MARTIN I, Pope, Saint. - Born at Todi in Umbria and died at Cherson in Crimea on 16 Sept. 655.
For some time he was apocrisiary at the court of Constantinople, and on the death of Pope Theodore (14 May 649) he was elected to succeed him. He was consecrated on 5 July 649, before the consent of the emperor Constans II. The latter, by a decree of his (τόπος), had imposed silence on the Monothelite controversies, placing error and truth on the same level; M. convoked a council at the Lateran, in which 105 bishops took part and which, in five sessions between 5 and 31 Oct. 649, condemned, along with the heretical doctrines, also the τόπος and the ἔκθεσις, published earlier by the emperor Heraclius, and defined the twofold will and operation in Christ.
The decisions of the Council provoked the anger of Constans II, who charged the exarch Olympius to seize the Pontiff. But Olympius attempted agreements with the Pope in order to rebel against Constans and seize Italy; the Emperor, on the death of Olympius (652), sent his successor Theodore Calliopas to Rome with the order to conduct M. to Constantinople. The Pope, who was ill, was taken in June 653, and after a long and painful journey arrived at the capital on 17 Sept. 653. On 20 Dec. 653 he was subjected to a semblance of a trial under the accusation of having favored the rebellion of Olympius and was condemned to death. After a long martyrdom and many humiliations, he was dragged to Crimea, where he ended his days.
The Church venerates him as a martyr on 12 Nov. There remain of M. some letters of interest for the history of the Lateran Council and of his imprisonment (ed. in MGH, Script. rer. Merov., V, pp. 452-56; Amando ep. Traiectensi: PL 87, 106-212; in Jaffé-Wattenbach, 2059-2064; 2071 f.; 2078-81).