Martin I, Saint

Martin I, Saint, d. 655?, pope (649–55?), an Italian, b. Todi successor of Theodore I. On his accession he summoned a great council at the Lateran, as St. Maximus had urged, to deal with Monotheletism , discussion of which had been forbidden by Byzantine Emperor Constans II . The council condemned all Monothelete utterances, including the imperial edicts of Heraclius ( Ecthesis ) and Constans ( Typus ) and the private letter of Pope Honorius I . It also enunciated the Catholic dogma of two natures, two wills, and two energies in one Person in Jesus. Martin issued an encyclical confirming the council's acts. To punish his defiance Constans ordered Martin taken to Naxos and imprisoned with great privations. Later, he was publicly humiliated in Constantinople and finally exiled in the Crimea. He soon died there and was immediately acclaimed a martyr (the last pope to be martyred) by Catholics of East and West. He was succeeded by St. Eugene I. Feast: Nov. 12.

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