SERGIUS I, POPE, saint. — Of Antiochene origin, born in Palermo to a certain Tiberius, died in Rome on 8 September 701.
During the pontificate of Adeodatus (672–76) he came to Rome, where he joined the clergy; in 683 Leo II ordained him priest and incardinated him in the title of St. Susanna. At the death of Conon (687), he was elected (15 December) to the supreme pontificate by the more worthy party among the electors, against the candidates of the two opposing factions: the archdeacon Paschal and the archpriest Theodore; and, having been conducted to the Lateran, he was enthroned. Theodore submitted, but Paschal refused to resign himself and, by promises and gifts, induced the exarch John Platyn to come to Rome to support his cause. The exarch acknowledged the regularity of S.’s election, but, despite the Pope’s protests, demanded the 100 pounds of gold promised him by Paschal. In 689 S. had the joy of conferring Baptism on the Saxon king Ceadwalla, and in 690 he authorized St. Willibrord—whom he himself consecrated bishop in 695—to evangelize Frisia. In
699, with the help of the Lombard king Cunibert, 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 summoned a council, the Quinisext, almost a complement to the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils with regard to disciplinary matters, at which 102 canons were promulgated. The Emperor claimed that his Council should have authority throughout the Church, but he encountered vigorous opposition from S.: indeed, several decisions were absolutely contrary to Roman tradition. The acts of the Council, in six copies, were sent to Rome for S. to sign, but the Pope not only failed to do so; he did not even wish to see the copy intended for him. In retaliation, Justinian had the bishop of Porto, John, and the consiliarius Boniface arrested and taken to Constantinople. Then he ordered the protospatharius Zacharias to capture S. himself, but the forces of Ravenna and Rome rose in the Pope’s defense. He had to intervene to calm the people and save Zacharias’s life; the latter shamefully left Rome.
S.’s building activity was extensive, being directed toward the restoration and embellishment of several basilicas, and his liturgical activity was no less important: he decreed that the Agnus Dei should be sung at Mass jointly by the clergy and the people, and that on the four feasts of the Virgin (Nativity, Presentation, Annunciation, Assumption) a procession should be held 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 Adon was the first to insert him.