Pope Leo III

 

Pope Saint Leo III 

 Also known as

•Charlemagne‘s Pope

memorial •12 June

 Profile

Our saint today was the Papal treasurer.    After the death and burial of Adrian I at age 95 (up until that time the longest reigning Pope) Leo was elected pope.   In fact it was done very quickly the day after his predecessor was firmly planted, the 26 December 795; probably so there would not be any outside interference with the decision of the cardinals.  

 The succession of Popes has certainly gotten much tamer since the 8^th century.   The Blessed Charlemagne had protected Leo’s predecessor against local despotic incursion and influence from the various European petty monarchs.   As soon as Leo was elected, he sent Charlemagne the keys of Saint Peter and the standard of the city of Rome, Italy this officially made Charlemagne the protector of Rome and the new Pope.    As a reply, Charlemagne, with his letters of congratulations to the newly elected pope, sent a fortune which Leo used to build churches and found charitable institutions.

 Interestingly, on 25 April 799, members of Pope Adrian I‘s family hired thugs to attack Leo in a procession.    These family thugs really did a job on Leo….they even tried to tear out his tongue and eyes in order to make him repulsive and render him unfit to be the Pope.    He survived the attack, scarred.     It is said that his tongue and eyes were miraculously healed.    

 After this violent attack, Our Saint fled to Charlemagne‘s protection in Germany.    When Leo recovered, Charlemagne escorted him back to Rome with much pomp and fanfare.    Along with this hooplah  In 800 Charlemagne conducted a trial of Leo and of his accusers.    There was no evidence of Leo’s guilt, but there was of his accusers, and they were imprisoned.    On Christmas day in 800, Leo crowned Charlemagne emperor, marking the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire.

 Died •12 June 816