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Pope Leo XIII is depicted in this official Vatican portrait. He laid the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching with his landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressing the rights and dignity of workers in the face of industrialization.
OSV News photo/Library of Congress
May 14, 2025
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OSV News photo/courtesy Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation
Rome
When Catholics heard on May 8 the new pope had chosen the name Leo XIV, the thoughts of many turned immediately to Leo XIII, the last pope to bear the name.
That most recent Leo, who served as pope from 1878 to 1903, is especially remembered for articulating the church's teaching on social justice in a rapidly changing and ever industrialized society. He was also interested in promoting the political, theological and philosophical vision of St. Augustine, the namesake and inspiration of the new pope's religious congregation, and St. Thomas Aquinas.
Leo XIII, was also known as "the Rosary Pope" for his unmatched 11 encyclical letters on Marian devotion.
Aside from Leo XIII, himself not canonized, there have been 12 others who share a name with the new pope, and five of those predecessors attained the heights of sanctity and have been proclaimed saints.
The first pope to bear the name, Pope Leo the Great (c. 400-461), truly had the character of a lion, from which the familiar papal name draws its meaning. A bold defender of the faith amid times of controversy and division, Leo is also remembered for successfully persuading Attila the Hun to spare Italy from an intended invasion of Italy. In doing so, Leo the Great is credited as one of the most influential patristic-era popes, who greatly increased the church's influence and authority.
Leo the Great was a steady and sure leader amid many threats to the peace and stability of Roman culture at his time, including famine, disease, poverty and a rise in immigration.
His homilies and writings are evidence of the teaching that helped the church overcome various Christological controversies in the fifth century, in the lead up to the Council of Chalcedon in 451. For his doctrinal clarity and ability to articulate unity, Leo the Great was declared a doctor of the church in 1754, one of only two popes so designated.
Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo the Great taught the church "to believe in Christ, true God and true Man, and to implement this faith every day in action for peace and love of neighbor."
St. Leo II (611-683), who was elected Peter's successor two centuries later, only reigned for just under nine months. Remembered for a love of music and a unique skill for preaching, Leo II's brief pontificate is best remembered today through various hymns he composed for the Liturgy of the Hours.
St. Leo III, who reigned as pope for nearly two decades before his death in 816, crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor in 800. This honor stemmed from, no doubt, Leo's gratitude for Charlemagne's protection of him after an attack on his reputation and his life.
St. Leo IV, whose eight-year pontificate ended in 855, restored several churches in Rome after Muslim invaders plundered the sacred structures. The Italian Renaissance painter Raphael commemorated various scenes associated with Leo IV's time in office. One fresco called "Battle of Ostia" recalls how Leo IV assembled various naval fleets to defend the ancient port at the mouth of Rome's Tiber River. Another, "The Fire in the Borgo" depicts how Leo's blessing extinguished a fire near the Vatican in 847.
The relics of popes Leo II, Leo III and Leo IV are enshrined in an altar in St. Peter's Basilica, close to another altar that contains the relics of St. Leo the Great.
The most recently sainted Leo, St. Leo IX (1002-1054), brought reform to the church, reiterating mandatory clerical celibacy and defending the church's belief in Christ's real presence in the Eucharist amid scandal.
A native of modern-day France, Leo IX was allegedly born with red crosses marking his entire body, considered by some as a form of the stigmata. Divisions between Eastern and Western halves of the church intensified during his pontificate, with the Great Schism coming amid the interregnum just after his death.
The relics of St. Leo IX are also separately enshrined in an altar in St. Peter's Basilica.
(Michael Heinlein writes for OSV News from Rome.)
A version of this story appeared in the May 18, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "The Leos who came before".
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