Leo, bishop, to the presbyters and deacons of the Alexandrian Church, his most dear sons in the Lord, greeting.
Chapter I: Leo Rejoices in the Love Between the New Bishop and His Clergy, and Urges Unity
I rejoice and exult in the Lord over the most devout spirit among you — for as your writings make clear, the shepherd is seen to love his flock and the flock its shepherd. Eager therefore for one another, as the Apostle says, to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3), press forward to the fruit of true patience. What indeed could you more worthily will or do than to make use of the faith of the most glorious emperor — with the help of God’s grace — for the advancement of the most solid peace, now that the beast which had with singular ferocity devastated the Lord’s vineyard, as the prophetic psalm sings, has been driven far away? Since in the Lord’s sheepfold there are no longer the snares of thieves nor the attack of brigands to fear, let your whole community return to concord, and let unity — directed by the teaching of the Holy Spirit — be sought in all things: for the sake of which the Apostle says, not seeking what is useful to me, but what is useful to many, that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:33). Let all say and feel the same — let there be no contentions of mind or disputes. What all the Catholic bishops in the Alexandrian Church have learned as disciples of truth and have taught — let that same faith be professed by all the faithful together: for truth — which is simple and one — receives no variety.
Chapter II: Those Led Astray by Heretics Are to Be Brought Back to Penance With Patience and Gentleness
If any Christians of whatever rank the wicked falsehoods of the heretics have disturbed, summon them to the remedies of satisfaction, and correct them with gentleness in a spirit of patience — since, as the blessed apostle Peter says, the Lord is not slow about his promise, but is patient toward you, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). The difficulty of obtaining pardon must not make the cure come too late.
Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of September, in the consulship of Magnus and Apollonius.
Footnotes
- ↩ This letter, written on the same day as Letters CLXXI and CLXXIII (August 18, 460), is addressed directly to the Alexandrian clergy — not routed through the new bishop Timothy. The practice of layering instructions simultaneously across the episcopal and presbyteral/diaconal levels of a local church is consistent with Leo’s approach throughout the Alexandrian correspondence: just as he wrote to Anatolius and to the Constantinople clergy separately (Letters CLI and CLXI), he now addresses both the bishop (CLXXI) and his clergy (CLXXII) on the same day. Each letter is calibrated to its audience’s specific role in rebuilding the Alexandrian community.
- ↩ The Psalm reference is to Ps. 80:13 (Catholic) — Exterminavit eam aper de silva, “The boar from the forest has ravaged it” — the verse from the lament over the ravaged vineyard of Israel. Leo applies the image to Timothy Aelurus, whose devastation of the Alexandrian Church is now ended. The use of prophetic scripture to interpret the events of the Alexandrian crisis is characteristic of Leo throughout this correspondence: he reads the recent history of the Alexandrian Church through the lens of Israel’s own history of suffering and restoration.
- ↩ The phrase veritas, quæ est simplex atque una, varietatem non recipit — “truth, which is simple and one, receives no variety” — is one of the clearest statements in the entire Leo corpus of the principle that underlies the whole corpus: the faith does not admit of variation because it is one. This is not merely a doctrinal observation; it is the theological ground of Leo’s entire governance of the Alexandrian crisis. The multiplicity of factions, heresies, and councils claiming to speak for the faith are all measured against the simple unity of truth that the Apostolic See preserves and proclaims. Where there is variety, there is departure from truth; where there is truth, there is unity.
- ↩ August 18, 460 — the same date as Letters CLXXI (to Timothy) and CLXXIII (to the Egyptian bishops). This letter is not found in the New Advent collection, which presents only Letter CLXXI (numbered 171) and omits CLXXII and CLXXIII entirely. The three letters together constitute the coordinated final cluster of the Alexandrian correspondence, each addressed to a different level of the Alexandrian Church: the bishop (CLXXI), the clergy (CLXXII), and the bishops of Egypt (CLXXIII).