E05490: Leo the Great composes a Latin sermon (Sermon 84) in Rome in 442/3 in which he invokes the Apostles *Peter and *Paul (S00036 and S00009) as he rebukes his congregation for their absence from the commemoration of the anniversary of Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410.

Leo the Great, Sermon 84

Religiosam deuotionem, dilectissimi, qua ob diem castigationis et liberationis nostrae, cunctus fidelium populus ad agenda deo gratias confluebat, pene ab omnibus proxime fuisse neglectam, ipsa paucorum qui adfuerunt raritas demonstrauit ... Plus inpenditur daemoniis quam apostolis, et maiorem obtinent frequentiam insana spectacula quam beata martyria.

‘That religious devotion, dearly beloved, with which the whole body of the faithful used to come together to give thanks to God for the day of our chastisement and of our liberation, has recently been neglected by almost everyone, as the very scarcity of the few who were present has shown. ... More effort is spent on demons than on the Apostles, and the wild entertainments draw greater crowds than the shrines of the martyrs.’

Leo continues to rebuke them, telling them it was the Apostles, and not the circuses, which saved the city.

Text: Chavasse 1973. Translation: Freeland and Conway 1996.