Pope St. Leo the Great

In the time that I have been doing my "Saint of the Day" posts, I have rarely featured a Saint on his/her feast day . . . but hearing about Pope St. Leo the Great on the radio this morning inspired me.

St. Leo was Pope between 440 and 461.  The commentator on the radio this morning likened him to Pope Francis in that his homilies were very easy to understand and accessible to the common Christian (in other words, you did not have to be a theologian to understand him).  As testament to how much his homilies moved people, he was the first Pope whose homilies were written down and shared - leaving us a legacy of his teaching to this day.  He was also the first Pope to be called "the Great."

One of the best known stories of Pope Leo, is how he faced Attila the Hun when Attila was preparing to sack Rome.  At the request of the emperor, he traveled to northern Italy and met with the Hun, obtaining from him the promise that he would leave Italy and negotiating peace between the Hun and the emperor.  He also saved the inhabitants of Rome when the city was captured by the Vandals.  Although for a fortnight the town had been plundered, Leo's intercession obtained a promise that the city should not be injured and that the lives of the inhabitants should be spared.
Pope St. Leo's feast is Nov 10.

P.S. Source for this information has been NewAdvent.org, Catholic.org and the Son Rise Morning Show on EWTN.  I have used these sources as well as AmericanCatholic.org and the book This Saint's for You by T. Craughwell for most of my posts.