Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Martin I.

Constantinople was the seat of the Byzantine Empire at the time Martin I was elected pope in 649, and its patriarch was the Str figure in the Eastern Christian world. The close collaboration of various rulers at that time exacerbated the conflicts inside the Church.

It is believed at the time in the East that Christ lacked human volition. Emperors have twice publicly supported this stance: Heraclius by disseminating a formula of faith and Constans II by ending the debate over whether there were one or two wills in Christ.

Martin summoned a meeting at the Lateran shortly after becoming pope, which he conducted without first receiving the emperor’s approval. The council denounced the imperial documents and condemned the patriarch of Constantinople as well as two of his successors. Constans II attempted to counter by first inciting the populace and bishops to oppose the pope.

The emperor ordered troops to Rome to capture Martin and return him to Constantinople when this failed, as well as an attempt to kill the pope. Martin, in terrible health, returned with Constantinople’s exarch Calliopas and gave no resistance, only to be subjected to several incarcerations, tortures, and sufferings. Martin was saved from execution by the cries of a remorseful Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, who was himself seriously ill. Martin had been sentenced to death and had undergone some of the required torture.

Martin passed away shortly after due to the toll that torture and inhumane treatment had caused. The last early pope to be honored as a martyr was him.

Source: franciscanmedia.org