Paul I, Pope, Saint

PAUL I, POPE, saint. — Of noble Roman family, d. at Rome on 28 June 767.

He carried out various diplomatic missions and, upon the death of his brother Stephen II (26 Apr. 757), was elected to succeed him, while the Byzantine party opposed him with the archdeacon Theophylact. Paul notified his election to the Frankish king Pippin without, however, seeking any confirmation from him, and on 29 May, having overcome the opposition of the opposing party, he was consecrated.

His pontificate was largely devoted to consolidating the nascent Papal State against Lombard encroachments. To this end Paul maintained continuous contact with King Pippin, repeatedly invoking his intervention to overcome the stubbornness of Desiderius, who refused to surrender the cities of Bologna, Imola, Ancona, and Numana promised to Stephen II. Instead of accepting the effective protectorate over the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento offered to him, Pippin intervened in the dispute with conciliatory intent, hoping to ally Desiderius and Paul I against the possibility of a Byzantine attack. In 760 an understanding seemed to have been reached between the Pope and the Lombard king, but this was confirmed only at the meeting in Rome in 765, while Desiderius managed to evade almost all the commitments previously undertaken.

In the East, where the iconoclastic persecution grew ever more violent, Paul I sent a legation to Constantine V Copronymus in 763, which attempted to alienate Pippin from Paul I by means of the imperial secretary George and the Roman priest Marino. But Pippin would not accept negotiations with the imperial envoys except in the presence of papal legates, and at the Synod of Gentilly (Easter 767), where “inter Romanos et Graecos” discussion took place on the Holy Trinity and holy images, Pippin appears to have favored the Roman point of view. Paul I, having retired to St Paul’s Outside the Walls to escape the excessive summer heat of 767, died there and after three months was transferred to St Peter’s Basilica.

He rendered great services in the field of sacred buildings: in the basilica of St Peter he had two oratories built in honor of the Virgin, and among other works he transformed his father’s palace on the Via Lata into the monastery of SS Stephen and Sylvester, which he entrusted to Eastern monks who had fled the iconoclastic persecution. He also resumed the translation of holy bodies from the abandoned suburban cemeteries, distributing them among the various churches of Rome. Paul I is remembered for the charity he exercised abundantly toward the poor and needy of every kind, though the excessive harshness of his “iniqui satellites” made his rule burdensome to many. Feast, 28 June.