Attila the Hun at the Gates of Rome: Pope Leo I, Emperor Valentinian III, and the Peter and Paul Miracle

Ex-president Barack H. Obama´s spiritual path to Christianity is interesting to read about, as are the varying paths those of FD Roosevelt, Eleanor, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Wangari Maathai, Gandhi and Kasturbai, and Mohammed Yunus. The UN human rights culture raises questions about the subtler aspects of Western history and its principal psychocultural driving force, the Christian religion. Consider the history starting with Attila the Hun´s invasion of Italy, devastation of Verona, and approach to striking distance of Rome. In a recent OP, I mentioned Josiah Royce´s "beloved community" ideas that Christian integrity involves an individual and shared process of historical construction. I combined that with Weber and Simmel´s antipositivism and interpretivism, which involves value awareness, and with Rickert, individualized historical detail. With James, Freud, Jung, and Tubman´s kind of spiritual experience, we can understand sequences represented by the legacy of the legacy of Christian monasticism following the Desert Fathers Anthony the Great and Evagrius, in spiritual developmental schemes like Purgatio, Illuminatio, and Unitio, including "divinization" or "theosis." That can be considered in terms of other spiritual traditions like Buddhism´s Four Noble Truths and Right Meditation. In addition, scientific studies like Davidson et al 2003 have found immune system benefits from meditation, as one scientific linkage and correlate. Medically impossible healings are recorded by a variety of medical sources like C. Crandall MD´s and L. Mehl-Medrona MD, PhD´s cross-cultural records, which confirm a broader range of phenomena as in C Keener PhD´s work. Let´s look at the basic account of Attila the Hun´s position at Rome here.

"The Huns came from East of the Volga in Asia, and by the 370s AD/CE, crossed the Volga River in what is now modern Russia. By 452, "Attila returned to Italy renew his marriage claim with Emperor Valentinian III´s sister Honoria, invading and ravaging (the area) along the way. Communities became established in what would later become Venice as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the Venetian Lagoon. His army sacked numerous cities and razed Aquileia so completely that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site. Aëtius had defeated Attila at the Battle of Troyes in Gaul, but lacked the strength to offer further battle. Aetius only managed to harass and slow Attila's advance with a shadow force. Attila finally halted at the River Po. By this point, disease and starvation may have taken hold in Attila's camp, thus hindering his war efforts and potentially contributing to the cessation of invasion.

Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as the Bishop of Rome Leo I, who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor.[41] Prosper of Aquitaine gives a short description of the historic meeting, but gives all the credit to Leo for the successful negotiation. Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric gave (Attila) pause—as Alaric died shortly after sacking Rome in 410.

Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452. Attila's devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest. To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy, and taking the city would not have improved Attila's supply situation. Therefore, it was more profitable for Attila to conclude peace and retreat to his homeland."

"As Hydatius writes in his Chronica Minora: The Huns, who had been plundering Italy and who had also stormed a number of cities, were victims of divine punishment, being visited with heaven-sent disasters: famine and some kind of disease. In addition, they were slaughtered by auxiliaries sent by the (Eastern) Emperor Marcian and led by (Western general) Aetius, and at the same time, they were crushed in their [home] settlements ... Thus crushed, they made peace with the Romans and all returned to their homes."

The modern view more secularly states that the ambassadorial group with Pope Leo I, "combined with a plague among Attila's troops, the threat of famine, and news that the Eastern Emperor Marcian had launched an attack on Hun homelands along the Danube, forced Attila to turn around and leave Italy."

Attila the Hun died in 453 at age 47, according to his contemporary Priscus, during the night with his newest wife, Ildicó. There was no wound, but blood, leading to speculations of a hemorragh. His three sons in their rash, egotistical lusts for power, were defeated and slain by 468. As for the Christian Emperor Valentinian III, after Attila´s death and the reduced Hun threat, he was goaded by a vindictive and ambitious Christian Senator Petronius Maximus to murder his top general Aetius personally with the aide of his eunuch chamberlain Heraclius, bashing the unarmed Aetius on the head. Priscus writes that in the next year, the ambitious Petronius Maximus, also resentful about Valentinian III committing adultery with Maximus´ wife, arranged for two assassins to murder Valentinian III while he went to practice archery, and Heraclius at the same time.

Attila´s turning back after meeting with Valentinian´s group with Pope Leo I in 452, and then dying prematurely in 453 at age 47 under unusually unsuspicious circumstances is remarkable. It gains greater significance in examining the psychosocial and cultural components of additional surrounding contexts in historical development. Goaded by an ambitious Senator, Emperor Valentinian III assassinated his main general, and was then assassinated in turn by that same Senator. As events unfolded, by 476 AD, the last Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus, a figurehead, was removed from power by Odoacer, who became the King of Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila

I´ll save the exploratory analysis in spiritual modernization for a subsequent OP. For now, what do you think of the strange occurrence of and context around Attila the Hun´s desisting from attacking Rome and young premature death with a new wife?