NICHOLAS I, Pope, Saint. - Son of Theodore the regional, deacon of Leo IV, on the death of Benedict III (17 April 858) he was elected and consecrated pope (24 April), in the presence of the emperor Louis II. He was one of the most eminent pontiffs who held the government of the Church; illustrious for the important problems he found himself having to resolve, overcoming grave obstacles both political and ecclesiastical.
Of particular importance before public opinion was the divorce of Lothair II, king of Lotharingia, brother of Louis II. Lothair, eager to marry Waldrada, sought pretexts to repudiate his legitimate wife Teutberga. Supported by the archbishops Gunther of Cologne and Theutgaud of Trier, he obtained a favorable sentence in two synods; a third, held at Metz in June 863, in the presence of the papal legates, confirmed the previous sentences. N. annulled those sentences and subjected the two archbishops and their accomplices to penance. These appealed to Louis II, who marched from the Benevento region against Rome; in the face of his violence, N. did not yield and Louis had to withdraw, after having made peace with the Pope. The controversy of the divorce did not cease until the death of Lothair (Aug. 869), who had also been excommunicated.
Of the greatest importance for relations with the Empire and the Byzantine episcopate were the controversy concerning Photius (v.) and the celebration of the Eighth Ecumenical Council.
N. also found himself having to oppose the arrogance of the Ravennese that had lasted since the time of Leo IV, through the agency of George duke of Emilia and his brother John the archbishop, who oppressed soldiers and pilgrims and claimed not to be subject to the pontifical authority. The archbishop was excommunicated and took refuge with Louis II at Pavia; but N. went to Ravenna to judge the two brothers, and John found himself constrained to present himself at Rome, where he had been summoned, and to give satisfaction and reparation to the Pope for his conduct (861-62). A sensational episode was also the one that set Incmar archbishop of Reims and N. in opposition concerning Rothad, bishop of Soissons, who had appealed to Rome. N. turned his solicitude to the Danubian provinces that had depended on the Roman patriarchate since antiquity and arranged to send the bishops Formosus of Porto (v.) and Paul of Populonia to the Bulgarians, for whom he wrote a celebrated Responsio ad consulta Bulgarorum. He protected the missions begun by Sts. Cyril and Methodius (v.) among the Slavs of Great Moravia. And he arose in defense of those of Denmark by writing to King Horik (864) who seemed inclined toward Christianity (Jaffé - Wattenbach, n. 2758). Died on 13 Nov. 867. He was inserted in the Martir. romano by Urban VIII in 1630. Feast on 13 Nov.
BIBL.: sources
F. Dvornik, Le schisme de Photus. Histoire et légende, French trans. Y. Congar, Paris 1930, passim. Romualdo Paolucci