“The Lord has commanded us to shun evil and do good; but not to reject the good with the evil”- Saint Martin I

St. Martin was born in Tuscany, Italy, in the late sixth or early seventh century. He served as a deacon in Rome. During a period of theological conflict between the imperial capital and the Roman Church, Pope Theodore I appointed Martin as his representative to the emperor in Constantinople.

When Martin I was elected pope in 649, Constantinople served as the Byzantine Empire's capital, and its patriarch was the most powerful figure in the Eastern Christian world.

Martin became embroiled in a controversy concerning Christ's human nature, first as the papal nuncio and then as the Pope himself. Even while the Church has always recognized the eternal Son of God as "becoming man" throughout history, some Eastern bishops insisted that Christ's human nature was not the same as that of other people.

During the seventh century, leaders within the Byzantine Church and empire fostered a variant of this ideology called "Monothelitism." This idea recognized that while Christ had two natures—human and divine—he only had one will, i.e., the divine will. Pope Theodore rejected this teaching and excommunicated Constantinople's Patriarch Pyrrhus for believing it.

When Martin took over as Pope in place of Theodore, he inherited this conflict. At the Lateran Council in 649, he followed his predecessor's example and denounced Pyrrhus' successor, Patriarch Paul II, for accepting Emperor Constans II's decision to prohibit any discussion of whether or not Christ had both a human and a divine will. Pope Martin completely condemned Monothelitism and condemned anyone who believed in it.

He argued that denying Christ's unique human and divine will was contradicting the scriptural doctrine that Christ was like humanity in all ways except sin.

In retaliation to Pope Martin, the Byzantine emperor dispatched one of his representatives to Italy during the meeting with instructions to either arrest the Pope or have him executed. An emperor's assassin who tried to kill the Pope while he was giving out Holy Communion subsequently admitted that he lost his sight unexpectedly and was unable to carry out his execution.

Pope Martin was targeted once more by the emperor in 653, who sent a delegation to seize him. After a struggle, he was carried to Constantinople, where he was promptly imprisoned. He had dysentery and was imprisoned for 3 months in a dirty, freezing cell. He received awful meals and was forbidden from bathing. He spent another three months behind bars after being found guilty of treason without being allowed to defend himself. After that, he spent a year in exile on the island of Naxos. People who attempted to give aid to the exiled Pope were accused of betraying the Byzantine Empire.

The Pope's executioners stripped him naked and dragged him across the city before putting him up with a group of murderers in jail. He had been thrashed so brutally that he seemed to be close to passing away. The Patriarch of Constantinople and the emperor, however, decided at the last second that the Pontiff should not be put to death.

Instead, he was put behind bars before being exiled once more to Crimea, an island that was going through a severe famine. But the pope's isolation from others was the hardest to bear. His letters describe how his friends had abandoned him and how his own church had turned its back on him. Even food supplies like corn or oil would not be sent to him. Pope Martin lamented his isolation from the outside world in a letter to a friend, adding that he was “not only separated from the rest of the world,” but “even deprived of the means to live.”

Even though the Pope passed away in exile in 655, his relics were eventually returned to Rome. Pope St. Martin I was ultimately justified by the Third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, which declared in 681 that Christ had both a divine and a human will.

On April 13, Catholics commemorate the life of Pope St. Martin I. Of the early popes, he is the last to be honored as a martyr.

Throughout his life, St. Martin I the Pope serves as a reminder that despite any challenges we may encounter, we should always stand up for the truth, even if it means facing rejection and mockery from the outside world.

Other Saints of the Day

1. Saint Caradoc

2. Saint Carpus

3. Saint Gunioc

4. Saint Martius

5. Blessed John Lockwood