Leo, bishop, to Anatolius, bishop.
Chapter I: Leo Rejoices in Anatolius’s Proven Faith; The Acts Are Approved; Leo’s Emissaries Returned After Easter
We rejoice in the Lord and glory in the gift of His grace — which, as we learned from the letters of your charity and from the report of our brothers whom we sent to Constantinople, has shown you a follower of evangelical teaching. Through the worthy faith of a bishop, we rightly presume that the Church entrusted to you will bear neither wrinkle nor stain of error, as the Apostle says: For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). For she is indeed that virgin, the Church, the bride of the one husband Christ, who allows no error to corrupt her: so that throughout the whole world there may be for us the one integrity of a single chaste communion, in whose fellowship we embrace your charity — and We approve the acts we received, duly fortified with the necessary subscriptions.
Therefore, to strengthen your charity’s spirit by our words in return, we sent back our sons Casterius the presbyter, and Patricius and Asclepiades the deacons — who had brought your writings to us — with our letters after the venerable Paschal feast, declaring, as stated, our joy in the peace of the Constantinopolitan Church, for whose care we always labor so that it may never be violated by the deceit of heretics.
Chapter II: The Reconciliation of Repentant Bishops; The Integrity of Priesthood Depends on the True Incarnation
Regarding our brothers — whom your letters and our legates’ report show to desire our communion, grieving that they did not maintain constancy against power and terrors, but yielded to another’s crime when fear drove them to serve tremblingly in the condemnation of a Catholic and innocent bishop and the acceptance of detestable depravity — we approve what our present and acting legates established: that they be content with the communion of their own churches for the time being. Yet we desire it be arranged through the shared solicitude of our legates and of you, so that those who condemn with full satisfaction what was badly done, and choose to accuse themselves rather than defend themselves, may rejoice in the unity of our peace and communion — provided they first anathematize what was received against the Catholic faith.
For in the Church of God, which is the body of Christ, neither episcopal offices are valid nor sacrifices true unless the true High Priest reconciles us in the property of our nature, unless the true blood of the spotless Lamb cleanses us. For though He is seated at the Father’s right hand, He fulfills the mystery of propitiation in the same flesh taken from the Virgin, as the Apostle says: Christ Jesus, who died — yes, who also rose — who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34). Our kindness cannot be faulted for receiving those we grieved had been deceived when they satisfy us. Nor therefore is our communion’s grace to be denied harshly, nor to be granted rashly — for as it is full of piety to restore the Lord’s charity to the oppressed, so it is just to impute all disturbance to its authors.
Chapter III: The Names of Dioscorus, Juvenal, and Eustathius Must Not Be Recited at the Altar
Regarding the names of Dioscorus, Juvenal, and Eustathius being recited at the sacred altar — let your charity observe what our legates there judged must be done, which does not oppose the honorable memory of Saint Flavian and does not estrange Christian souls from your grace. For it is altogether too unjust and unfitting that those who tormented innocent and Catholic bishops by their persecution be mixed without distinction among the names of the saints — since, not abandoning the condemned impiety, they condemn themselves by their own depravity, and must either be struck for perfidy or labor for pardon.
Chapter IV: Julian of Cos and Flavian’s Loyal Clerics Commended; Eusebius in Leo’s Communion; The Apostolic See’s Peace Confirmed With Anatolius
We desire our brother and fellow bishop Julian and the clerics who faithfully adhered to Flavian of holy memory to adhere to your charity — so that he whom we know lives before our God through the merits of his faith may recognize himself present in you. We also wish your charity to know that our brother and fellow bishop Eusebius — who for the cause of the faith endured many trials and labors — now dwells with us and persists in our communion: whose Church we desire your solicitude to defend, so that nothing may perish in his absence and no one presume to prejudice him in any matter, until he arrives with the prosecution of our letters. And so that greater affection toward you from us and from all the Christian people may be stirred, we desire what we wrote to your charity to become known to all — so that those who serve our God may rejoice in the confirmed peace of the Apostolic See established with you. Your charity will be more fully instructed on other matters and persons by the letters you receive through our legates.
Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of Adelfius, most illustrious man.
Footnotes
- ↩ Gestorum quae sumpsimus seriem approbamus — “We approve the acts we received.” This is Leo’s formal approbation of Anatolius’s record of proceedings — the documents brought to Rome by Casterius, Patricius, and Asclepiades. The “acts” Leo approves are not merely the doctrinal profession but the whole record of what Anatolius has done as bishop: the totality of Constantinople’s episcopal governance is here brought under Leo’s formal approval, and its legitimacy derives from that approbation. This is the same confirmatory jurisdiction Leo exercised over the Gallic bishops in Letters X and LXVI, and that he had suspended pending Anatolius’s doctrinal compliance in Letters LXIX and LXX. It is now being granted — and it covers the full record of how Anatolius has conducted himself as bishop of the most powerful see in the East, not merely the Tome subscription.
- ↩ Pacis et communionis nostrae unitate laetentur — “they may rejoice in the unity of our peace and communion.” The phrase establishes Leo’s peace and communion as the standard of Catholic unity — the institution into which the reconciled bishops are received. Note also the directive dimension: the conditions Leo specifies — anathema first, then peace — are not coordinated suggestions; they are the terms Leo establishes within which Anatolius is authorized to act. Anatolius does not determine the conditions of reconciliation for Eastern bishops; Leo does, and Anatolius implements them through the “shared solicitude” Leo prescribes. This is a standing pattern in the corpus: exclusion from “our communion” is the penalty, reception into it is the restoration, and both are Leo’s to grant or withhold. Compare the formula in Letter X (Hilary of Arles: exsors apostolicae communionis) and Letters LXIX–LXX (Anatolius required to publish his profession “to the Apostolic See”).
- ↩ The prohibition against reciting the names of Dioscorus, Juvenal, and Eustathius in the diptychs — the liturgical commemoration lists read at the altar — is Leo directing the liturgical practice of the Constantinopolitan church. The diptychs were not merely administrative records; reading a name at the altar was a declaration of communion. To include the names of those who had presided over Ephesus II among the saints commemorated would be an implicit affirmation of their acts. Leo’s prohibition is the concrete liturgical expression of his judgment that Ephesus II was invalid and its presiding figures not in good standing.
- ↩ De confirmata apud te pace sedis apostolicae gratulentur — “they may rejoice in the confirmed peace of the Apostolic See established with you.” This closing phrase is one of the most direct statements in the letter. The Apostolic See’s peace with Anatolius — now confirmed after the period of suspended recognition — is the governing standard of Catholic unity in Constantinople. Those who serve God rejoice not merely in a bilateral reconciliation between two sees but in the confirmation of the Apostolic See’s peace as such. The phrase encapsulates the entire arc from Letter LIII (Anatolius presenting himself to Leo) through Letters LXIX–LXX (conditions imposed) through Letter LXXVII (Pulcheria reporting the subscription) to this letter: the process has produced the confirmed peace of the Apostolic See, and that peace is what the Constantinople faithful are now invited to celebrate.
- ↩ April 13, 451 — the same day as Letter LXXVIII (to Marcian) and Letter LXXIX (to Pulcheria). All three form a coordinated pre-Chalcedon dispatch: Leo writing simultaneously to the emperor (brief acknowledgment), to his most trusted ally (fuller pastoral letter), and now to the bishop of Constantinople himself (doctrinal and jurisdictional letter confirming their relationship on Leo’s terms). Six months before Chalcedon, the three-way framework of empire, trusted ally, and Constantinopolitan episcopate is aligned and confirmed.
Historical Commentary