Albert the Great vs. Leo the Great

We're back for the first full week of Lent Madness 2021. That's five straight days of heart-stopping saintly thrills. Although the first three matchups haven't been particularly close (Camillus de Lellis, Constantine, and Egeria all won handily), a tight race always lurks just around the bracket corner.

Today, it's the Battle of the Greats as Albert the Great squares off against Leo the Great to determine, once and for all, just who is the greatest? (with all due respect to Muhammad Ali, of course).

Over the weekend, in the only Saturday matchup of the season, Egeria saw her way past Tarcisius 61% to 39%. Don't forget you can click on the Bracket Tab to check past results and access the Matchup Calendar to see the upcoming pairings. Now go vote!

Albert the Great
During the Middle Ages, there were few subject areas that Albert didn’t study, contribute to, or lead the way in.

Albert the Great, also known as Albertus Magnus and Albert of Cologne, was a scientist, teacher, theologian, philosopher, prolific writer, physician, German Dominican friar, bishop, and diplomat.

Albert was born around the year 1193, somewhere in Bavaria to a wealthy German family. Albert was educated primarily at the University of Padua in northern Italy, where he began a lifelong interest in the writings of the great Greek philosopher Aristotle. Around this time, Albert reportedly was visited by the Virgin Mary, which convinced him to enter the Dominican Order.

He became a master of theology in 1245 and began to teach at the University of Paris, where the highly influential Thomas Aquinas was one of his students. Their relationship grew from teacher/student to friend and colleague. In 1254, Albert was elected prior for the Dominican Order German-speaking province, which kept him busy traveling and attending to the needs of the people. Six years later, he was named bishop of Regensburg, Bavaria, but resigned after three years. Again, his travels took him far, always on foot and never on horseback, thereby earning him the name “Boots the Bishop.”

His lasting influence is far-reaching and ubiquitous. His contributions can be found in all the major scientific fields, from alchemy to zoology. Among his innumerable contributions to the world of knowledge, he is credited as discovering arsenic. Also of significance are his writings about Aristotle.

Albert died November 15, 1280, in Cologne, Germany. Since November 15, 1954, his relics have been located in a Roman sarcophagus in the crypt of the Dominican St. Andreas Church in Cologne. He was named a saint and a doctor of the church on December 15, 1931—one of only 36 named doctors. On December 16, 1941, Pope Pius XII anointed Albert as the patron saint of the natural sciences.

He is the patron saint of medical technicians, natural sciences, philosophers, scientists, and Cincinnati, Ohio—home to Forward Movement!

Collect for Albert the Great
O God, by your Holy Spirit you give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Albert, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

—Neva Rae Fox

 

Leo the Great
The fifth century was a time of turmoil in the Western Roman Empire. After the death of Theodosius in 395, the empire divided into Eastern and Western portions—and the Eastern Empire (centered in Constantinople) was more prosperous and secure than the Western Empire (centered in Rome).

It was within the unsettled west that Leo the Great served the church. The Western Empire was constantly under threat of invasion from the east and north. Around 440, Leo was sent to Gaul as a peacemaker between two generals whose bickering endangered Gaul’s safety; while he was there, he received word that he had been elected bishop of Rome.

Service as Pope in the middle of the fifth century didn’t carry the prestige it does today. Leo worked to assert the authority of the Roman pontiff as the successor of Peter: he asserted a strong hand in the furthest reaches of the Western Empire over recalcitrant bishops, and he worked energetically in Gaul, Spain, and Africa to combat the anathematized teachings of Manicheans, Pricillians, and Pelagians.

Yet while Leo built up the power of the Roman See, his gifts as a peacemaker left the most profound impression on Christianity as a whole. Debate had continued for centuries across the church as to the nature of Jesus Christ. Leo wrote with authority, dignity, and clarity that Jesus Christ is one person, the Divine Word, in whom human and divine natures are fully united without either confusion or mixture. The Tome of Leo was received by the Council of Chalcedon in 451; upon hearing it, the council is said to have remarked that “Peter has spoken by Leo.”

Leo was not limited to keeping the peace in church disputes. When Attilla the Hun surrounded Rome in 452, Leo personally negotiated with him to accept tribute instead of plundering and destroying the city. Three years later, as the Vandals surrounded Rome, Leo again sought peace. This time his efforts failed, yet his intervention is credited with saving the city from burning and mass slaughter.

His care for the integrity of the church and the safety of the people entrusted to its care commend him to the memory of the church as one of its saints; his feast day is celebrated on November 10.

Collect for Leo the Great
O Lord our God, grant that your church, following the teaching of your servant Leo of Rome, may hold fast the great mystery of our redemption and adore the one Christ, true God and true Man, neither divided from our human nature nor separate from your divine Being; through the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

—David Sibley

 

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Albert the Great: Vicente Salvador Gómez / Public domain
Leo the Great: Francisco Herrera the Younger / Public domain

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197 comments on “Albert the Great vs. Leo the Great”

  1. Leo fought energetically against the Manicheans in Gaul- that sounds to me as though Leo was trying to suppress the variety of Christianity that had arrived in the South of France very early, and that we know little about. The legend of Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, La Sainte Baume cave where Mary Magdalen lived out her life: oral traditions passed on by local people are all we have left. The winners write history, etc. I vote for Albert.

  2. Two greats today -- Albert was definitely a renaissance man born too early. But Leo was a pastor, a defender of truth, and a peacemaker willing even to negotiate with terrorists, and with some success at it.
    He would have had my vote even if I had not been ordained to the priesthood on his feast day 31 years ago. But that kind of clinches it!

    1. Both of these men were truly great! I was going to definitely vote for the accomplished Albert until I read about Leo and was blown away by his peacemaking abilities! I suspect Albert will win -- because he is indeed what we all think of as a "winner." But I think that being a peacemaker trumps all.

  3. I had no idea that scientists had a patron saint! Being a scientist is often a lonely business but I find it more comforting than I would have expected to know about Albert the Great and his witness. I think I will add his picture to my lab station.

  4. For 18 years, my mother had a fabulous Norwegian forest Cat named Leo who was truly the Great. He had so much personality, won over every guest to her house regardless of their affinity for cats, and was an intrepid traveler, gamely jumping into her minivan for any adventure. So really I had no choice but to vote for Leo the Great in his honor.

  5. A fine, caring pastor was Leo
    And he made Christ's true nature so clear, oh!
    But to bargain with Hun
    Really makes him the one
    Who should win, as far as I can see, oh!

    1. OH sweet Lisa, it’s not OK
      to use a rhyme twice either then or today;
      if create doggerel you must,
      then you will have to trust
      in your alphabetical resource from Z back to A.

      1. Uh-oh, are you going to revoke my poetic license? I haven't written a limerick in years ... but in my mind "see, oh" and "clear, oh" were two different words! 🙂

        1. The reverend Lisa had served Christ for years well
          but one day decided to dip her pen in the well;
          being chidden for repeating,
          she averred that “see” and “clear” were the same thing
          and of this whole rhyming business shrugged, “Oh, well!”

          1. I've never been chidden before!!
            ... Methinks your first couple of lines there (at least) have too many syllables for normative limerick rhythm.

      2. I would love to make it through one season of Lent Madness without criticizing each other or displaying one’s superior knowledge.

        1. My heart breaks at the kranks who kvetch
          about loving creativity used to not to blame but to fetch
          fellow pilgrims to fun
          while winter has yet to turn to the sun
          and we're all simply ambling to Canterbury feeling free to use lots of syllables
          because they're an awesome way to help Batman/Jesus to combat
          the proud and quite frankly tedious villain Jervis Tetch.

  6. Boy-Howdy!! If the purpose of this year's match-ups was to force thought and reflection on the variety of ways one can serve the Lord you've succeeded!

  7. I voted for the original "Boots on the Ground." And during a time of pandemic, how is it possible to ignore the patron saint of the natural sciences? If our "leaders" had believed in science at the start, we might not be staring into the stark and shameful fact of 500,000 Americans dead and more than 2 MM worldwide. God can work through science as well as through doctrine. Anyone who taught Thomas Aquinas had to know his stuff.

  8. “To ce or not to ce: that is the question.” For all who were exercised over the lower-case “ce” in the Tarcisius bio last week, I refer you to the print edition, “The Definitive Guide to Lent Madness: Saintly Scorecard 2021,” page 48. You will discover that CE is indeed capitalized but in a smaller font. This is true as well for Constantine, p 29; Evagrius the Solitary, p 33; Matthias, p 43; Nino of Georgia, p 46; and Theodora the Empress, p 50. I suspect that in being ported from the text version (the slugs of type being carefully, prayerfully, and accurately positioned on the lead sticks by monks devoted exclusively to the printing press and to preserving the secrecy of the recipe to their centuries-old liqueur) onto the creaking worm-eaten html platform of WordPress, whose wondrous quirks (aka irritating deficiencies–such as no “like” button) are by now familiar to us, the font distinctions are lost, reducing CE to a generic lower-case ce. Good scholars always consult the original text. And good Christians reserve their rancor for the kitsch round, at which point you can KRANK it up for the bobble-head, glow-in-the-dark, plastic dashboard saints; or better yet, call out the grifting false prophets who preach passivity to power and pass the plate in maskless churches, fleecing their flock even as they place those little ones at risk of illness and death.

  9. The arguments for Leo are very convincing, and negotiating with Attila the Hun are impressive (although Attila the Hun has another side that we often don't read about--another discussion for another day). I will vote, though, for Albert, as I know some Dominicans, and Albert was a man of faith AND science. My one small argument with the write-up is that I (and many others) do not find alchemy one of the natural sciences. Just sayin'.

    1. Alchemy is not taught in the sciences today, science on the physics side having evolved into pure mathematics. However, alchemy was a branch of natural philosophy, and in the seventeenth century, the age of the scientific revolution, Isaac Newton was very influenced by alchemy. Alchemy persists today in Jungian psychotherapy as a powerful myth of psychic regeneration. Alchemy is about change, and chemistry and psychoanalysis are both about profound changes in substance due to interactions with other substances. During covid, while we are all baking, we are performing alchemy.

      1. My quibble was with alchemy as well. And as I was thinking, "What did the study (major at the time) of alchemy do for modern science?" along came St. Celia to parse it out for me. Thanks to Sarah P. and St. Celia for the call and response.

    2. Agreed. Leo might have been a “peacemaker” but he sounds pretty bossy about what people should believe, in a “my way of the highway” kind of way. Particularly his dishing of Pelagius, who has seen a resurgence in our affinity for Celtic spirituality, no help from Leo. I vote for Albert!

  10. I chose Albert because we need truth right now as expressed in science to protect the earth and to address the ravages of covid. We are at a tipping point with global warming and with mass species extinction unheard of on planet earth, this beautiful home God made for us that we have failed to love and protect. Animals, plants, oceans, rivers, plains, mountains, ecosystems need our fierce love and protection before it's too late. Global warming has begun wreaking the havoc we've been told it would. Even covid, it's been postulated, is a factor of our degradation of the natural world. Same goes for something like Lyme disease, now endemic where I live in the Northeast -- a result of a warming climate plus ecosystems increasingly out of balance. We need to look at how we're living and repent, turn around, make a change. Hearing the comments especially from fellow Lenten Madness-ers who are scientists about Albert is something I find really moving. I've spent time, because my spouse has been a travel writer the past 20 years, in the remnants of the world of the 4th century -- in Spain, in Portugal, in Italy especially, so I want to learn more about Leo. But right now for me it's the very concept of empire, of conquest, of exploitation --regardless of the groups vying for power -- that I find distressing. We need to spend more time in nature, we need to see ourselves as fellow organisms on the planet not masters of all we survey, we need to love God's creation -- and I feel Albert as an early naturalist and scientist provides a stronger representation of those values.

    1. Very eloquent. I have heard it said that capitalism has no natural enemies. I would like to believe that Christianity is the natural enemy of capitalism.

  11. I really appreciate our view of Leo as a peacemaker and I personally would be quaking in my boots in front of Atilla the Hun. That said, I don't think if him as a peacemaker in the sense of "Blessed are the Peacemakers." He really stamped on the varieties of Christendom that existed (in the name of defending against "heresies") and he spent years politicking to elevate Rome over the other Bishops, thus really breaking down the ecumenism of the early church. It doesn't seem admirable to me. It seems greedy. And we don't see him going out to make peace with Atilla or the goths, he only wants them to not sack the seat of his power and wealth. Leo is not "great" in my opinion.

  12. I voted for Albert, in part because of early prejudice against Leo whom we called 'the first pope.' Have a hard time with the papal link back to Peter. And I all for science.

  13. After reading all the comments up to now, I’m going to support the scientist. For my husband, a geologist, and because putting some trust in God's book of Works would give the Church a far better witness, in these complicated times, plus prompt much better care for this Creation, the only one God gave us and asked us to care for! Besides, we have a very good friend from Köln, our first exchange student!

  14. If I had not already voted for Leo, the comments would have shifted my vote to him. Leo! Leo!

  15. I'm going with Albert. His is a testimony that science and God are linked. At a time in our history when people want to for go both science and God we need to hear the good works of Albert.

  16. This was indeed a difficult choice. Leo negotiated with Attilla the Hun - Wow! But I had to go with Albert who walked everywhere as do I. I also have two siblings who trained in zoological fields. So, Albert it is today!

  17. Going with Albert today to remember back to a time when science and religion were not on opposite ends

  18. I was distressed in year 3 EfM to learn of all the fighting, arguing, and killing that happened over the nature of Jesus the Christ. How much human? How much divine? How did they mix up -or not mix up? People were killed over these questions. So I am voting for Leo whose answer stopped the argument. But it's hard not no vote for Boots the Bishop and scientist.

  19. The Gray Household votes for the peacemaker and negotiator, Leo the Great. (With one dissenting vote by T - the dad). God grant us shalom in the home for the remainder of this pandemic!

  20. I was having a tough time with this match-up. I didn't really get from the write-up why Albert was cannonized but as the patron saint of medical technicians and scientists I was leaning toward Albert. Then part of Leo's write-up made me think he was just power hungry so even more leaning toward Albert. Then came this quote "Leo wrote with authority, dignity, and clarity that Jesus Christ is one person, the Divine Word, in whom human and divine natures are fully united without either confusion or mixture.". That swayed me and I had to vote for Leo.

  21. Now I understand why I picked Leo as my "Confirmation Name" in the Catholic church we attended when I was a boy ... Back then I picked Leo because my dad's middle name was Lee and it was a close match. My dad was my hero. Now St. Leo is too.

  22. Got to vote for Albert who was truly a Multi-talented person with great depth. Leo while perhaps a great negotiator opposed Pelagius who was at the roots of the Celtic and Anglican legacy.

    1. Josh Hawley wrote an article for Christianity Today in 2019 excoriating Pelagius as the source of elitism and selfishness in American culture. He argued that Pelagius promoted a licentious and egotistical view of freedom and was therefore favored by wealthy Romans, who wanted to keep power. Hawley then openly supported a white supremacist insurrection in the nation's capitol in order to catapult himself into those same ranks of wealthy and powerful Romans. Apart from calling out Hawley's naked ambition and hypocrisy--and unsuitability for office by way of misuse of Christian principles, we need to reconsider some of these early figures in Christian history for their theology and their ongoing role in our evolving understanding of Christian charism. As Faulkner said, "the past isn't dead; it's not even past." Who are Constantine, Augustine, Pelagius, Manichius, and Athanasius for us today? What DO our creeds mean for us? Fredric Jameson says it's the nature of our mediations that matters; in our efforts to understand reality, there are good interpretations and bad interpretations. If we are the "via media"--or more appropriately today, the "via mediativa"--then we should be reconsidering, as the body of Christ, what our credal tradition means for us, what our early figures in their disputes can offer us, and how our spiritual and doctrinal heritage can evolve to help us face a parlous world on behalf of all our brothers and sisters "animal, vegetal, and mineral" (to quote that great saint the modern major general). What does Christian freedom mean today and how should we use it?

      1. My recollection was Pelagius got into hot water either the established Church for promoting the good in people as opposed to the evil Augustine saw. I do not see how that is egotistical or elitist. Pelagius also promoted the equality of women and the Celtic reverence of nature. I think Hawkey must be an Augustinian.

        1. I have a young friend that would appreciate that idea, St. Celia. Thank you.

          I'm almost ready to decide between Albertus and Leo.

  23. With a son who is a respiratory therapist and has been on the Covid frontlines since the beginning, Albert, the patron Saint of Medical technicians, would have my vote in any event; I truly appreciate Leo as peacemaker and diplomat, but it’s Albert for me!

  24. I'm always voting for the underdog. Leo indeed won over Attila the Hun, an impressive feat. And he did it for love and peace. Whom would I like to meet in their own times? Leo the Great, without a doubt.

  25. A hard choice between two great saints who both deserve the appellation "Great." U voted for
    Albert in the end because I admire his great scholarly attainments.

  26. Two outstanding saints who both deserve the appellation "Great." I voted for Albert because I admire his great scholarly attainments..