SABINIAN, POPE. - Of Blera in Tuscia, after passing through the ranks of the hierarchy he was elected pope at the death of St. Gregory I on 13 Oct. 604; d. 22 Feb. 606. His epitaph, of which a fragment is still preserved, states that during his pontificate no one was disturbed by “bellicus furor” and portrays him as a generous almsgiver and so merciful that “nec iudex culpae sed medicina fuit.”
BIBL.: The inscription in G. B. De Rossi, Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae, II, Rome 1888, p. 127, no. 6, p. 211, no. 41. Cf.: Lib. Pont., I, p. 325; Jaffe-Wattenbach, p. 220; A. Crivellucci, Il pontificato di S., in Studi storici, 8 (1899), pp. 203-211; Fliche-Martin-Fruaz, V, pp. 408 ff. Carlo Callovini