Wednesday, 18 February 2026

St Leo the Great, Pope of Rome

Cheesefare Wednesday

53 days before Pascha · Tone 3 · Liturgy · Fast (Meat Fast)

No Liturgy

Saints commemorated

Saint Agapetus of Sinai

Saint Agapetus was a venerable monastic ascetic who dwelt in the sacred desert of Sinai. He dedicated himself to unceasing prayer and spiritual struggle, seeking union with God through contemplation and disciplined askesis. The monks of the desert recognised in him a spiritual elder of great wisdom and holiness. Through his intercessions and prayers, Saint Agapetus became known as a protector of those who called upon him. He endured the rigours of desert monasticism with steadfastness and remained a beacon of Orthodox virtue. The Church venerates him as a model of monastic dedication and spiritual perfection.

Saint Colman of Lindisfarne, bishop and confessor

676

Saint Colman was born in the west of Ireland about the year 605 and from his youth devoted himself to the monastic life. He was educated at the great monastery of Iona, founded by Saint Columba, and there absorbed the Celtic tradition of prayer, learning and missionary zeal. About the year 661 he was sent from Iona to Northumbria and was consecrated the third bishop of Lindisfarne in succession to Saint Aidan and Saint Finan. In 664 the Synod of Whitby was held at the abbey of Saint Hilda to settle the differences between the Celtic and Roman observances of Easter and other matters of monastic discipline. Saint Colman defended with gentleness and conviction the customs received from Saint Columba and the elders of Iona, but King Oswiu of Northumbria gave his judgment in favour of the Roman practice. Unwilling to abandon the tradition of his fathers, Colman resigned the see of Lindisfarne and withdrew with all the Irish brethren and some thirty English monks. Returning by way of Iona to Ireland, he founded a monastery on the island of Inishbofin off the coast of Connaught and, when disputes arose between the Irish and English communities, established a separate house on the mainland for the English monks, known as Mayo of the Saxons, which became a centre of learning. Saint Colman reposed in peace on 18 February in the year 676 and is honoured among the saints of Ireland and the British Isles.

Saint Flavian the confessor, patriarch of Constantinople

448

Saint Flavian was patriarch of Constantinople from 446 to 449 and a champion of Orthodoxy against the Monophysite heresy of Eutyches. Before his elevation he had served as a presbyter and the keeper of the sacred vessels of the Great Church, and he was esteemed for his learning, his pastoral diligence and his austere manner of life. In the year 448 Saint Flavian convened a local council at Constantinople to examine the teaching of the archimandrite Eutyches, who confused the two natures of Christ, holding that after the union the Lord had only one nature, the divine. Saint Flavian and the bishops with him condemned Eutyches and deposed him, but the heretic, supported by the eunuch Chrysaphius and by Dioscorus of Alexandria, appealed to the emperor Theodosius II. In 449 the so-called "Robber Council" was assembled at Ephesus under the presidency of Dioscorus. There Saint Flavian was prevented from speaking, was openly assaulted in the church and trampled by armed monks. Mortally injured, he was sent into exile and died three days later from his wounds. Two years afterwards, at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451, his memory was vindicated and his teaching upheld. The Church honours him as a hieromartyr and confessor.

Saint Leo the Great, Pope of Rome

Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. ‘According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches’ teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call “The Robber Council”), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo’s epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo’s epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the “Tome of Leo.” The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.’(Great Horologion).

St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.

Daily readings

Sixth Hour

weekly cycle

Joel — Joel 2.12-26

¹²Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: ¹³And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. ¹⁴Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: ¹⁶Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. ¹⁷Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

¹⁸Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. ¹⁹Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: ²⁰But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.

²¹Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things. ²²Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. ²³Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. ²⁴And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. ²⁵And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. ²⁶And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

Vespers

weekly cycle

Joel — Joel 3.12-21

¹²Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. ¹³Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. ¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. ¹⁶The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. ¹⁷So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. ¹⁹Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. ²⁰But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. ²¹For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.