Zachary (birth name Zacharias) was born in 679 A.D. in Santa Severina, Calabria, Italy, in the Byzantine Empire.

He was the 91st pope and the last pontiff of the Greek popes. According to church tradition, Zachary served as a Roman deacon when chosen to succeed his predecessor Pope Gregory III in 741 A.D. The pontificate of Pope Zachary focused on helping to save the people of Italy from barbaric invasions and on maintaining diplomatic relations with Frankish and Lombard kingdoms as well as with the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire).

In his time, there was fighting all over Italy. Pope Zachary kept on making peace and saving people from terrible wars.

An example of the goodness of Pope St. Zachary surrounds the practice of slavery. When merchants from Venice purchased a large number of slaves in the Eternal City with the intention of selling them to Africans, the pope intervened dramatically. He forbade them to practice human trafficking, bought the slaves from the merchants and freed them.

In 745 Zachary convened a synod in Rome to discourage a tendency towards the worship of angels.

The saintly Pope Zachary died in 752 AD at the age of 72 in Rome, within the Kingdom of the Lombards. The church laid him to rest in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Other Saints of the Day

1. Saint Nicholas Owen
2. Saint Epaphroditus of Terracina
3. Saint Benevenuto Scotivoli of Osimo
4. Saint Basil of Ancyra
5. Saint Lea of Rome

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