Martin I, Pope and martyr (†656)

Biography

He was consecrated without waiting for imperial confirmation. He immediately dedicated himself to the serious problem that divided the Church, that is, the monothelist heresy that affirms that Jesus Christ had no human will but only the divine will. He convened a council in Lateran in which a hundred bishops participated, in which Sergius, Peter and Pyrrhus, patriarchs of Constantinople, the Echtesis of Heraclius and the Typos of Constans were condemned. This is where Martín's problems began. The Emperor Constans considered himself personally affected and sent the exarch Olympius to Rome to imprison Martin and take him to Constantinople. The operation was unsuccessful due to an event considered miraculous, in which the exarch himself died. Yes, the new exarch Teodoro Calliope came out, who imprisoned the pope and took him to Constantinople. Here Martin was subjected to an infamous trial, but he did not give in. He always defended orthodoxy, although amid humiliation and suffering, and even though he had been sentenced to death. They suspended his sentence and exiled him to Chersonesos, after he was deposed from the pontificate. He died in exile abandoned by everyone, even by the clergy of Rome, who did not oppose the unprecedented abuse. Martin was rightly considered a martyr by both the Eastern and Western Churches. He was buried first in Constantinople and then in Rome, in the church of S. Martino ai Monti.