St. Leo the Great

The only place where one can find a direct and intelligible judgment about the procession of the Holy Spirit in the writings of Pope St. Leo the Great is in his "Epistle 15" from Turribius d'Astroga, where he, in particular, writes about the Holy Spirit: "de utroque processit" [from both he came – Ed.] 89. But today it is known that this piece is apocryphal and was fabricated after the Council of Braga (563) 90.

The assertion that the Holy Spirit is "the common Father and the Son,"91 or that He is the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son,92 which was a common belief among the Fathers, echoing the expressions of the Holy Apostle Paul, "the Spirit of the Father" and "the Spirit of the Son," do not affect the origin of the Spirit.

One of the texts where this last statement can be found clarifies the concept of St. Leo and presents an analysis that sheds light on the subject with which we are interested. Speaking of Pentecost, the Pope notes:

"Let us beware of thinking that the Divine substance was manifested in that which was pointed out to the eyes of the flesh. The divine nature, invisible and common to the Father and the Son, has indeed shown under the sign under which it willed the quality of its gift and its work (muneris atque opens sui), but it has retained in the depths of its divinity that which is proper to its essence: for the gaze of man, not only cannot reach the Father or the Son, he cannot even see the Holy Spirit. In the Divine Trinity there is, indeed, nothing dissimilar, nothing unequal; Everything that can be imagined of this substance does not differ in power, glory, or eternity (dog virtute, dog gloria, dog aeternitate). Although according to the properties of the Persons there is one Father, another is the Son, another is the Holy Spirit, nevertheless neither Divinity becomes different, nor nature is different. If indeed the Only-begotten Son is of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, He is not like a creature which would be the Father and the Son, but He is as having life and power with the One and with the Other, and as eternally existing from what the Father and the Son are (sempiterne ex eo quod est Pater Filiusque subsistens). Likewise, when the Lord, on the eve of His Passion, promised His disciples the sending of the Holy Spirit, He said to them: "When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth: for He will not speak of Himself, but will speak what He hears, and will declare things to come. […] All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I have said that He will take of Mine and declare it unto you (John 16:13,15). Thus, it would be wrong to assert that some things belong to the Father, some to the Son, and some to the Holy Spirit. No, that which belongs to the Father belongs to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Never in this Trinity can such a community have a flaw, for, possessing everything, She exists eternally (semper existere). Let us beware of imagining any time, any degree, any difference; and if no one can explain what God is, let no one dare to assert that He is not. It is more excusable, in fact, not to speak with dignity of ineffable nature than to define it by what is contrary to it. Likewise, all that zealous hearts can imagine of the eternal and immutable glory of the Father, they at the same time inseparably and indistinguishably conclude about the glory of the Son and the Spirit. In fact, we confess that this blessed Trinity is One God, because in these three Persons there is no distinction of substance, power, will, or action (dog substantiae, dog potentiae, dog voluntatis, dog operations est ulla diversitas).93

It may be noted with regard to the question that concerns us that in this passage St. Leo distinguishes very clearly between the Holy Spirit as a Person and the Holy Spirit as grace or gift (or action or energy).94

This grace, which the Holy Spirit communicates to people, is regarded as belonging to the common nature of the three Divine Persons.

At the beginning of this text, St. Leo distinguishes the substance (or essence) of the Godhead, Who is unknowable, unapproachable, incommunicable, and everything that is His "sign" and manifestation is related, as he says, to His gift and to His creation (opus, which can be translated as action or activity), or also to His "power" (virtus), to His glory, to His "eternity" – to the fact that what else can be called His "actions" (a word used by St. Leo himself) or His energies. At the end of the text, a distinction is made between substance and power, will and action, which, as St. Leo asserts, are the same for the three Divine Persons.95 The assertion that "the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son" does not mean, as some interpreters have claimed, that the Father and the Son are the Cause of the Spirit, or that the Spirit posits its existence from the Father and from the Son. This expression is clearly related to what the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit possess together in order to understand the divine essence and its possession and the energies that belong to it and manifest it: St. Leo says that "the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son [...] as having life and power with the One and with the Other, and as eternally existing, to proceed from that which is (ex quod est) the Father and the Son."

(5) This expression "eternally existing to proceed from that which is the Father and the Son" does not refer to the origin of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from a common cause presented together by the Father and the Son as hypostases,96 nor even from their common nature, but affirms that the Spirit is eternally possessed of the same nature and consequently the same possession, the same power, and the same energy, both the Father and the Son, as the context of this passage points in many ways.97

It will be noted that to exist eternally in the proceeding of That which is the Father and the Son, seems to be equivalent to having life and power with the One and with the Other, that is, to possess the same Divine goods belonging to the same common Divine nature. This is confirmed by the assimilation that later occurred between "eternally existing" and "possessing all things," and "all" here means the divine "goods," which are here presented as one and the same in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

St. Leo refutes in advance the interpretation that follows from the Filioque with the assurance of Christ: "From Mine [from My good things – author's note] He will take and declare unto you" (John 16:14), emphasizing that what Christ designates as His own belongs equally not only to the Father but also to the Holy Spirit, and refers to the goods rooted in the common Divine nature, which manifest themselves as energies or actions and are transmitted as gifts of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. In general, it seems that St. Leo, in asserting that "the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son (Patris Filiique)," since He "eternally exists out of that which is the Father and the Son (ex eo quod est Pater Filiusque subsistens)," does not transform the Son into the Cause of the Spirit, but strenuously emphasizes that the divine essence is one and indistinguishable for the three Divine Persons, and that his triadology also meets the criteria, established by the Monk Maximus in his letter.