In the 11th century, there was a Pope who throughout his pontificate strenuously fought the moral disorders of the clergy: he was St. Leo IX.
Newsroom (09/08/2022 2:15 PM, Gaudium Press) Born in a castle in Alsac in northeastern France, to a family of high nobility, his father was a cousin of Emperor Conrad the Salic. His name was Bruno and he was educated at the Episcopal school of Toul, in Lorraine, a region bordering Alsace. He became a priest and was responsible for the Imperial Palace Chapel.
On the death of the Bishop of Toul, Bruno was elected as his successor in 1027, at the young age of 25.
Simplicity of the dove and prudence of the serpent
He was taller than ordinary men and his bearing recalled the elegance and majesty of Charlemagne. “His imposing and affable physiognomy had a remarkable radiance. His gait, his gestures, the tone of his voice, everything about him was charming. To the simplicity of the dove he knew how to combine, according to the evangelical word, the prudence of the serpent. The politicians of the century were enchanted by his wisdom, the theologians by his science, and all the people by his admirable purity.”
After the death of Pope Damasus II, Bruno was chosen to succeed him, but he peremptorily rejected it. Then the clergy, the emperor, and the whole of the people begged him to accept. He asked for three days to respond and during that time he practiced a strict fast: he ate and drank nothing. Finally, shedding tears, he made a public confession before the ecclesiastical dignitaries, seeking in this way to “prove” that he was unworthy; but his faults were not even venial sins…
Meeting of three great Saints
Bruno traveled to Rome on foot, wearing pilgrim’s clothing. St. Hugo of Cluny, taking with him the Roman archdeacon Hildebrand – the future Pope Gregory VII – went to greet him in Besançon, in the East of France, near Switzerland. What a beautiful scene: the meeting of three great Saints!
Continuing on his way, accompanied by Hildebrand, Bruno arrived in Rome, where he was triumphantly welcomed by the entire population and assumed the papacy with the name Leo IX.
A bishop declared that this name “should personify the lion of the tribe of Judah for his victories against simony, schism and impiety. At the roars of this lion the whole universe trembled, the sacrilegious were terrified, the enemies of the Church fell, their battalions were annihilated.”
When the solemnities were over, St. Leo IX appointed Hildebrand administrator of the Roman Church, for the treasury of St. Peter’s had been plundered….
Councils to combat the vices of the clergy
The moral situation of the clergy was very serious; above all simony and sins against chastity were eating away at souls. St. Peter Damian, abbot of a monastery in Italy, wrote a work entitled ‘The Book of Gomorrah‘ and sent it to the Pope, who thanked him by means of a letter in which he said:
“Your word, preserving the reserve of a holy modesty, strikes like the blade of the avenging sword. I feel an unspeakable joy in thinking that you not only inflict vice by your speeches, but that you teach holiness by your example.
“Doubt not the victory; the Son of the Virgin Mary will add to your crown, like glorious blossoms, the multitude of souls torn by you from the snares of Satan.”
St. Leo visited important dioceses in the West, promoting councils in order to combat the vices that were eating away at many members of the clergy.
In Pavia, in Northern Italy, he condemned simony and impurity. He then went to the Monastery of Cluny, where he was received by the Abbot St. Hugo and confirmed in writing that the Order of Cluny depended only on the Holy See, and not on bishops or any holder of temporal power.
At the Council held in Reims in north-eastern France, St. Hugo intervened intrepidly and the Pope punished several prelates. For example, the Bishop of Langres was excommunicated for his infamous sins. He then received the grace of true repentance and went to Rome, where he walked the streets barefoot, holding a stick in his hands and asking passers-by to flog him. He knelt down before St. Leo and begged his pardon, which was granted.
The beautiful, noble and splendid Middle Ages
The clergy, being the first class of medieval society, is followed by the nobility and then the people. The corruption of the ecclesiastical elements putrefies the whole social body; and their purification vivifies it.
Thus it can be affirmed that the heroic struggles of St. Leo IX were decisive factors for the Middle Ages to reach their full splendor in the 13th century.
Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira states:
“The Middle Ages, so beautiful, noble, and glowing, God loved it with all love, it was His masterpiece. Not even the Christianity of the time of the martyrs had been as beautiful as the Middle Ages in their heyday.”
Sensing that death was approaching, St. Leo IX went to St. Peter’s Basilica and asked for Mass to be celebrated. After Communion, with Hildebrand at his side, he gave his beautiful soul to God. It was 19 April, 1054. The bells of the towers rang with all their intensity on their own, without anyone ringing them.
“Among those who attended him at the hour of his death was Hildebrand, who was at once his inspirer and secretary, and was later to become his successor under the name of St. Gregory VII. Imagine having as your secretary a Saint, who, in my view, was ‘the Pope’, not comparing holiness, but mission, and his role in Church History.
“What sublimity, wonder and greatness should that scene have in which one Saint contemplates another expiring, where St. Gregory VII, still a young man, remains beside St. Leo IX, praying until the hour when his soul is detached from his body and ascends to Heaven!”
When the new Basilica of St. Peter’s was built in the 16th century, St. Leo IX’s body was found incorrupt. May St. Leo IX help us to fight against the veiled or declared enemies of the Church, certain that they will soon be crushed by the Virgin Mary
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
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