Leo, bishop, to Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople.
Leo Consoles Flavian and Promises Action
How greatly your beloved endures for the defense of the Catholic faith we have learned through the deacon who fled from Ephesus — greatly grieving. God, however, who strengthens you by the grace of his power, cannot fail to grieve for those through whom the truth is being attacked and the very foundations of the whole Church disturbed. Since the providence of God always provides necessary help to his own, your brotherhood should know that we are leaving nothing undone of those things that ought to be done, so that we may merit to attain first what profits the totality of the faithful.
Meanwhile, let your beloved hold firm, not doubting that it will prove of profit to him for eternal glory. The bearer of this brief letter will be able to report faithfully whatever we are working toward, with the Lord’s help, in our study of faith and charity.
Given on the third day before the Ides of October, in the consulship of Asturius and Protogenes, most illustrious men.
Footnotes
- ↩ “The deacon who fled from Ephesus” is Hilarus, Leo’s legate. His report is the basis of everything Leo knows about Ephesus II. The phrase “greatly grieving” (magnificavimus in some readings; PL has a complex textual note here) indicates Leo’s deep distress at what Flavian has suffered. Flavian had been physically assaulted during the council’s proceedings and removed from his see; he died from injuries sustained at Ephesus, almost certainly before this letter reached Constantinople. If so, Leo is writing to a man who is already dead — not knowing it — which gives the letter its particular historical poignancy.
- ↩ The letter-bearer as a living supplement to a brief written communication is a recurring feature of Leo’s post-Latrocinium letters (compare Letter XLVIII to Julian). Leo’s written letters to Flavian are necessarily brief and cautious; the bearer carries the full picture. This also means the letter’s apparent sparseness should not be read as indifference — it is the discretion appropriate to a communication that might be intercepted.
- ↩ October 13, 449. Flavian of Constantinople had been deposed and physically assaulted at Ephesus II (August 1–22, 449) and died from his injuries — most likely in late August or early September 449, possibly as late as early October. Whether Leo knew of Flavian’s death when writing this letter on October 13 is uncertain. The letter’s consolatory register (“hold firm, it will prove of profit for eternal glory”) could be read as anticipating either Flavian’s ongoing suffering or his already completed martyrdom. The PL notes suggest the October 13 letters were dispatched simultaneously, which makes it probable that Leo wrote before confirmed news of Flavian’s death reached Rome. If so, this letter is one of the most poignant documents in the corpus — comfort extended to a man who could not receive it.
Historical Commentary