ST. LEO IV. POPE, C.
HE was son of a Roman nobleman, had been educated
in the monastery of St. Martin without the walls, and was made by
Sergius II. priest of the four crowned martyrs. He was chosen pope
after the death of Sergius II. in 847, and governed the Church eight
years, three months, and some days. The Saracens from Calabria had
lately plundered St. Peter’s church on the Vatican, and were
still hovering about Rome. Leo made it his first care to repair the
ornamental part of this church, especially the Confession or
burying-place of St. Peter with the altar which stood upon it. To
prevent a second plundering of that holy place, he, with the
approbation and liberal contributions of the emperor Lothaire,
enclosed it and the whole Vatican hill with a wall, and built there a
new rione or quarter of the city, which from him is called
Leonina. He rebuilt or repaired the walls of the city, fortified with
fifteen towers. Whilst he was putting Rome in a posture of defence,
the Saracens marched towards Porto in order to plunder that town. The
Neapolitans sent an army to the assistance of the Romans: the pope
met these troops at Ostia, gave them his blessing, and all the
soldiers received the holy communion at his hands. After the pope’s
departure, a bloody battle ensued, and the Saracens were all slain,
taken, or dispersed. The good pope considered the sins of the people
as the chief source of public disasters; and being inflamed with a
holy zeal, he most vigorously exerted his authority for the
reformation of manners and of the discipline of the Church. For this
purpose he held at Rome a council of sixty-seven bishops; and among
other instances, he deposed and excommunicated Anastasius, cardinal
priest of St. Marcellus’s church, because he had neglected to
reside in his parish. He received honorably Ethelwolph, king of
England, who, in 854, made a pilgrimage to Rome.
Pope Leo directed to all bishops and pastors a
Homily on the Pastoral Care, published by Labbe from the Vatican
manuscripts, and also extant in the Roman Pontifical. In it all the
chief functions of the pastoral charge are regulated, and every duty
enforced with no less learning than piety. Among other miracles
performed by this holy pope, it is recorded that by the sign of the
cross he extinguished a great fire in the city, which threatened the
church of the prince of the apostles. He died on the 17th of July,
855, and Bennet III., priest of the church of St. Calixtus, was
immediately chosen pope in his room.† He, with many tears,
begged that so formidable a burden might not be laid on his
shoulders, but could not prevail. Anastasius, the deposed priest, set
up for pope, and procured the protection of the emperor Louis II.;
but the steady unanimity of the people in the election of Bennet
III., over came this opposition, and he was consecrated on the 1st
day of September in the same year, 355, as is related by Anastasius,
who was then living, and shortly after (before the year 870)
Bibliothecarian of the church of Rome, the most learned man and the
most shining ornament of that age, as Dr. Cave allows him to have
been. See Solier the Bollandist, t. 4, Jul. p. 302.