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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Leo the Great preaches a Latin sermon in Rome in 453 on the feast of Epiphany in which he praises the *Innocents (children killed on the orders of Herod, S00268).

Evidence ID

E05504

Type of Evidence

Literary - Sermons/Homilies

Major author/Major anonymous work

Leo the Great (pope)

Leo the Great, Sermon 38

Summary:

Leo tells his congregation that on this day they must consider the children whom Herod ordered to be killed. These children should be praised. Indeed, 'in the killing of all the infants a pattern of martyrdom was set'
(in occisione infantium cunctorum martyrum forma praecesserit).


Summary: Frances Trzeciak.

Liturgical Activities

Sermon/homily

Non Liturgical Activity

Composing and translating saint-related texts

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

Theorising on Sanctity

Considerations about the hierarchy of saints

Source

Leo the Great’s sermons were composed and delivered to the congregation in Rome throughout his papacy, between 440 and 461. The vast majority of these sermons were delivered at St Peter’s at the Vatican. The most recent editor of these sermons, A. Chavasse, argues that Leo edited and circulated a collection of 59 sermons, composed between 441 and 445, and that a second group of sermons from the latter part of his papacy were edited and circulated shortly after his death in 460. It is possible that these sermons were intended to provide a model for other bishops or to educate priests and the lower clergy.


Bibliography

Text:
Chavasse, A., Sancti Leonis Magni Romani Pontificis tractaus (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 138, 138A; Turnhout, 1973).

Translation:
Freeland, J. and Conway, A., St Leo the Great Sermons (Fathers of the Church 93; Washington D.C., 1996).

Further Reading:
Demacopoulos, G.E., The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal Authority in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia, 2013).

Salzman, M.R., "Leo’s Liturgical Topography: Contestations for Space in Fifth-Century Rome,"
Journal of Roman
Studies
103 (2013), 208-232.

Wessel, S.,
Leo the Great and the Spiritual Rebuilding of Rome (Leiden, 2008).


Record Created By

Frances Trzeciak

Date of Entry

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00268Innocents, children killed on the orders of HerodCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Frances Trzeciak, Cult of Saints, E05504 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05504