November 10
The saints and feasts remembered on November 10, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saint Leo the Great
Pope who taught clearly that Christ is truly God and truly human
Leo was a deacon of the Church of Rome, already trusted with delicate missions, when he was chosen bishop of Rome in 440 while he was away in Gaul. He led the Roman church for twenty-one years, as the Western Empire was falling apart.
In 449 he wrote a letter, now called the Tome of Leo, explaining that Jesus Christ is one person, fully God and fully human. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon accepted his teaching, and the bishops there declared that Peter had spoken through Leo. In 452 he joined an embassy to meet Attila the Hun, who then withdrew from Italy; historians still debate why. When the Vandals seized Rome in 455, he persuaded their king to spare the city from burning and massacre, though it was still plundered.
About a hundred of his sermons survive. In one, preached at Christmas, he urged: “Christian, recognise your dignity.” He died in 461 and is honoured in both East and West.
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:16–18 · BSB
A prayer
Faithful God, you gave your servant Leo clear words to proclaim your Son as truly God and truly human, and courage to stand by his people in times of fear. Help us to know Jesus Christ more deeply, to recognise the dignity you have given us, and to serve others calmly when the world around us is shaken. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.