Pope St. Leo II

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Pope (682-83),date of birth unknown; d. 28 June, 683. He was aSicilian, and son of one Paul. Though electedpope a few days after the death of St. Agatho (10 January, 681), he was notconsecrated till after the lapse of a year and seven months (17 Aug., 682). Under Leo's predecessor St. Agatho, negotiations had been opened between theHoly See andEmperor Constantine Pogonatus concerning the relations of the Byzantine Court to papal elections. Constantine had already promised Agatho to abolish or reduce the tax which for about a century thepopes had had to pay to the imperial treasury on the occasion of theirconsecration, and under Leo's successor he made other changes in what had hitherto been required of theRoman Church at the time of a papal election. In all probability, therefore, it was continued correspondence on this matter which caused the delay of the imperial confirmation of Leo's election, and hence the long postponement of hisconsecration. The most important act accomplished by Leo in his short pontificate was his confirmation of the acts of the Sixth Oecumenical Council (680-1). This council had been held in Constantinople against theMonothelites, and had been presided over by thelegates of Pope Agatho. After Leo had notified the emperor that the decrees of the council had been confirmed by him, he proceeded to make them known to the nations of the West. The letters which he sent for this end to the king and to thebishops and nobles ofSpain have come down to us. In them he explained what the council had effected, and he called upon thebishops to subscribe to its decrees. At the same time he was at pains to make it clear that in condemning his predecessor Honorius I, he did so, not because he taughtheresy, but because he was not active enough in opposing it. In accordance with thepapal mandate, a synod was held at Toledo (684) in which the Council of Constantinople was accepted.

The fact thatRavenna had long been the residence of the emperors or of their representatives, the exarchs, had awakened theambition of itsarchbishops. They aspired to the privileges ofpatriarchs and desired to be autocephalous, i.e. free from the directjurisdiction of thepope, considered as theirprimate. As they could not succeed in inducing thepopes to agree to their wishes, they attempted to secure their accomplishment by an imperialdecree recognizing them as autocephalous. But this did not prove sufficient to enable thearchbishops to effect their purpose, and Leo obtained from Constantine Pogonatus the revocation of the edict of Constans. On his side, however, Leo abolished the tax which thearchbishops had been accustomed to pay when they received thepallium. And though he insisted that the archbishops-elect must come toRome to beconsecrated, he consented to the arrangement that they should not beobliged to remain inRome more than eight days at the time of theirconsecration, and that, while they were not to be bound to come again toRome themselves in order to offer their homage to thepope, they were each year to send a delegate to do so in their name. Perhaps because he feared that the Lombards might again ravage thecatacombs, Leo transferred thence many of therelics of themartyrs into a church which he built to receive them. Thispope, who is called by his contemporary biographer both just and learned, is commemorated as a saint in the Roman Martyrology on 28 June.

[Note: The feast of Saint Leo II was formerly observed on 3 July with the rank of a semi-double.]

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