GIULIO I, POPE, saint. — Elected on 6 February 337, died on 12 April 352. According to the Liber Pontificalis, he was Roman, the son of a certain Rusticus. During his pontificate he devoted much effort to Nicene orthodoxy, and particularly to the defense of s. Atanasio. As soon as his election became known in the East, the Eusebians sent him the presbyter Macarius and the deacons Martirio and Esichio with letters against s. Atanasio, already exiled to Trier, and against Marcello di Ancira and Asclepiade di Gaza, deposed in 335. S. Atanasio, who in the meantime had returned to Alexandria by Constans’s edict, sent his legates to Rome to defend himself. The presbyter Macarius, fearing that he would be exposed, fled by night; the legates of Atanasio made the truth about the situation known to the Pope in a public conference; the two Arian deacons then requested the convocation of a council. G. accepted and invited the Eastern bishops to Rome for June 340. S. Atanasio came, bringing with him the letters of a Synod held at Alexandria in 339; Marcello and Asclepiade, together with other ecclesiastics driven from their sees, also came to request justice. The Eusebians, however, to whom G. had written a letter through the Roman presbyters Elpidio and Filosseno, offered excuses for not coming, writing an arrogant, empty, harsh letter full of calumnies, and also detained the papal legates. G., after waiting in vain, nevertheless held the Council, attended by 50 bishops; the Pope’s action with regard to the Eusebians was approved; the case of s. Atanasio was examined, and he was declared innocent and restored to communion; the other bishops were likewise reinstated.
G. replied to the Eusebians with a letter that is a masterpiece of dignity and nobility, in which he refuted their excuses and accusations; the truth is defended in it with apostolic firmness, exposing their hostility; he reproached them for having violated the canons and refuted all the pretexts they had offered for not coming to the Council; he then set forth the innocence of s. Atanasio and the duplicity of their conduct toward him, and concluded with a fervent exhortation to charity and peace. This letter of G. could not overcome the impudence of the Eusebians who, supported by Constantius II, met at Antioch in 341 and also elected a certain Gregorio to the see of Alexandria. The matter was taken up again at the Council of Sardica (343), to which G. sent the legates Archidamo and Filosseno, but once again the Eusebians refused to make amends for their misdeeds and met separately at Philippopolis.
When s. Atanasio was able to return to Alexandria after the second exile, driven out by Constantius (349), G. received him in Rome with great signs of esteem and affection and gave him letters of congratulation for the Church of Alexandria. Shortly afterward he also received the recantation of Ursacio and Valente, fierce opponents of s. Atanasio.
G. is credited with the construction of a church near the Foro Traiano (SS. Apostoli) and in Trastevere (S. Maria), as well as that of S. Valentino in the cemetery of the same name on the Via Flaminia. He was buried in the cemetery of Calepodio on the Via Aurelia, where he had also built another church.