Editing Pope Sabinian

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 604 to 606}}

{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[List of popes|Pope]]
| name = Sabinian
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| image =
| term_start = 13 September 604
| term_end = 22 February 606
| predecessor = [[Pope Gregory I|Gregory I]]
| successor = [[Pope Boniface III|Boniface III]]
| birth_date = c. 530
| birth_place = [[Blera]], [[Eastern Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 22 February 606 (aged 75–76)
| death_place = [[Rome]], [[Eastern Roman Empire]]
| previous_post = Cardinal-Deacon of the Holy Roman Church (15 October 590 - 13 September 604)
}}

'''Pope Sabinian''' ({{langx|la|Sabinianus}}) was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 13 September 604 to his death on 22 February 606. His pontificate occurred during the [[Byzantine Papacy|Eastern Roman domination]] of the [[papacy]]. He was the fourth former ''[[papal apocrisiarius|apocrisiarius]]'' to Constantinople to be elected pope.

==Apocrisiariat==
Sabinian was born at [[Blera]] (Bieda) near [[Viterbo]]. He had been sent by [[Pope Gregory I]], who had a high opinion of him, as ''[[papal apocrisiarius|apocrisiarius]]'' to the imperial court in [[Constantinople]]. In 595, Gregory was angered by Sabinian's lack of resolution in discussion with [[Emperor Maurice]] about the disputed assumption of the title "ecumenical patriarch" by [[John IV of Constantinople]]. Sabinian was then recalled and sent on a mission to [[Gaul]] the same year.<ref name="Attwater">{{cite book|first=Aubrey|last=Attwater|title=A Dictionary of Popes: From Peter to Pius XII|page=65|isbn=0199295816|year=1939|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> He returned to [[Rome]] in 597.<ref name="ce">{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Pope Sabinianus}}</ref>

==Pontificate==
Sabinian was [[papal selection before 1059|elected]] to succeed Gregory probably in March 604, but had to wait for [[Byzantine papacy|imperial ratification]] before being [[episcopal consecration|consecrated]] in September.<ref name="Attwater"/> During his pontificate, Sabinian was seen as a counterfoil to Gregory I. The ''Liber pontificalis'' praises him for "filling the church with clergy", in contrast to Gregory, who tended to fill ecclesiastical positions with monks.<ref name="ce"/><ref name="Attwater"/>

Sabinian incurred unpopularity by his unseasonable economies,<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Sabinianus |volume=23 |page=966}}</ref> although the ''[[Liber pontificalis]]'' states that he distributed grain during a famine at Rome under his pontificate. Whereas Gregory distributed grain to the Roman populace as invasion loomed, when the danger had passed Sabinian sold it to them. Because he was unable or unwilling to allow the people to have the grain for little or nothing, there grew up in later times a number of legends in which his predecessor was represented punishing him for avarice. Sabinian died 22 February 606. His funeral procession through the city had to change course to avoid hostile Romans.<ref>[http://www.spirituality.org/is/198/pope_65.asp "The 65th Pope", ''Spirituality.org'', Diocese of Bridgeport]</ref>

[[Onofrio Panvinio]], in his 1557 ''Epitome pontificum Romanorum'', attributes to Sabinian the introduction of the custom of ringing [[bell (instrument)|bell]]s at the [[canonical hours]] and the celebration of the [[Eucharist]],<ref name=EB1911/> hence expressions such as ''o'clock'' (Latin ''clocca'': a bell). The first attribution of this was in [[Guillaume Durand]]'s thirteenth-century ''Rationale Divinorum Officiorum''.<ref name="ce"/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[Eamon Duffy|Duffy, Eamon]]. ''Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes'', Yale University Press, 2001, p.&nbsp;72–73. {{ISBN|0-300-09165-6}}
*[[Andrew J. Ekonomou|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. {{ISBN|978-0739119778}}
*Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. ''Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present'', Thames & Hudson, 2002, p.&nbsp;54. {{ISBN|0-500-01798-0}}.

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Sabinianus|Pope Sabinian}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Gregory I|Gregory I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=604–606}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Boniface III|Boniface III]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabinian}}
[[Category:606 deaths]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Papal Apocrisiarii to Constantinople]]
[[Category:6th-century Italo-Roman people]]
[[Category:7th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Viterbo]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:7th-century popes]]
[[Category:Popes of the Byzantine Papacy]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]