Pope Leo I "the Great" (400-10 November 461) was the Pope from 440 to 461, succeeding Pope Sixtus III and preceding Pope Hilarius.
Biography[]
Leo was born in 400 AD in Tuscany to a family of Roman aristocrats, and on 29 September 440 he was elected Pope after the death of Pope Sixtus III. In 451, Leo was present at the Council of Chalcedon, where he stated that Jesus was the hypostatic union of divine and human united in one person, causing a schism that led to the creation of Miaphysite Christianity, Dyophysitism, and Monophysite Christianity, leaving the main branch of Christianity as Catholicism. In 452, Leo gained the nickname "the Great" when he, bearing only the cross, met with Attila the Hun as he ravaged Lombardy. Leo convinced Attila not to march on Rome, saving the Western Roman Empire from destruction by the Huns for 24 years.