From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo the Great: Birthday of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo the Great First for the Birthday of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

Dearly beloved brethren, in the joy of all the holy Feast-days the whole world is partaker. There is but one love of God, and whatsoever is solemnly called to memory, if it has been done for the salvation of all, must needs be worth the honor of a joyful memorial at the hands of all. Nevertheless, this feast which we are keeping today, besides that world-wide worship which it does of right get throughout all the earth, does deserve from this city of ours an outburst of gladness altogether special and our own. In this place it was that the two chiefs of the Apostles did so right gloriously finish their race. And upon this day whereon they lifted up that their last testimony, let it be in this place that the memory thereof receives the chief of jubilant celebrations. O Rome, these two are the men who brought the light of the Gospel of Christ to shine upon you! These are they by whom thou, from being the teacher of lies, were turned into a learner of the truth.

These two be your fathers, these be your shepherds, these two be those who laid for you, as touching the kingdom of heaven, better and happier foundations, than did they that first planned your earthly ramparts, from which he that gave you your name took occasion to pollute you with a brother's blood. These are they who have set on your head this your glorious crown, that  become an holy nation, a chosen people, a city both Priestly and Kingly, whom the Sacred Throne of blessed Peter has exalted until you become the Lady of the world, unto whom the world-wide love for God hath conceded a broader lordship than is the possession of any mere earthly empire. You were once waxen great by victories, until thy power was spread haughtily over land and sea, but your power was narrower then which the toils of war had won for you, than that you now have which has been laid at your feet by the peace of Christ.

You once waxen great by victories, until your power was spread haughtily over land and sea, but your power was narrower then which the toils of war had won for you, than that you now have which has been laid at your feet by the peace of Christ. It well suited for the doing of the work which God had decreed that the multitude of kingdoms should be bound together under one rule, and that so the universal preaching of the Gospel should find easier entry into all peoples, since all were governed by the empire of one city.

But this city, knowing not Him, Who had been pleased to make her great, used her lordship over almost all nations to make herself the minister of all their falsehoods and seemed to herself exceeding godly because there was no false god whom she rejected. But the tighter than Satan had bound her, the more wondrous was the work of Christ in setting her free.