Agatho, Pope, Saint

AGATHO, Pope, Saint. - Sicilian, he succeeded Donus in 678, died on 10 January 681. For the gentleness and meekness of his character he made himself loved by all. In very difficult times he showed himself generous toward the clergy, for whom he made a general distribution and one in favor of worship, assigning the sum of 2,140 gold solidi for the confession of the Apostles and S. Maria ad praesepe. He administered the treasury of the Roman Church personally, signing the receipts with his own hand. During his brief pontificate he held a single ordination, of 10 priests, 3 deacons and 18 bishops. His moral ascendancy and even more the changed political direction after the accession to the throne of the East of Constantine IV Pogonatus, a supporter of the reconciliation between the Churches of the West and of the East, explain the drawing closer of the Church of Ravenna to the Pope.

Archbishop Maurus (648-71), imitated by his successor Reparatus (671-77), had proclaimed himself autocephalous, refusing to be recognized and consecrated, according to the ancient custom, by the Pope; but the new archbishop Theodore came in person to Rome to regularize his situation and pay homage to A. (Easter 680). A. also intervened resolutely in a question concerning the distant Church of England. Theodore of Canterbury had subdivided the diocese of York into four others. The titular of that Church, Wilfrid, reduced to the see of Lindisfarne, protested. Theodore then deprived him even of that see. Wilfrid came to Rome, where Theodore's legates also arrived. A. entrusted the settlement of the matter to the Roman synod (Oct. 679), which decided the restitution of the see of Lindisfarne to Wilfrid, to whom moreover the right of designating the other bishops was recognized.

The most important affairs of A.'s brief pontificate were the condemnation of Monothelitism and the reconciliation with the Eastern Church. Constantine IV Pogonatus had written on the matter to Pope Donus (12 Aug. 678); but since the latter was already dead (11 Apr. 678) the imperial letter was received by A. He, in a matter of such importance, wished to hear the thought of the whole Western Church and therefore urged the convocation of local synods. Having received their responses, A. convoked for Easter a council at Rome, in which 125 bishops took part. There a profession of faith was drawn up on the doctrine of the two wills in Christ, and the delegates of the Pope and of the council were chosen for the conference that was to take place at Constantinople. This assembled on 7 Nov. 680 in the hall of the imperial palace called Trullo (dome); and constituted an ecumenical council, the Sixth (Constantinopolitan III, 7 Nov. 680-17 Sept. 681). It condemned Monothelitism and its supporters; instead it received "faithfully with open arms" the doctrine of the two wills in Christ, set forth in A.'s letter. Moreover, in the address to the emperor it declared: "A confession written by the finger of God was given to us by ancient Rome; the splendid light of the faith shone forth upon us from the West. Here we see a written page; but it is Peter who has spoken through the mouth of A." On that occasion the emperor abolished the tax demanded by the court for the pontifical confirmation; but not the confirmation itself, which ceased with Benedict II (684-85). Indeed, the last formula preserved for us by the Liber Diurnus for requesting the imperial confirmation is not later than 685. At his death, A. was buried in St. Peter's. The text of the epitaph has been preserved for us, weaving a great eulogy of the deceased (G. B. de Rossi, Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romae, II, 52, 129, 157). He is celebrated as a saint by the Roman Church on 10 January and by the Greek Church on 10 or 20 February.

Ireneo Daniele