Pope St. Leo II

                         Pope (682-83), date of birth unknown; d. 28 June, 683. He was a Sicilian, and
                         son of one Paul. Though elected pope a few days after the death of St. Agatho
                         (10 June, 681), he was not consecrated till after the lapse of a year and seven
                         months (17 Aug., 682). Under Leo's predecessor St. Agatho, negotiations had
                         been opened between the Holy See and Emperor 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 the popes had had to pay to the imperial treasury on the occasion of
                         their consecration, and under Leo's successor he made other changes in what
                         had hitherto been required of the Roman 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 his consecration. 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 the Monothelites, and had been presided over by the legates 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 the bishops and
                         nobles of Spain have come down to us. In them he explained what the council
                         had effected, and he called upon the bishops 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 taught heresy, but because he was not
                         active enough in opposing it. In accordance with the papal mandate, a synod was
                         held at Toledo (684) in which the Council of Constantinople was accepted.

                         The fact that Ravenna had long been the residence of the emperors or of their
                         representatives, the exarchs, had awakened the ambition of its archbishops.
                         They aspired to the privileges of patriarchs and desired to be autocephalous, i.e.
                         free from the direct jurisdiction of the pope, considered as their primate. As they
                         could not succeed in inducing the popes to agree to their wishes, they attempted
                         to secure their accomplishment by an imperial decree recognizing them as
                         autocephalous. But this did not prove sufficient to enable the archbishops 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 the archbishops had been accustomed to pay when they received the
                         pallium. And though he insisted that the archbishops-elect must come to Rome
                         to be consecrated, he consented to the arrangement that they should not be
                         obliged to remain in Rome more than eight days at the time of their consecration,
                         and that, while they were not to be bound to come again to Rome themselves in
                         order to offer their homage to the pope, they were each year to send a delegate
                         to do so in their name. Perhaps because he feared that the Lombards might
                         again ravage the catacombs, Leo transferred thence many of the relics of the
                         martyrs into a church which he built to receive them. This pope, 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.]

                         Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I (Paris, 1886), 359 sqq.; VILLANUNO, Summa Concil.
                         Hispaniae, I (Barcelona, 1850), 310 sq.; Acta SS., June, V, 375 sqq.; MANN, Lives of the Popes, I
                         (London, 1902), pt. II, 49 sqq.

                         HORACE K. MANN
                         Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook
                         O Saint Leo, and all ye holy Pontiffs, pray for us.

                                           The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IX
                                        Copyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton Company
                                        Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
                                       Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor
                                       Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York