SERGIUS I, POPE, saint. — Of ancient stock, born in Palermo to a certain Tiberius, died in Rome on 8 Sept. 701.
During the pontificate of Adeodatus (672–76) he came to Rome, where he enrolled among the clergy, and in 683 Leo II conferred the presbyterate upon him, incardinating him to the title of St Susanna. At the death of Conon (687) he was elected (15 Dec.) to the supreme pontificate by the healthier part of the electors, against the candidates of the two opposing factions: the archdeacon Paschal and the archpriest Theodore, and, conducted to the Lateran, he was enthroned. Theodore submitted, but Paschal refused to resign and, with promises and gifts, induced the Exarch John Platyn to come to Rome to support his cause. The Exarch acknowledged the regularity of Sergius’s election, but demanded, despite the Pope’s protests, the 100 pounds of gold promised him by Paschal. In 689 Sergius had the joy of conferring baptism upon the king of the Saxons Caedwalla, and in 690 he authorised St Willibrord, whom in 695 he himself consecrated bishop, to evangelise Frisia.
Sergius I, pope, saint — Dream of St Hubert by Roger van der Weyden (c. 1420) — New York, Friedsam collection.
In 669, with the help of King Cunibert of the Lombards, he succeeded in eliminating the remnants of the schism of Aquileia and confirmed the patriarchate of Cormons for Lombard jurisdiction. For the Anglo-Saxon churches he granted the pallium to Bertwald, archbishop of Canterbury. In 692 Justinian II had convened a council, the Quinisext, almost a complement to the 5th and 6th Ecumenical Councils in disciplinary matters, in which 102 canons were promulgated; the Emperor claimed that his council should have force throughout the Church, but encountered vigorous opposition from Sergius: several of its decisions were absolutely contrary to Roman tradition. The acts of the council, in six copies, were sent to Rome for Sergius to sign, but the Pope not only refused to do so, he would not even look at the copy intended for him. In retaliation Justinian had the bishop of Porto, John, and the councillor Boniface arrested and taken to Constantinople. He then ordered the protospatharius Zacharias to seize Sergius himself, but the militias of Ravenna and Rome rose in defence of the Pope, who had to intervene to calm spirits and save Zacharias’s life, who ignominiously left Rome.
Sergius’s building activity was manifold, directed to the restoration and embellishment of several basilicas, and no less important was his liturgical work: he established that at Mass the Agnus Dei should be sung by the clergy and people together, and that on the four Marian feasts (Nativity, Presentation, Annunciation, Assumption) a procession should be made from the church of St Adrian to the basilica of St Mary Major. He was buried in St Peter’s. In the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on the 9th, where Ado first inserted him.