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On October 31, 1951, Vatican City issued a five-stamp set to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the Council of Calchedon. Three of the stamps, shown above, depict the presentation of Pope Leo the Great's "Tome" at the Council. The "Tome" was a letter sent by Pope Leo to Flavian of Constantinople, asserting the Papal position regarding the doctrine that Christ has two natures, both fully human and fully divine. The Council of Chalcedon was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church and was convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadikoy, Istanbul, Turkey). Attended by over 520 bishops, papal legates and other church representatives, the Council ran from October 8 to November 1, 451 AD. The principal purpose of the council was to reassert the teachings of earlier Councils and to denounce heresies which attempted to dismantle and separate Christ's divine nature from His humanity (the most prominent heresies being Nestorianism and Monophysitism). The Council held a total of fifteen sessions, the most important of which was the fifth, held on October 22. The bishops published a decree which would become a dogma of Christian Faith. Drawn up by a special commission of the Council, the document in part declares: "We teach . . . one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, known in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation". The Council thus affirmed that "Jesus Christ is one Person who is both divine and human". Known as the "Chalcedonian Definition", it affirms the truth that Jesus Christ is fully divine and, at the same time, fully human, and that He is both "the Son of God and the Son of Man": the Word incarnate. At its conclusion, the Council promulgated a total of thirty disciplinary Canons which ratified the works of past Councils at Nicaea and Constantinople. One of the Canons (#28) stated that "the bishop of New Rome (Constantinople) shall enjoy the same privileges as the bishop of Old Rome", in essence equating the powers of the Bishop of Constantinople with those of the pope. The sitting pope, Leo I the Great, vehemently opposed this Canon and declared it null and void, while accepting the rest of the Chalcedonian Creed. In rejecting this particular article, Pope Leo sowed the seeds for a rift between Rome and Constantinople, which eventually led to the Great Schism of 1054 and the separation of the Catholic Church into the Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) Churches. In addition to the three stamps above showing the Council chambers, the 1951 set contains two stamps depicting Pope Leo the Great meeting with Atilla the Hun and convincing him not to invade Rome. Pope Leo the Great will be presented in greater detail in a daily e-mail on his feast day, November 10.
References: Wikipedia.com, "Council of Chalcedon" Wikipedia.com, "Leo's Tome" GotQuestions.org, "What was the significance of the Council of Chalcedon?" New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, "Council of Chalcedon" Vatican Philatelic Society website (www.vaticanstamps.org), "Stamp Database Search" | ||||||||||||||
