Pope Sergius I (8 September 701) was the

bishop of Rome The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

from 15 December 687 to his death on 8 September 701, and is revered as a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He was elected at a time when two rivals, Paschal and Theodore, were locked in a dispute about which of them should become

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

. His papacy was dominated by his response to the

Quinisext Council The Quinisext Council (; , literally meaning, ''Fifth-Sixth Meeting''), i.e., the Fifth-Sixth Council, often called the Council ''in Trullo'', Trullan Council, or the Penthekte Synod, was a church council held in 692 at Constantinople under Ju ...

, the canons of which he steadfastly refused to accept. Thereupon Emperor Justinian II ordered Sergius' arrest, but the Roman people and the Italian militia of the exarch of Ravenna refused to allow the exarch to bring Sergius to Constantinople.

Early life

Sergius I came from an

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

ene Syrian family which had settled at Panormus in Sicily. Sergius left Sicily and arrived in Rome during the pontificate of Adeodatus II. He may have been among the many Sicilian clergy in Rome due to the

Caliphate A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

's attacks on Sicily in the mid-7th century. Pope Leo II ordained him

cardinal-priest A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. ...

of Santa Susanna on 27 June 683, and he rose through the ranks of the clergy. He remained cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna until he was selected to become

.Frank N Magill, Alison Aves, ''Dictionary of World Biography'' (Routledge 1998
), vol. 2, pp. 823–825

Election

Pope Conon died on 21 September 687 after a long illness and a reign of less than a year. His archdeacon, Paschal, had already attempted to secure the papacy by bribing the exarch of Ravenna, John II Platyn. A more numerous faction wanted the archpriest Theodore to become pope. The two factions entered into armed combat, each in possession of part of the

Lateran Palace The Apostolic Palace of the Lateran (; ), informally the Lateran Palace (), is an ancient palace of the Roman Empire and later the main pope, papal residence in Rome. Located on Saint John's Square in Lateran on the Caelian Hill, the palace is ...

, which was the papal residence. To break the deadlock, a group of civic authorities, army officers, clergy, and other citizens met in the Palatine imperial palace, elected Sergius, and then stormed the Lateran, forcing the two rival candidates to accept Sergius.Ekonomou, 2007, p. 216. Though pretending to accept Sergius, Paschal sent messengers to Platyn, promising a large sum of gold in exchange for military support. The exarch arrived, recognised that Sergius had been regularly elected, but demanded the gold anyway. After Sergius's

consecration Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

on 15 December 687, Platyn departed. Paschal continued his intrigues and was eventually confined to a monastery on charges of witchcraft. Sergius's consecration ended the last disputed ''

sede vacante In the Catholic Church, ''sede vacante'' is the state during which a diocese or archdiocese is without a prelate installed in office, with the prelate's office being the cathedral. The term is used frequently in reference to a papal interre ...

'' of the Byzantine Papacy.Ekonomou, 2007, p. 217.

Papacy

On 10 April 689, Sergius baptised King Cædwalla of Wessex in Rome. He also ordained Willibrord as bishop of the

Frisia Frisia () is a Cross-border region, cross-border Cultural area, cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. Wider definitions of "Frisia" ...

ns. After Berhtwald was consecrated

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

by Archbishop Godwin of Lyon, he travelled to Rome and received the

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolitan bish ...

from Pope Sergius. Sergius was active in ending the Schism of the Three Chapters with Old Aquileia in 698. He founded the diaconia of Santa Maria in Via Lata on

Via del Corso The Via del Corso is a main street in the historical centre of Rome. It is straight in an area otherwise characterized by narrow meandering alleys and small piazzas. Considered a wide street in ancient times, the Corso is approximately 10 metres w ...

, encompassing a city quarter that developed in the 8th century. He also "restored and embellished" the Eastern church of Santi Cosma e Damiano. Sergius I did not attend the

of 692, which was attended by 226 or 227 bishops, overwhelmingly from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The participation of Basil of Gortyna in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, belonging to the Patriarchate of Rome, has been seen in the East as representing Rome and even as signifying Roman approval, but he was in fact not a

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

. Sergius rejected the canons of the council as invalid and declared that he would "rather die than consent to erroneous novelties".Ekonomou, 2007, p. 222. Though a loyal subject of the Empire, he would not be "its captive in matters of religion". Writers such as Andrew J. Ekonomou have speculated on which canons, in particular, Sergius found objectionable. Ekonomou excludes the anathemising of

Pope Honorius I Pope Honorius I (died 12 October 638) was the bishop of Rome from 27 October 625 to his death on 12 October 638. He was active in spreading Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and attempted to convince the Celts to calculate Easter in the Roman fa ...

, the declaration of Constantinople as equal in privileges but second in honour to Rome. All popes since Leo the Great had adamantly rejected the 28th canon of the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

, which on the basis of political considerations tried to raise the ecclesiastical status of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to equality with that of old Rome.Davis, Leo Donald, ''The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787)'', (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990) p. 194 Ekonomou mentions rather the approval by the Quinisext Council of all 85 Apostolic Canons, of which Sergius would have supported only the first 50. Many of the regulations that the Quinisext Council enacted were aimed at making uniform the existing church practices regarding ritual observance and clerical discipline. Being held under Byzantine auspices, with an exclusively Eastern clergy, the council regarded the customs of the Church of Constantinople as the orthodox practice. Practices in the Church in the West that had got the attention of the Eastern patriarchates were condemned, such as: the practice of celebrating

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

on weekdays in

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

(rather than having pre-sanctified liturgies); of

fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...

on Saturdays throughout the year; of omitting the "

Alleluia ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern Hebrew, Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, ...

" in Lent; of depicting Christ as a lamb. In a step that was symbolically important in view of the council's prohibition of depicting Christ as a Lamb, Sergius introduced into the liturgy the chant "Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us" at the breaking of the Host during Mass, and restored the damaged facade mosaic in the atrium of Saint Peter's that depicted the Worship of the Lamb.Ekonomou, 2007, p. 223. The '' Agnus Dei'' would have been chanted in both Greek and Latin during this period, in the same manner as the other liturgical changes of Sergius. Larger disputes were revealed regarding Eastern and Western attitudes toward

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term ''celibacy'' is applied ...

for priests and

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

s, with the Council affirming the right of married men to become priests and prescribing

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in Koinonia, communion with other members o ...

for anyone who attempted to separate a clergyman from his wife, or for any cleric who abandoned his wife. Enraged, Emperor Justinian II dispatched his '' magistrianus'', also named Sergius, to arrest Bishop John of Portus, the chief papal legate to the

Third Council of Constantinople The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches, and by certain other Western Churches, met in 680–681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical a ...

, and Boniface, the papal counsellor. The two high-ranking officials were brought to Constantinople as a warning to the pope. Eventually, Justinian ordered Sergius's arrest and abduction to Constantinople by his notoriously violent bodyguard '' protospatharios'' Zacharias. However, the militia of the exarch of Ravenna and the Duchy of Pentapolis frustrated the attempt.Ekonomou, 2007, p. 224. Zacharias nearly lost his own life in an attempt to arrest Sergius.Ekonomou, 2007, p. 44. Rather than seizing upon the anti-Byzantine sentiment, Sergius did his best to quell the uprising.

Death

Sergius died on 8 September 701. He was succeeded by John VI.

Notes

References

* Ekonomou, Andrew J. 2007. ''Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752''. Lexington Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sergius 01 7th-century births 701 deaths Papal saints Popes Syrian popes Syrian Christian saints Italian Roman Catholic saints Popes of the Byzantine Papacy 7th-century archbishops 8th-century archbishops 8th-century Christian saints 7th-century popes 8th-century popes Religious leaders from Palermo 7th-century religious leaders Burials at St. Peter's Basilica