Saint Martin I,
Pope, Martyr
Martin was born at Todi, Tuscany (Italy). He was of noble birth and studied in Rome, acquiring great knowledge. He became a deacon at Rome. Due to his great learning and piety, he was appointed papal nuncio to Constantinople for Pope Theodore I.
On July 21, 649 he was elected pope.
Martin’s pontificate occurred during an extensive controversy that had strained relations between the Eastern and Western churches, namely monothelitism, a heresy maintaining that Christ had only one will. Martin called a council at the Lateran in his first year, condemning Heraclius and monothelitism in the face of the decree, the Typos, issued by the Byzantine emperor Constans II Pogonatus that commanded there be no discussion of the heresy.
On June 17, 653, the Pope, already sick, was seized by Byzantine soldiers and dragged to Constantinople. He was brutally treated along the way by the soldies and when they finally reached the Byzantine capital, he was in very poor physical condition.
He was jailed for three months. Eventually he was tried on a charge of ‘treason’, while his real offence had been his refusal to accept the Typos. He was condemned unheard, flogged and sentenced to death. At the intercession of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the emperor commuted the sentence to banishment, thereby sparing his life, but he was exiled to Chersonesus in the Crimea. He died in exile on 13 April, 655, the last pope to die a martyr.
Saint Martin I,
Pray for us!