Saint Martin I

Martin I was born in Todi and became pope in July 649. He was elected a couple of months after his predecessor’s death, without waiting for the emperor’s approval — and that alone made the election illegal. The clergy and people of Rome did it on purpose: their impatience with Constantinople had reached the breaking point. The issue was Monothelitism, that is, whether Christ had one will or two. It sounds like a detail for theologians, and it wasn’t: the emperor Constans II had imposed silence on the whole matter by edict, and obeying would have meant admitting that the emperor decides such things. One of Martin’s very first acts was to call a synod at the Lateran, which condemned the heresy and, in effect, the edict. The response came. In 653 the exarch Theodore Calliopas had him arrested in Rome, sick as he was, and taken to Constantinople. He was tried for treason, exposed to public scorn, sentenced to death, then pardoned at the plea of the dying patriarch. They exiled him to Cherson, in Crimea, where everything was lacking, even bread. He died there on September 16, 655, writing letters in which he said he had been forgotten even by his own Church. He is the last pope venerated as a martyr. Both Catholics and Orthodox celebrate him. If your name is Martin, today is your name day — though many wait for November eleventh.