Editing Pope Sergius I

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 687 to 701}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[Pope Saint]]
| name = Sergius I
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| image = Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (Netherlandish - The Dream of Pope Sergius - Google Art Project.jpg
| caption = ''[[The Dream of Pope Sergius]]'' from the 1430s Saint Hubert Altarpiece by [[Rogier van der Weyden]] and his studio
| birth_name =
| term_start = 15 December 687
| term_end = 8 September 701
| predecessor = [[Pope Conon|Conon]]
| successor = [[Pope John VI|John VI]]
| cardinal = 27 June 683
| created_cardinal_by = [[Pope Leo II|Leo II]]
| birth_date = {{circa|650}}
| birth_place = [[Palermo|Panormus]], Sicily<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->, Byzantine Empire<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->
| death_date = 8 September 701 (aged around 51)
| death_place = [[Rome]], Byzantine Empire<!-- DO NOT LINK, see [[MOS:GEOLINK]] for further guidance -->
| previous_post = [[Santa Susanna|Cardinal-Priest of Santa Susanna]] (683–687)
| other = Sergius
}}

'''Pope Sergius I''' ({{circa|650}}{{snd}}8 September 701) was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 15 December 687 to his death, and is revered as a [[saint]] by the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. He was [[papal selection before 1059|elected]] at a time when two rivals, [[Antipope Paschal (687)|Paschal]] and [[Antipope Theodore|Theodore]], were locked in a dispute about which of them should become [[pope]]. His papacy was dominated by his response to the [[Quinisext Council]], the canons of which he steadfastly refused to accept. Thereupon Emperor [[Justinian II]] ordered Sergius' arrest, but the Roman people and the Italian militia of the [[exarch of Ravenna]] refused to allow the exarch to bring Sergius to Constantinople.

== Early life ==
Sergius I came from an [[Antioch]]ene Syrian family which had settled at [[Palermo|Panormus]] in Sicily. Sergius left Sicily and arrived in Rome during the pontificate of [[Adeodatus II]]. He may have been among the many Sicilian clergy in Rome due to the [[Caliphate]]'s attacks on Sicily in the mid-7th century.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jeffrey Richards|title=The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages: 476–752|year=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317678175|page=270}}</ref> [[Pope Leo II]] ordained him [[cardinal-priest]] of [[Santa Susanna]] on 27 June 683, and he rose through the ranks of the clergy. He remained cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna until he was [[papal selection before 1059|selected]] to become [[pope]].<ref>Horace Mann: ''The lives of the popes.'' Vol. I pt. 2, London 1903, p. 80</ref><ref name=DWB>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CurSh3Sh_KMC&pg=PA824 Frank N Magill, Alison Aves, ''Dictionary of World Biography'' (Routledge 1998] {{ISBN|978-1-57958041-4}}), vol. 2, pp. 823–825</ref><ref name="e223"/>

== Election ==
[[Pope Conon]] died on 21 September 687 after a long illness and a reign of less than a year. His archdeacon, [[Antipope Paschal (687)|Paschal]], had already attempted to secure the papacy by bribing the exarch of Ravenna, [[John II Platyn]]. A more numerous faction wanted the archpriest [[Antipope Theodore|Theodore]] to become pope. The two factions entered into armed combat, each in possession of part of the [[Lateran Palace]], which was the papal residence. To break the deadlock, a group of civic authorities, army officers, clergy, and other citizens met in the Palatine imperial palace, elected Sergius, and then stormed the Lateran, forcing the two rival candidates to accept Sergius.<ref name=DWB/><ref name="e216">Ekonomou, 2007, p. 216.</ref>

Though pretending to accept Sergius, Paschal sent messengers to Platyn, promising a large sum of gold in exchange for military support.<ref name="e216"/> The exarch arrived, recognised that Sergius had been regularly elected, but demanded the gold anyway. After Sergius's [[episcopal consecration|consecration]] on 15 December 687, Platyn departed. Paschal continued his intrigues and was eventually confined to a monastery<ref name=DWB/><ref name="e216"/> on charges of witchcraft.<ref name="e216"/> Sergius's consecration ended the last disputed ''[[sede vacante]]'' of the [[Byzantine Papacy]].<ref name="e217">Ekonomou, 2007, p. 217.</ref>

== Papacy ==
On 10 April 689, Sergius baptised King [[Cædwalla of Wessex]] in Rome. He also ordained [[Willibrord]] as bishop of the [[Frisia]]ns. After [[Berhtwald]] was consecrated [[archbishop of Canterbury]] by Archbishop Godwin of Lyon, he travelled to Rome and received the [[pallium]] from Pope Sergius.<ref>Stephens, W. R. W.; Leyser, Henrietta (revised) (2004). "Berhtwald (c. 650–731)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/3430}}</ref> Sergius was active in ending the [[Schism of the Three Chapters#Reconciliation with Rome|Schism of the Three Chapters]] with [[Old Aquileia]] in 698.<ref name=DWB/> He founded the [[diaconia]] of [[Santa Maria in Via Lata]] on [[Via del Corso]], encompassing a city quarter that developed in the 8th century. He also "restored and embellished" the Eastern church of [[Santi Cosma e Damiano, Rome|Santi Cosma e Damiano]].<ref>Ekonomou, 2007, p. 210.</ref>

Sergius I did not attend the [[Quinisext Council]] of 692, which was attended by 226 or 227 bishops, overwhelmingly from the [[Patriarchate of Constantinople]]. The participation of Basil of Gortyna in [[Crete]], belonging to the [[Patriarchate of Rome]], has been seen in the East as representing Rome and even as signifying Roman approval, but he was in fact not a [[papal legate]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BwnCVYHf5VAC&dq=Quinisext+Gortyna&pg=PA79 Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington (editors), ''The History of Byzantine and Eastern Canon Law to 1500'' (CUA Press 2012] {{ISBN|978-0-81321679-9}}), p. 79</ref> Sergius rejected the canons of the council as invalid<ref>Hartmann (2012), p. 82</ref> and declared that he would "rather die than consent to erroneous novelties".<ref name="e222">Ekonomou, 2007, p. 222.</ref>  Though a loyal subject of the Empire, he would not be "its captive in matters of religion".<ref name="e222"/> Writers such as [[Andrew J. Ekonomou]] have speculated on which canons, in particular, Sergius found objectionable. Ekonomou excludes the anathemising of [[Pope Honorius I]], the declaration of Constantinople as equal in privileges but second in honour to Rome.<ref name="e222"/> All popes since [[Pope Leo I|Leo the Great]] had adamantly rejected the 28th canon of the [[Council of Chalcedon]], which on the basis of political considerations tried to raise the ecclesiastical status of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to equality with that of old Rome.<ref name="d220">Davis, Leo Donald, ''The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787)'', (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990) p. 194</ref> Ekonomou mentions rather the approval by the Quinisext Council of all 85 [[Apostolic Canons]], of which Sergius would have supported only the first 50.<ref name="e222"/>

Many of the regulations that the Quinisext Council enacted were aimed at making uniform the existing church practices regarding ritual observance and clerical discipline. Being held under Byzantine auspices, with an exclusively Eastern clergy, the council regarded the customs of the Church of Constantinople as the orthodox practice.<ref name=Ostrogorsky1957>{{Cite book | last1 = Ostrogorsky | first1 = George | last2 = Hussey | first2 = Joan (trans.) | year = 1957 | title = History of the Byzantine state | isbn = 978-0-8135-0599-2 | publisher = Rutgers University Press | location = New Brunswick, N.J. | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historyofbyzanti00ostr/page/122 122–23] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofbyzanti00ostr/page/122 }}</ref> Practices in the Church in the West that had got the attention of the Eastern patriarchates were condemned, such as: the practice of celebrating [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] on weekdays in [[Lent]] (rather than having [[Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts|pre-sanctified liturgies]]); of [[fasting]] on Saturdays throughout the year; of omitting the "[[Alleluia]]" in Lent; of depicting Christ as a [[Lamb of God|lamb]]. In a step that was symbolically important in view of the council's prohibition of depicting Christ as a Lamb, Sergius introduced into the liturgy the chant "Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us" at the breaking of the Host during Mass, and restored the damaged facade mosaic in the atrium of Saint Peter's that depicted the [[Worship of the Lamb]].<ref name="e223">Ekonomou, 2007, p. 223.</ref> The ''[[Agnus Dei (liturgy)|Agnus Dei]]'' would have been chanted in both Greek and Latin during this period, in the same manner as the other liturgical changes of Sergius.<ref>Ekonomou, 2007, p. 250.</ref> Larger disputes were revealed regarding Eastern and Western attitudes toward [[clerical celibacy|celibacy]] for priests and [[deacon]]s, with the Council affirming the right of married men to become priests and prescribing [[excommunication]] for anyone who attempted to separate a clergyman from his wife, or for any cleric who abandoned his wife.

Enraged, Emperor [[Justinian II]] dispatched his ''[[magistrianus]]'', also named Sergius, to arrest Bishop John of Portus, the chief papal legate to the [[Third Council of Constantinople]], and Boniface, the papal counsellor.<ref name="e223"/> The two high-ranking officials were brought to Constantinople as a warning to the pope.<ref name="e223"/> Eventually, Justinian ordered Sergius's arrest and abduction to Constantinople by his notoriously violent bodyguard ''[[protospatharios]]'' Zacharias.<ref name="e223"/> However, the militia of the exarch of Ravenna and the [[Duchy of Pentapolis]] frustrated the attempt.<ref name=DWB/><ref name="e224">Ekonomou, 2007, p. 224.</ref> Zacharias nearly lost his own life in an attempt to arrest Sergius.<ref name=DWB/><ref>Ekonomou, 2007, p. 44.</ref> Rather than seizing upon the anti-Byzantine sentiment, Sergius did his best to quell the uprising.<ref name="e224"/>

== Death ==
Sergius died on 8 September 701. He was succeeded by [[Pope John VI|John VI]].<ref name="ce">{{CathEncy|wstitle=Pope St. Sergius I}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* 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}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Conon|Conon]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=687–701}}
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