St. Martin I

St. Martin I (born, Todi, Tuscany [Italy]—died September 16, 655, Cherson, Crimea [now Kherson, Ukraine]; feast day April 13) was the pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, from 649 to 653. He is recognized as a saint and martyr in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Martin succeeded Pope Theodore I in July 649. Martin’s pontificate occurred during an extensive controversy that had strained relations between the Eastern and Western churches—namely monothelitism, a heresy maintaining that Christ had only one will rather than two distinct wills, one human and one divine. To bring an end to the controversy, Martin convoked and presided over the Lateran Council of 649 that condemned monothelitism and the Typos, an edict by the Byzantine emperor Constans II Pogonatus that forbade discussion of Christ’s wills. Constans, who had not approved Martin’s election, ordered the pope’s arrest in 653. Martin was taken to Constantinople in September 654, where he was publicly humiliated and tortured. In May 655 he was banished to the Crimean Peninsula. Weakened by his imprisonment, he died shortly thereafter. He was later recognized as a martyr, the last pope to be so honored.