Background and early activity in the Church

He was a Sicilian

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 by birth (the son of a man named Paulus), and succeeded Agatho

Pope Agatho

-Background and early life:Little is known of Agatho before his papacy. A letter written by St. Gregory the Great to the abbot of St. Hermes in Palermo mentions an Agatho, a Greek born in Sicily to wealthy parents. He wished to give away his inheritance and join a monastery, and in this letter...

. Though elected pope a few days after the death of St. Agatho (January 10, 681), he was not consecrated till after the lapse of a year and seven months (August 17, 682). Leo was known as an eloquent preacher who was interested in music, and noted for his charity to the poor.

Reign as Bishop of Rome

Elected shortly after the death of Agatho, Leo was not consecrated for over a year and a half. The reason may have been due to negotiations regarding imperial control of papal elections.

These negotiations were undertaken by Leo's predecessor, St. Agatho, and were between the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 and Emperor Constantine IV

Constantine IV

Constantine IV , , sometimes incorrectly called Pogonatos, "the Bearded", by confusion with his father; was Byzantine emperor from 668 to 685...

, and concerned the relations of the Byzantine Court

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 to papal elections. Constantine had already promised Agatho to abolish or reduce the tax that the popes had had to pay to the imperial treasury on their consecration

Consecration

Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...

 over the course of about a century.

Leo's short-lived pontificate did not allow him to accomplish much, but his two accomplishments were of major importance: he confirmed of the acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680–1). This council had been held in Constantinople against the Monothelite

Monothelitism

Monothelitism is a particular teaching about how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus, known as a Christological doctrine, that formally emerged in Armenia and Syria in 629. Specifically, monothelitism teaches that Jesus Christ had two natures but only one will...

 controversy, and had been presided over by the legates of Pope Agatho. After Leo had notified the emperor that the decrees of the council had been confirmed, he made them known to the nations of the West. In letters written to the king, the bishops, and the nobles of Spain he explained what the council had effected, and he called upon the bishops to subscribe to its decrees.

During this council, Pope Honorius I

Pope Honorius I

Pope Honorius I was pope from 625 to 638.Honorius, according to the Liber Pontificalis, came from Campania and was the son of the consul Petronius. He became pope on October 27, 625, two days after the death of his predecessor, Boniface V...

 was anathema

Anathema

Anathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean:...

tised for his views in the Monothelite

Monothelitism

Monothelitism is a particular teaching about how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus, known as a Christological doctrine, that formally emerged in Armenia and Syria in 629. Specifically, monothelitism teaches that Jesus Christ had two natures but only one will...

 controversy as a favourer of heresy

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

. However, Leo took great pains to make it clear that in condemning Honorius, he did so not because Honorius taught heresy, but because he was not active enough in opposing it. In accordance with the papal mandate, a synod was held at Toledo (684) in which the Council of Constantinople was accepted.

Regarding the decision of the council, Leo wrote once and again in approbation of the decision of the council and in condemnation of Honorius, whom he regarded as one who profana proditione immaculatem fidem subvertare conatus est (roughly, "one who 'by betrayal has tried to overthrow the immaculate faith'"). In their bearing upon the question of papal infallibility

Papal infallibility

Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...

 these words have caused considerable attention and controversy, and prominence is given to the circumstance that in the Greek text of the letter to the emperor which the phrase occurs, the milder expression subverti permisit ("allowed to be overthrown...") is used for subvertare conatus est.

At this time Leo put an end to the attempts of the Ravenna

Ravenna

Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...

 archbishops to get away from the control of the Bishop of Rome. Emperor Constantine revoked the decree of his father Constans in favour of Ravenna. The pope sweetened the deal for the Ravenna bishops by abolishing the tax it had been customary for them to pay when they received the pallium

Pallium

The pallium is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Roman Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has always remained unambiguously...

.

Also, in apparent response to Lombard

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

raids, Leo transferred the relics of a number of martyrs from the catacombs to churches inside the walls of the city. He also dedicated two churches, St. Paul's and Sts. Sebastian and George.

Burial

Leo was originally buried in his own monument; however, some years after his death, his remains were put into a tomb that contained the first four Pope Leos. In the 18th century, Leo the Great's relics were separated from the other Leos and given his own chapel.