ZACCARIA, POPE, saint. - Son of a Greek father residing in Calabria, he was elected on 3 December 741 and died on 15 March 752.
Unlike his predecessor Gregory III, in his dealings with Liutprand, king of the Lombards, he judged it better to inaugurate friendly relations with him. He himself went to Terni (742) and concluded a very advantageous agreement whereby Liutprand promised to restore the four fortresses of Amelia, Orte, Bomarzo and Bieda, which he still unjustly held; he returned the estates usurped some thirty years earlier and stipulated a twenty-year truce with the Duchy of Rome. The Pope also intervened on behalf of the army of Ravenna, which the Lombards wished to wrest from the Byzantines (743), but succeeded only in deferring the undertaking, which was then carried out by Astulf in 751. Z. managed to make the Roman Church favourable to the emperor Constantine V and received in gift the Massa and of Norma and of Ninfa. In reality, this was merely compensation for the loss of other domains in Sicily and Calabria. In 747, Z. approved the change of regime in France with the advent of Pippin the Short (v.).
The Pope also proved to be a good administrator of the lands of the Church, which were cultivated through well-organised agricultural establishments (v. PATRIMONIO DI SAN PIETRO. PIETRO). In Rome he restored the Lateran Palace, much damaged, and embellished, at the foot of the Palatine, the church of S. Maria Antiqua, where his portrait, executed during his lifetime, is still preserved. Feast day: 15 March.
Zaccaria, pope, saint - Contemporary portrait with the square nimbus. Detail from the frescoes in the chapel of SS. Quiricus and Julietta - Rome, church of S. Maria Antiqua.