort of disuse. Overwhelmed by afflictions, he was in the habit of celebrating Mass sometimes eight or nine times a day; at that time, a fairly large number of priests practiced this custom, which was abolished by Pope Alexander II.

Saint Leo III died on June 12, 816, after having governed the Church for twenty years, five months, and sixteen days, and was buried in the Vatican. In three ordinations, he created twenty-six bishops, thirty priests, and ten deacons. During this long pontificate, he made considerable repairs and immense offerings to the churches of Rome. He founded a substantial hospice to receive foreigners and pilgrims. He exhausted his patrimony in foundations for the poor. He had the floor of the confession of Saint Peter covered in gold, weighing four hundred and fifty-three pounds, and had a silver balustrade of one thousand five hundred and seventy-three pounds made for the entrance to the sanctuary. He rebuilt the baptistery of Saint Andrew, large and round, with the font in the middle and porphyry columns around it: in the middle of the font was a column bearing a silver lamb, which poured the water. In the Lateran Basilica, he placed windows of various colors.

His relics rest in the same reliquary as those of the holy popes Leo I, Leo II, and Leo IV.

A painter from the sacristy of Aachen depicted Saint Leo with an aspergillum in his hand. This painter undoubtedly wished to record that he had dedicated the church built by Charlemagne. This fact is recalled by the reliquary of the great relics of Aachen, which contains a statuette of him, and above the head of this statuette, one reads the inscription that was once seen on one of the doors of the church:

Ecce Leo papa, cujus benedictio sacra Templum sacravit quod Carolus aedificavit.

He is more commonly depicted being knocked down by evildoers, who are attempting to tear out his eyes and tongue.

We have drawn this life from the History of the Roman Sovereign Pontiffs, by Arland de Montor; from the Lives of the Saints, by Rohrbacher; from the Proper of Rome and the Acta Sanctorum.