Leo, bishop, to Marcian Augustus.
Chapter I: Leo Has Already Communicated the Alexandrian Paschal Date to All the Western Priests; Thanks Marcian for His Priestly Solicitude
How great is the love of God in your clemency — for serving whom you reign, and by reigning serve — the dignity of your most devout words itself shows; and this inflames in me an affection of the whole heart, so that I may not cease to offer vows and supplications for the safety of your glory: since greatly is it provided by God for the holy Church and the Roman republic through your safety. On this same occasion, receiving with reverence the heights of your piety, I discharge the due offices of greeting — and render, though insufficient, my thanks: that your piety has reminded me with priestly solicitude of the most sacred day of Pascha.
Although I have long since professed my acquiescence in this rule of observance, I have already made known to all the priests of the Western parts the same day of the venerable feast that the instruction of the Alexandrian bishop declared — namely that in the present year the Pascha be celebrated on the eighth day before the Kalends of May — setting aside all scruples from zeal for unity and peace.
Chapter II: Leo Rejoices That Carosus and Dorotheos Have Been Removed From Their Monasteries at Julian’s Report
As for Carosus and Dorotheos — who with heretical wickedness defended errors condemned to the destruction of many — I rejoice that your piety, as my venerator and brother Julian the bishop indicated to me, has most wholesomely commanded that they be removed from their monasteries and required to dwell with those who cannot harm them: which I hope will be a remedy for many whom you have freed from perverse teachers — with the merits of your glory growing in all things in the love of the Christian faith, for which the just and merciful God grants that just as divine things are dear to you, so earthly things may be subject to you.
Dated the third day before the Ides of March, in the consulship of the Augustus Valentinianus for the eighth time.
Footnotes
- ↩ The phrase sacerdotali sollicitudine — “with priestly solicitude” — applied to Marcian’s reminder about the Paschal date is Leo’s highest compliment to the emperor’s religious character. The same sollicitudo that defines the Roman bishop’s universal pastoral responsibility is here attributed, in a limited sense, to the emperor’s zeal for the feast’s proper observance. Leo’s theology of the emperor consistently includes this quasi-priestly dimension: the emperor who reigns by serving God exercises a form of solicitude for the Church’s worship that complements the bishop’s proper solicitude without replacing it.
- ↩ The chain is complete and explicit: the Alexandrian bishop’s instruction declares the day → Leo makes it known to all the priests of the Western parts. This is precisely the administrative structure Leo had described in Letter CXXI: Alexandria reports to the Apostolic See, which then circulates the general notice to the churches in distant regions. The Western priests do not receive the Paschal date from Alexandria directly; they receive it from Leo. He stands between the Eastern calculation and the Western observance — the coordinating center through which the feast’s unity is maintained.
- ↩ The transmission chain is visible here: Leo had asked Marcian to suppress Carosus in Letter CXXXVI (May 454); Julian had monitored the situation and reported to Leo (Letter CXLI, March 11, 455); and now Leo thanks Marcian for carrying out what Julian reported — two days later, March 13. The phrase sicut mihi venerator vester frater meus Julianus episcopus indicavit — “as my venerator and your brother Julian the bishop indicated to me” — places Julian simultaneously as Leo’s agent (reporting Leo’s concerns) and Marcian’s brother-bishop (maintaining his own standing at court). The three-way relationship — Leo, Julian, Marcian — operates with the precision of a well-coordinated system.
- ↩ March 13, 455 — two days after Letter CXLI to Julian (March 11). In the same week Leo wrote to his Eastern agent reporting on three concurrent situations (CXLI) and to the emperor confirming the Paschal distribution and thanking him for the Carosus/Dorotheos removal (CXLII). The near-simultaneous dispatch shows the tight coordination of the two channels through which Leo managed the post-Chalcedon settlement.
Historical Commentary