7 history-changing Pope Leos
4. Pope Leo IX (1002-1054)
Born as Bruno, the son of Count Hugh of Egisheim, in modern day France, Pope Leo IX reigned as head of the Catholic Church from 1049 until his death in 1054.
During his rule, Pope Leo IX championed reforms aimed at cracking down on simony, which involved the selling of church offices for profit, and mandated clerical celibacy.
However, Leo IX is most remembered for instigating the Great Schism of 1054, as his efforts to exert authority over Eastern churches led to the split between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches that still exists today.
The schism was finalized in July 1054, a few months after Leo IX died, when Patriarch Michael Keroularios of Constantinople excommunicated all who supported the pope’s claims of leadership over the whole church.
"And while relations between some of the Eastern Churches with Rome continued to be relatively friendly for quite some time, the reality and extent of the schism gradually deepened and spread," noted the Orthodox Church in America.
"As we know, the Roman Catholic Church is still not in communion with the Orthodox Churches, even though in 1965 Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the mutual anathemas of 1054."
