Editing Pope Innocent I

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 401 to 417}}
{{Use dmy dates |date=December 2022 |cs1-dates=ll}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type             = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[Pope Saint]]
| name             = Innocent I
| title            = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church           = [[Catholic Church]]
| image            = Innocentius Papa S Martino ai Monti.JPG
| caption          = Statue in [[San Martino ai Monti]], Rome
| image_size       = 
| term_start       = 22 December 401<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/288617/Saint-Innocent-I|title = Saint Innocent I &#124; pope}}</ref>
| term_end         = 12 March 417
| predecessor      = [[Pope Anastasius I|Anastasius I]]
| successor        = [[Pope Zosimus|Zosimus]]
| birth_date       = 
| birth_place      = [[Albano Laziale|Albano]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Roman Empire]]
| death_date       = 12 March 417
| death_place      = [[Rome]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Western Roman Empire]]
| venerated        = {{ubl|[[Catholic Church]]|[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]}}
| feast_day        = {{unbulleted list|12 March|28 July (13th–20th centuries)}}
| other            = Innocent
}}

'''Pope Innocent I''' ({{langx|la|Innocentius I}}) was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 401 to his death on 12 March 417. From the beginning of his papacy, he was seen as the general arbitrator of ecclesiastical disputes in both the East and the West. He confirmed the prerogatives of the Archbishop of [[Thessaloniki|Thessalonica]], and issued a [[decretal]] on disciplinary matters referred to him by the Bishop of [[Rouen]]. He defended the exiled [[John Chrysostom]] and consulted with the bishops of [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]] concerning the [[Pelagian]] controversy, confirming the decisions of the African synods. 

The Catholic priest-scholar [[Johann Peter Kirsch]], 1500 years later, described Innocent as a very energetic and highly gifted individual "...who fulfilled admirably the duties of his office".<ref name="ce attribution" />

==Family background==
According to his biographer in the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', Innocent was a native of [[Albano Laziale|Albano]] and the son of a man called Innocentius.<ref name="ce attribution"/> On the other hand, in a letter to [[Demetrias (daughter of Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius)|Demetrias]] his contemporary [[Jerome]] referred to him as the son of the previous pope, [[Pope Anastasius I|Anastasius I]]. It has, however, been suggested that Jerome was describing a link merely hierarchical rather than biological.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dunn |first=Geoffrey |date=2007 |title=Anastasius I and Innocent I: Reconsidering the Evidence of Jerome |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/004260307x164476 |journal=Vigiliae Christianae |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=30–41 |doi=10.1163/004260307x164476 |issn=0042-6032}}</ref> According to Urbano Cerri, Pope Innocent was a native of [[Albania]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cerri|first1=Urbano|last2=Steel|first2=Richard|title=An account of the state of the Roman-Catholick religion throughout the world. Transl. To which is added, A discourse concerning the state of religion in England. Transl. With a large dedication to the present pope, by sir Richard Steele [really B. Hoadly.].|date=1715|publisher=Oxford University|page=[https://archive.org/details/anaccountstater00englgoog/page/n11 2]|url=https://archive.org/details/anaccountstater00englgoog|quote=albania.}}</ref>

==Pontificate==
From his appointment in 401, Innocent lost no opportunity to maintain and extend the authority of the [[Holy See|Roman apostolic See]], seen as final arbiter for all ecclesiastical disputes. That such opportunities were numerous and varied is evident from his communications with [[Victricius of Rouen]], [[Exuperius|Exuperius of Toulouse]], Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as how he acted when [[John Chrysostom]] appealed to him against [[Pope Theophilus I of Alexandria|Theophilus of Alexandria]]. On the [[Pelagius (British monk)|Pelagian]] controversy he took a decided view. He reinforced the decisions of the synod of the province of proconsular [[Africa]], held in [[Carthage]] in 416. He accordingly confirmed the condemnation in 411 against Cælestius, who was of the Pelagian view. In the same year he wrote likewise to the fathers of the [[Numidia]]n synod of Mileve who had appealed to him. Soon after this, five African bishops, among them St. Augustine, wrote a personal letter to Innocent explaining their own position on Pelagianism.<ref name="ce attribution">{{catholic|title=Pope Innocent I|volume=8|year=1910|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08011a.htm |last=Kirsch|first=Johann Peter|access-date=15 September 2017|inline=1}}</ref> In addition he acted as metropolitan over the bishops of Italia Suburbicaria.<ref name="ce">{{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia|title=Pope Innocent I|volume=8|year=1910|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08011a.htm |last=Kirsch|first=Johann Peter|access-date=15 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Dunn|first=Geoffrey|date=March 2013|title=Innocent I's Letter to the Bishops of Apulia|journal=Journal of Early Christian Studies|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=21|issue=1|pages=27–41|issn=1086-3184|doi=10.1353/earl.2013.0000|s2cid=170672101|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/v021/21.1.dunn.pdf}}</ref>

The historian Zosimus, in his ''Historia Nova'', suggests that during the [[Sack of Rome (410)|sack of Rome in 410]] by [[Alaric I]], Innocent I was willing to permit private pagan practices as a temporary measure. However, Zosimus also suggests that this attempt by pagans to restore public worship failed due to lack of public interest, suggesting that Rome in the previous century had been successfully and permanently won over to Christianity.<ref name="ce"/>

Among Innocent I's letters is one to Jerome and another to [[John II, Bishop of Jerusalem]], regarding annoyances to which the former had been subjected by the Pelagians at [[Bethlehem]]. Innocent's portrayal of the church as an institution "where there is protection for all, ... where there is security, where there is a port that resists the waves, where there is a treasure of infinite goods" was quoted by [[Pope Gregory XVI]] in correspondence with the French cleric [[Félicité de La Mennais]] in 1833.<ref>Pope Gregory XVI, [https://www.vatican.va/content/gregorius-xvi/it/documents/epistola-quod-de-tua-28-dicembre-1833.html Epistola: Quod de Tua] (in Italian), published by the Holy See on 28 December 1833, accessed on 17 January 2025</ref> 

He died on 12 March 417. Accordingly, his feast day is now celebrated on 12 March, though from the thirteenth to the twentieth century he was commemorated on 28 July.<ref>''Calendarium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 132; ''Martyrologium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 {{ISBN|978-88-209-7210-3}})</ref> His successor was [[Pope Zosimus|Zosimus]].

In 405, Pope Innocent sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, [[Exsuperius of Toulouse]],<ref name=Exsuperius>{{cite web| url = http://www.bible-researcher.com/innocent.html| title = Text and translation of the list}}</ref> identical with [[Canon of Trent|that of Trent]] (which took place more than 1000 years later),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZYTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 Matthew J. Ramage, ''Dark Passages of the Bible'' (CUA Press 2013] {{ISBN|978-0-81322156-4}}), p. 67</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4SuRX3APsukC&pg=PA149 Lee Martin McDonald, ''Formation of the Bible'' (Hendrickson Publishers 2012] {{ISBN|978-1-59856838-7}}), p. 149</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=aE7EyQ_HQAMC&pg=PA119 John L. Mckenzie, ''The Dictionary of the Bible'' (Simon and Schuster 1995] {{ISBN|978-0-68481913-6}}), p. 119</ref> except for some uncertainty in the manuscript tradition about whether the letters ascribed to Paul were 14 or only 13, in the latter case possibly implying omission of the [[Epistle to the Hebrews]].<ref name=Exsuperius/> Previously in 367, [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] had circulated the 39th [[Easter Letter]] mentioning the list of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, which he referred to as "canonized".

==Relics==
In 846, [[Pope Sergius II]] gave approval for the [[relic]]s of St. Innocent to be moved by Count [[Liudolf of Saxony]] and his wife, [[Oda of Gandersheim|Oda]], along with those of his father and predecessor [[Pope Anastasius I|Anastasius]], to the crypt of the former collegiate church of [[Bad Gandersheim|Gandersheim]], now [[Gandersheim Abbey]], where most rest until this day.<ref>Birgit Heilmann, ''Aus Heiltum wird Geschichte. Der Gandersheimer Reliquienschatz in nachreformatorischer Zeit''. Thomas Labusiak and Hedwig Röckelein, Regensburg, 2009 (Studien zum Frauenstift Gandersheim und seinen Eigenklöstern, vol. 1).</ref> Relics were also brought to [[The Church of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury]] upon its consecration.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.glastonburyshrine.co.uk/Shrine/Openingofthepresentchurch.php|title = Opening of the present church – Glastonbury Shrine}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[List of Catholic saints]]
*[[List of popes]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Innocentius I}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Find a Grave|6926297}}
* [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01_01_0401-0417-_Innocentius_I,_Sanctus.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina]
* [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/liberpontificalis.html Fontes Latinae de papis usque ad annum 530] (Papa [[Felix IV]])
* [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/liberpontificalis1.html#XLIII. Liber pontificalis] {{inlang|la}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|grt}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Anastasius I|Anastasius I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=401–417}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Zosimus|Zosimus]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholic saints}} 
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Innocent 01}}
[[Category:378 births]]
[[Category:417 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Albano Laziale]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Papal saints]]
[[Category:5th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:5th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:5th-century Western Romans]]
[[Category:Saints from Roman Italy]]
[[Category:Papal family members]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:5th-century popes]]
[[Category:5th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Letter writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Popes]]