20 February/5 March

St. Leo was bishop of Catania, Sicily. He was renowned for his kindness and charity, his Christian love for strangers and the poor. The Lord made him worthy of the gifts of working miracles and healing people of various illnesses. During St. Leo’s episcopacy, there lived in Catania a sorcerer named Iliodor, who amazed the people with false miracles. He had been a Christian, but later secretly renounced the Savior and became a servant of the Devil. St. Leo often strove to convince Iliodor to cease from doing evil and instead to return to God, but his efforts were in vain. Once, Iliodor even dared to enter the church where the bishop was celebrating Divine Services, and using sorcery, tempted the faithful, creating a disturbance to disrupt the service. Seeing the people frenzied by the sorcerery, St. Leo realized that the time for humble entreaties had passed. He calmly left the Altar, and tying his omophorion around the sorcerer’s neck, led him out of the church and into the courtyard. There he directed that a bonfire be built and ignited. Not wavering in the least, and holding Iliodor fast with his omophorion, he walked into the flames. There they stood in the fire until Iliodor was consumed by the flames, while, through the power of God, St. Leo remained unharmed. That miracle brought St. Leo fame during his lifetime. When the Venerable One reposed, a woman with an issue of blood who was standing next to her coffin received healing. The saint’s body was placed in the Church of the Holy Martyr St. Lucia, a church he himself had established; later his relics were translated to the church of St. Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Turo (commemorated on October 12.)