ADEODATO II (or I), POPE. - A Roman, he received the tiara in 672 and died in 676. Son of Gioviniano, he succeeded St. Vitaliano. Elected, perhaps, shortly after the latter’s death (27 Jan. 672), he had to wait for more than two months for imperial confirmation before being consecrated (11 Apr. 672).
He governed the Church for four years, two months, and five days. The Liber Pontificalis relates few things about him, and not all of them accurate; they are rather generic. He increased the distributions that the popes were accustomed to make. He had been a monk in the Benedictine monastery of S. Erasmo on the Caelian: it is therefore understandable why, having become pope, he enlarged, embellished, and enriched II. He also restored the church of S. Pietro al Campo di Merlo on the via Portuense, between Ponte Galera and the Magliana: its ruins were discovered in the excavations of 1858. Two documents are attributed to him: a letter to Adriano, abbot of SS. Pietro e Paolo of Canterbury, confirming that monastery’s exemption, and a letter to the bishops of the Galilei notifying them of the privileges granted to the monastery of S. Martino di Tours. The authenticity of the latter was questioned, but on the authority of Mabillon (De re diplomatica, I, 3e ed., Napoli 1789, chap. 3, § 9) it may be accepted. He was the first Pope to date his correspondence from the year of his pontificate. Some martyrologies enter his name under 26 June; nevertheless, the Bollandists prove that he never had a cult in the Church.