To Dioscorus of Alexandria, on Ordinations and the Eucharist

Leo the bishop to Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, greeting.

How much divine love we feel for you, beloved, you will be able to judge from this: we are anxious to set your beginnings on a surer footing, so that nothing may seem lacking to the perfection of your love, since your deserving acts of spiritual grace, as we have found, already speak in your favor. Fatherly and brotherly counsel, therefore, ought to be most welcome to you, holy brother, and received by you in the same spirit in which you know it is offered by us. For you and we ought to be one in thought and act, so that, as we read, in us too there may be shown to be one heart and one mind. For since the most blessed Peter received the headship of the apostles from the Lord, and the church of Rome still abides by his institutions, it is wicked to believe that his holy disciple Mark, who was the first to govern the church of Alexandria, formed his decrees on a different line of tradition. For without doubt both disciple and master drew one Spirit from the same fountain of grace, and the one ordained could not hand on anything other than what he had received from the one who ordained him. We do not allow, therefore, that we should differ in anything, since we confess ourselves to be of one body and faith, nor that the institutions of the teacher should seem different from those of the taught. [a]

What we know our fathers kept very carefully, we want you also to keep: namely, that the ordination of priests or deacons should not be performed at random on any day. After Saturday, the beginning of the night that comes before the dawn of the first day of the week should be chosen, on which the sacred blessing is to be given to those who are to be consecrated, with ordainer and ordained alike fasting. This observance will not be broken if the ordination is actually held on the morning of the Lord’s day without breaking the Saturday fast. For the beginning of the night before forms part of that period, and undoubtedly belongs to the day of resurrection, as is clearly laid down for the feast of Easter. For besides the weight of custom, which we know rests on the apostles’ teaching, Holy Scripture also makes this clear. When the apostles, at the bidding of the Holy Spirit, sent Paul and Barnabas to preach the good news to the nations, they laid hands on them fasting and praying, so that we may know with what devotion both giver and receiver must take care that so blessed a sacrament should not seem to be carelessly performed. [d]

And so you will act piously and commendably, following apostolic precedent, if you too keep this form of ordaining priests throughout the churches over which the Lord has called you to preside: namely, that those who are to be consecrated should never receive the blessing except on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, which is commonly held to begin on the evening of Saturday. This day has been hallowed so often by God’s mysterious arrangements that all the more notable institutions of the Lord were accomplished on that high day. On it the world took its beginning. On it, through the resurrection of Christ, death received its destruction and life its beginning. On it the apostles take from the Lord’s hands the trumpet of the good news, which is to be preached to all nations, and receive the sacrament of new birth, which they are to carry to the whole world. On it, as blessed John the evangelist bears witness, when all the disciples were gathered together in one place and the doors were shut, the Lord came in to them, breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you have forgiven, they are forgiven them; and whose you have retained, they will be retained.” On it, lastly, the Holy Spirit came, who had been promised to the apostles by the Lord. And so we know it to have been suggested and handed down by a kind of heavenly rule that we ought to celebrate the mysteries of the blessing of priests on the day on which all these gifts of grace were conferred.

Again, so that our practice may agree at every point, we want this also kept: when one of the greater festivals has brought together a larger congregation than usual, and so great a crowd of the faithful has gathered that one church cannot hold them all at once, there should be no hesitation about repeating the offering of the sacrifice. Otherwise, if only those who come first are admitted to this service, those who flock in afterward would seem to be rejected. For it is fully in keeping with piety and reason that, as often as a fresh congregation has filled the church where the service is going on, the sacrifice should be offered as a matter of course. But a certain part of the people must be deprived of their worship if the custom of only one celebration is kept, and only those who come early in the day can offer the sacrifice. [h]

We urge you, therefore, beloved, earnestly and affectionately, that your care too should not neglect what has become part of our own practice on the pattern of our fathers’ tradition, so that in all things we may agree together in our beliefs and in what we do. For this reason we have given this letter to our son Possidonius, a presbyter, on his return, to bring to you, brother. He has so often taken part in our ceremonies and ordinations, and has been sent to us so many times, that he knows quite well what apostolic authority we hold in all things. Dated the 21st of June.