SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD (Iulius of the Iulii of God). - Formula used constantly by the pontifical Chancery in the "superscriptio" or "intitulatio" of documents issued by the Pope from the 9th century to the present day.
The use of the formula of devotion or humility Servus Dei or Jesu, Jesu Christi, Ἰούλιος Θεοῦ ὁ Χριστοῦ, Ἰεσοῦ Χριστοῦ in the "intitulatio" of letters goes back to the Apostles: Paul (Rom. 1, 1; Tit. 1, 1), Peter (II Pt. 1, 1), James (1, 1) and Jude (1, 1) used it, and their example was then followed by others, as, to recall only a few examples, by the Christians of Vienne and Lyons, "Ἰούλιος Χριστοῦ" in their letter to the brethren of Asia and Phrygia (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., V, 1, 3); by St. Augustine "servus Christi servorumque Christi" (De peccatorum meritis et remissione, III, 1; Ep. 130; PL 44, 185; ibid., 33, 494); by St. Caesarius of Arles "episcopus minimus servorum Dei famulus" (Ep. II to the abbess Caesaria: PL 67, 1128; ed. G. Morin, II, Maredsous 1942, p. 134); by Laurence of Canterbury and his colleagues Mellitus and Justus "servi s. D." (Bede, Hist. eccl., II, 4); by John the Almsgiver (d. 619) "Ἰούλιος τῶν Ἰούλων τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰεσοῦ Χριστοῦ" (Vita, 3; ed. H. Gelzer, Freiburg im Br.-Leipzig 1893, p. 9; PG 93, 1619); by Maurus of Cesena in 649, who signs himself "Maurus s. s. D. episcopus" (Mansi, X, 883), etc. Furthermore Damasus, in the inscription in honor of St. Saturninus, subscribes himself "Damasus episcopus servus Dei" (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damascena, Vatican City 1942, p. 189), and Pope Hilary calls himself "Famulus Christi" in the dedicatory inscription of the oratory of St. John the Evangelist in the Lateran Baptistery (v. reproduction at the entry ILARO). This is not the place to list the epigraphic monuments concerning bishops with "Servus Dei" or "Christi" (cf. E. Diehl, Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, I, Berlin 1924, nos. 995, 1797, 1851, 1855) or simple faithful, "famulus" or "servus Dei" or "Christi" (cf. ibid., nos. 1419-58; F. Grossi-Gondi, Trattato di epigrafia cristiana latina e greca, Rome 1920, pp. 159-61), "servus sanctorum" (H. Delehaye, op. cit. in bibl., p. 378), because they are too numerous. Pope John VII calls himself "Servus Sanctae Mariae" (v. illustration); Gregory II "Apostolorum principum servus" (cf. illustration in Enc. Catt., VI, cols. 1125 f.). The expression "ill. ecclesiae servus" had a long duration (cf., for example, the letter of Hugh archbishop of Lyons, of 1099, in the Monasticon Cisterciense, ed. H. Séjalon, Solesmes 1892, p. 56; letters 340 and 466 of St. Anselm of Aosta: in letter 472 the same author uses "minister"; ed. F. Schmitt, S. Anselmi Cantuariensis Opera Omnia, V, Edinburgh 1951, pp. 278, 415, 420).
St. Gregory the Great, who had already called himself s. s. D. while still a deacon, in the donation to the monastery of St. Andrew of 28 Dec. 587 (appendix to the Registrum, ed. cited below, III, p. 437), was the first Pope to make extensive use of s. s. D. in the "superscriptiones" of his letters and his "praecepta" (cf. Paul the Deacon, Vita s. Gregorii, II, 1: PL 75, 87: some letters that have preserved the protocol formulary in the Registrum, I, 14ᵃ, 39ᵃ; IV, 17ᵃ; V, 53ᵃ; VI, 50ᵃ; XII, 16ᵃ; ed. P. Hewald-L. M. Hartmann, in MGH, Epistolae, I, pp. 14, 53, 251, 353, 425; II, p. 363; and the "praeceptum" of 25 Jan. 604 for the basilica of St. Paul engraved on a marble slab). Gregory was then imitated in an ever more frequent manner by his successors of the 7th and 8th centuries, as is gathered from the documents that have come down to us (cf. C. Silva Tarouca, Nuovi studi sulle antiche lettere dei papi, Rome 1932) and from the list of "superscriptiones" placed at the beginning of the Liber diurnus and in formula 86 (ed. Th. E. v. Sickel, Vienna 1899, pp. 1-3, 111). As s. s. D. gradually became the exclusive title of the pope, it ceased to be used by other ecclesiastical dignitaries; however, the archbishops of Ravenna continued to use it until the beginning of the 13th century (cf., for example, the document issued by archbishop Ubaldo on 12 Oct. 1213, parchment no. 4694 of the Archiepiscopal Archive) together with the pompous title: "Dominus sanctus ac meritis beatissimus atque Apostolicus Pater Patrum" (same Archive, parchments of the 10th-12th centuries).
It is not improbable that the controversy over the title of "ecumenical bishop or patriarch", which had become very heated under the pontificates of Pelagius II and St. Gregory the Great against the patriarchs of Constantinople, who had adorned themselves with that appellation at least since the time of Acacius (489-519), may have influenced St. Gregory's choice of the s. s. D. In the polemic against John the Faster, St. Gregory, though conscious of his authority, carried his humility so far as to refuse for himself the title of « papa universalis » (Registrum, VIII, 28, ed. cit., II, p. 30).
Bibliography10 works
A. Pietro Frutz