Benedict II, Pope, Saint

BENEDICT II, Pope, Saint. - On the death of St. Leo II (3 July 683) B., a Roman, was called to succeed him; but he was not consecrated until 26 June 684, owing to the delay of the confirmation on the part of the emperor of the East. In order to remedy the excessively long vacancies of the Apostolic See, he obtained that the emperor should renounce the confirmation of the elect, and that the exarch of Ravenna should be charged with the confirmation. A proof of the good relations between the Pope and the emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus is the fact that the latter wished B. to adopt his sons Justinian and Heraclius and, following the custom of the time, sent him locks (mallones) of their hair. As soon as he was elected, B. confirmed to the notary Peter, on his journey to Spain, the commission entrusted to him by Leo II to obtain the adherence of the Visigothic episcopate to the definitions of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Constantinople III, of 680-81, which condemned Monothelitism. This adherence was then given at the Fourteenth Council of Toledo (Nov. 684). Before this assembled, Julian, bishop of Toledo, entrusted to Peter his Apology of the faith, in which B. found expressions too bold. The latter justified himself with a second apology, which B. had no time to read and which was approved by the Fifteenth National Council of Toledo (May 688; cf. Denz-U, 294-95). Even before his consecration B. had intervened in favor of Wilfrid, archbishop of York, unjustly deposed. He did not succeed in obtaining the retraction of the Monothelite Macarius, patriarch of Antioch, deposed at the Sixth Ecumenical Council. He restored the churches of St. Peter and St. Lawrence in Lucina and embellished St. Valentine on the via Flaminia and St. Mary ad Martyres, the ancient Pantheon. He died on 8 May 685 and was buried in St. Peter's. The Church venerates him on 7 May.

Ireneo Daniele