Leo IX was Roman Catholic Church’s 151st Pope. He served as a pope from 1049 until his death in 1054. He was declared a saint and his feast is celebrated every year on 19th of April.
Background
Pope Leo IX was born as Bruno, Graf von Egisheim und Dagsburg on the 19th of April in 1002 in Egisheim, Alsace, Upper Lorraine which is now in Eguisheim, France. He was the only child of the noble family. His father worked as Count Hugh of Egisheim while his uncle was Emperor Conrad II.
Education
Leo IX was five years of age when he was sent for formal education in Toul by his family with other children born of noble society. He was an intellectual early on and was very much admired in his school.
Career
Born of a noble and aristocratic family, Leo IX was very popular in his school and after being ordained as a priest, he served as a Chaplain in the Emperor’s court for two years. By the time he was twenty-five in 1026, he was declared to be a bishop of Toul in Alsace by the Emperor.
Emperor Henry II who was a cousin of Leo IX wanted him as a pope when the position became vacant in 1048 after the death of Damasus II. Leo IX accepted the offer but wanted him to be selected formally by the church and the citizens. He traveled to Rome in Italy in barefoot and dressed as a common traveler. With his humble manners, he soon gained the trust of the masses and the officials became pope legitimately on 12th of February, 1049 and took up the name Leo IX. He held a public Easter synod the same year and expressed his desires of the church transformation that he expected with the public which included the celibacy of the clergy and simony. There were some men who paid to become bishops. Leo IX ensured that he removed this corruption from the system and only those were appointed who truly deserved in the field. Celibacy of the clergy was important in Leo IX eyes since many of the clergymen got married and had a family of their own. This brought distractions in their dedication to the serving for the church.
He wanted to bring transformations in the working of the church which according to him was the vice. He wanted to bring changes in Clerical marriage, the appointment of church staff including abbots, bishops, and others by local lords and simony which involved sell or purchase of Church powers or offices. Leo IX was determined to bring changes in the church. He traveled most part of the Europe to spread his message of changes and reforms and was soon called as ‘The Pilgrim Pope’. Rather than commanding the changes he expected to bring into the church, Leo IX made necessary efforts all over the places by conducting meetings and councils and letting people know why these changes were needed. He also appointed new men who could help him with the changes and believed in them.
He traveled Pavia and Saxony accompanied by the Emperor and called upon several meeting with the clergymen were several reformation treaties were passed. He further held a committee in Mainz wherein clergymen from Germany, Italy as well as French was present along with the diplomats of the Greek emperor. The main topic of the meeting remained to be simony and the marriage of the clergy.
When King Macbeth of Scotland visited Rome to seek forgiveness for the crimes he had performed in his life, Leo IX performed the clemency. Leo IX has also a role in instructing King Edward to build Westminster Abbey.
Leo IX who was the head of the Western Church desired to make the Roman Catholic church all the more powerful worldwide. With the same intentions, he gathered together all those members who held the same thoughts like him and was successful in making the church more dominant on the whole. The constant traveling allowed Leo IX to have personal contacts with the powerful people of the clergy and also meet the commoners to discuss out the issues.
When the Normans invaded the land of Italy, Leo IX led an army of the Italian and German army to fight against them. Normans won the battle and took Leo IX as their prisoner in 1053. He was kept captive for nine months in Benevento in Italy when his health started to deteriorate. He was released by the Normans and returned back to Rome. Soon after, in less of a time, he died on 19th of April, 1054. He was succeeded by Victor II.
Leo IX’s efforts in bringing in transformation in the church activities were recognized after his death and he was declared a saint. His feast day is celebrated every year on 19th of April on the day of his death.
Religion
Leo IX was a Roman Catholic by religion. He was conventional in his beliefs and was very clear of his faith. His important motives after being appointed as a pope were to bring in changes that would make the Roman Catholic Church powerful and influential all over the world. He traveled as much as possible and as far as possible during his time as a pope to spread his message. He believed that though we know the path mentioned by the Jesus, we very much get distracted from them and move towards crimes.
His two most important changes to bring in the church working format was celibacy for clergy and simony. He observed that the dedicated clergyman after they get married and have a family was easily distracted from their offerings to the church. Also, there were men who made payments to become bishops. Leo IX held to the fact that only deserving ones should be allowed at appropriate church positions.
Views
Leo IX was very conventional in his views. Rather than being a commander, he believed in keeping people in sync with his thoughts even if it needed too many efforts. Even before becoming a pope, he was clear with the changes he wanted to bring in the church which he indicated soon after he was appointed as a pope in the first public Easter.
Leo IX believed that church positions should be given to only those deserving and hence helped in eradicating the system of payment wherein men could pay to become bishops. He appointed good men in important church positions. He traveled many places and held many councils which included clergymen from Italy, Germany, and France to make all understand why the changes he wanted to bring in were needed.
Membership
Leo IX was the Pope at the Roman Catholic Church from 12th of February, 1049 to 19th April, 1054.
Personality
Pope Leo IX born as Bruno to the noble family was admired and popular right from his school age. Being related to the emperor he had the leadership skill and the talent to charm others. He displayed his aptitude and by the time he was 25, was chosen as the bishop.
Leo IX believed giving powers to those who deserve it and it applied to his case as well. When his cousin Emperor Henry II elected him to be the Pope, he expressed his desire to be chosen formally by the people and other clergymen. He traveled to Rome as a common traveler and through his kind and humble behavior was soon able to gain trust and admiration from the citizen and the
clergymen.
After being elected Pope, Leo IX was completely dedicated to the activity of Church. He made extreme efforts and was successful in making the Roman Catholic Church an International influential authority. He was determined to abolish the activities that were affecting Christians and did all that were possible to bring about transformation. He believed in walking the path together rather than the power of commanding. He traveled places and held several meetings and councils to make people understand the reasons behind his efforts to bring about the changes he wanted to get in. He was able to meet people from all positions during his travel and make personal contact with them.
The transformations that Leo IX brought in during his time did not create an uprising then but his following successors were able to take up these changes further from the base that Leo IX had created to bring in grand transformations.
Quotes from others about the person
“We may speak of Leo IX (Collins writes), his supporters and successors as reformers, but this was not how they saw themselves. They wanted to return the Church to a ‘golden age’ they thought had once existed. They saw themselves correcting errors and evil customs that had been allowed to develop unchallenged in recent centuries. The past they wished to recover was largely imaginary, being derived from such spurious texts such as the Pseudo-Isidoran Decretals (and I’ll talk more about those later) which provided seemingly authoritative evidence of papal supremacy.” (Collins, about the papal reformation undertook by Pope Leo IX)
“The movement initiated by Leo IX created the very notion of the papacy. To speak of the papacy before the eleventh century is an anachronism, for the term “papatus” in Latin was coined only then, apparently used for the first time by Clement II in 1047 (that is, two years, only two years, before Leo came to power). Formed on the analogy of episcopatus, it suggests that the papacy, papatus, is a further order of ministry in the Church, transcending the episcopate. There seem to be two notions entailed here.
The first makes explicit something that had a long history, namely, that the Church of Rome exercised a primacy,primatus, over the other churches, a primacy that was not shared by any other church. This was defined more precisely: it meant that the Church of Rome was the mother of the churches, mater ecclesiarum, their head and hinge, all claims made by Nicholas I in the ninth century.” (Andrew Louth)
Connections
Leo IX, being a pope and with his involvement in the church, never got married and died as a bachelor.