Pope Theodore I (; died 14 May 649) 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 24 November 642 to his death on 14 May 649. His pontificate was dominated by the struggle with

Monothelitism Monothelitism, or monotheletism was a theological doctrine in Christianity that was proposed in the 7th century, but was ultimately rejected by the sixth ecumenical council. It held Christ as having only one will and was thus contrary to dyoth ...

Early career

According to the ''

Liber Pontificalis The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biography, biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adr ...

'', Theodore was a Greek man from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

whose father, Theodore, had been a bishop in the city; he is the only pope to have been a native of that city. He was among the many Syrian clergy who fled to Rome following the

Muslim conquest of the Levant The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...

. He was made a

cardinal deacon 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. C ...

possibly around 640 and a full

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Pope John IV Pope John IV (; died 12 October 642) was the bishop of Rome from 24 December 640 to his death on 12 October 642. His election followed a four-month vacancy. He wrote to the clergy of Ireland and Scotland to tell them of the mistakes they were ...

Pontificate

Theodore I's

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

was supported by the

exarch of Ravenna The Exarchate of Ravenna (; ), also known as the Exarchate of Italy, was an administrative district of the Byzantine Empire comprising, between the 6th and 8th centuries, the territories under the jurisdiction of the exarch of Italy (''exarchus ...

, who governed Italy in the name of the emperor in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. He was installed on 24 November 642, succeeding John IV. The main focus of his pontificate was the continued struggle against the heretical Monothelites. He refused to recognize Paul II as the

patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople () is the archbishop of Constantinople and (first among equals) among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that comprise the Eastern Orthodox Church. The ecumenical patriarch is regarded as ...

because Paul's predecessor, Pyrrhus I, had not been correctly replaced. He pressed Emperor

Constans II Constans II (; 7 November 630 – 15 July 668), also called "the Bearded" (), was the Byzantine emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last attested emperor to serve as Roman consul, consul, in 642, although the office continued to exist unti ...

to withdraw the ''

Ecthesis The Ecthesis () is a letter published in 638 CE by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius which defined monotheletism as the official imperial form of Christianity. Background The ''Ecthesis'' was another attempt by the Byzantine emperors to heal the di ...

'' of

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

. While his efforts made little impression on Constantinople, it increased the opposition to the teaching in the West; Pyrrhus even briefly recanted Monothelitism in 645, but was

excommunicated 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 communion with other members of the con ...

in 648. Paul was excommunicated in 649. In response, Paul destroyed the Roman altar in the palace of

Placidia Placidia () was a 5th-century Roman noblewoman and briefly empress in the Western Roman Empire. Her father was Valentinian III, Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. In 455, shortly after her marriage to Olybrius, she was captured by Gaiser ...

and exiled or imprisoned the

papal apocrisiarius The ''apocrisiarius'' or apocrisiary was the legate from the pope to the patriarch of Constantinople, circa 452–743, equivalent to the modern nunciature. Nomenclature The term '' apocrisiarius'' comes from the Greek word ''apokrisis'', "resp ...

. He also sought to end the issue with the emperor by promulgating the

Type of Constans The ''Typos'' of Constans (also called ''Type'' of Constans) was an edict issued by Eastern Roman emperor Constans II in 648 in an attempt to defuse the confusion and arguments over the Christological doctrine of Monotheletism. For over two cent ...

, ordering that the ''Ecthesis'' be taken down and seeking to end discussion on the doctrine. Theodore planned the Lateran Council of 649 to condemn the ''Ecthesis'', but died before he could convene it. His successor, Martin I, did so instead. Theodore was buried in

Old St. Peter's Basilica Old St. Peter's Basilica was the church buildings that stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries, where St. Peter's Basilica stands today in Vatican City. Construction of the basilica, built over the historical site of the Circus of Nero, began dur ...

. His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

is on

18 May Events Pre-1600 * 332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople. * 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of ...

.
Ὁ Ἅγιος Θεόδωρος ὁ Ἱερομάρτυρας Ἐπίσκοπος Ρώμης
'' 18 Μαΐου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.

Notes

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theodore 01 649 deaths 7th-century archbishops Popes of the Byzantine Papacy Asian popes Burials at St. Peter's Basilica Greek popes Popes Year of birth unknown 7th-century popes Clergy from Jerusalem Syrian popes