Pope Leo II

Pope Saint Leo II (611 – 28 June 683) reigned from 17 August 682 to his death in 683.

Background and early activity in the Church

He was a Sicilian by birth (the son of a man named Paulus). He may have ended up being among the many Sicilian clergy in Rome, at that time, due to the Islamic Caliphate battles against Sicily in the mid-7th century. Though elected pope a few days after the death of Pope St. Agatho (10 January 681), he was not consecrated till after the lapse of a year and seven months (17 August 682). Leo was known as an eloquent preacher who was interested in music, and noted for his charity to the poor.

Reign as Bishop of Rome

Elected shortly after the death of Agatho, Leo was not consecrated for over a year and a half. The reason may have been due to negotiations regarding imperial control of papal elections.

These negotiations were undertaken by Leo's predecessor Agatho between the Holy See and Emperor Constantine IV. They concerned the relations of the Byzantine Court to papal elections. Constantine IV had already promised Agatho to abolish or reduce the tax that the popes had been paying to the imperial treasury at the time of their consecration, an imperial policy that had been in force for about a century.

Leo II

Leo II (or Leon II) may refer to:

People

Armenian kings

Other

Leo II (emperor)

Leo II (Latin: Flavius Leo Iunior Augustus, Ancient Greek: Λέων Β', Leōn II; 467 – 17 November 474) was Byzantine Emperor for less than a year in 474. He was the son of Zeno and Ariadne, and maternal grandson of Leo I and Verina. As Leo's closest male relative, he was named successor upon his grandfather's death. After taking his father as colleague, he died of an unknown disease about 10 months into his reign in November, 474. It was widely rumored that he might have been poisoned by his mother Ariadne in order to bring her husband Zeno to the throne. He was indeed succeeded by his father, although his grandmother Verina took advantage of his death to conspire against Zeno.

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Leo II (dwarf galaxy)

Leo II (or Leo B) is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy about 690,000 light-years away in the constellation Leo. As of October 2008 it is one of 24 known satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. As of 2007 Leo II is thought to have a core radius of 178 ± 13 pc and a tidal radius of 632 ± 32 pc. It was discovered in 1950 by Robert George Harrington and Albert George Wilson, from the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories in California.

Recent Findings

In 2007 a team of 15 scientists observed Leo II through the 8.2 meter Subaru optical-infrared telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Over 2 nights, 90 minutes of exposures were taken and 82,252 stars were detected down to a visible magnitude of 26. They found that Leo II consists largely of metal-poor older stars, a sign that it has survived the galactic cannibalism under which massive galaxies (e.g., the Milky Way) consume smaller galaxies to attain their extensive size.

Observation at ESO estimates Leo II's mass to be (2.7 ± 0.5)×10⁷M_⊙.

See also