St. Martin I

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Martin l. St. Martin l became a Pope during the year 649. St. Martin became Pope during a time period when Constantinople was the most important and influential Church leader in all of the eastern Christian world. All the struggles that had been occurring within the church at the time were impacted by the close cooperation of the emperor and patriarch. Due to this a lot of heresy was occurring within the Church.

St. Martin was born in Tuscany, Italy, during the late sixth century or early seventh century. St. Martin felt the calling to join the religious life and he became a deacon and served in Rome, Italy. During St. Martin’s time in Rome, Italy many people started to know him as a very smart and holy person. Pope Theodore l decided to chose St. Martin to be his representative to the emperor in Constantinople. During that time a lot of theological controversy had been occurring between the Imperial capital and Roman Church.

St. Martin became involved in this dispute that had been occurring, he got involved first as the papal Nuncio and later as the Pope himself. This dispute was over Christ’s human nature. Although the Church had already said that Christ was the eternal Son of God as “becoming man” within history. However, some eastern bishops had trouble understanding Christ’s human nature and kept insisting that Christ’s human nature was not like that of other human beings.

During the seventh century, authorities that were part of the Byzantine Church

and empire decided to promote a version of this heresy, which as known as “Monothelitism.” This new teaching they had instilled said that Christ had two natures, human and divine, but Christ only had one will: the divine. Pope Theodore condemned this teaching and decided to excommunicated Patriarch Pyrrhus of Constantinople for instilling it.

When St. Martin became Pope he inherited all of the controversies that had occurred. During the year 649, the Lateran council had occurred, St. Martin chose to follow his predecessor's lead in condemning Pyrrhus' successor, Patriarch Paul II, who accepted Emperor Constans II's decision. The decision was to forbid all discussion of whether or not Christ had both a human and a divine will. St. Martin had condemned Monothelitism completely, and denounced those who held to it.

St. Martin made it clear that a teaching which denied Christ's human will could not be glossed over as an irrelevant point. St. Martin stated that, to refuse to acknowledge Christ's distinct divine and human wills, was to deny the biblical teaching that Christ was like humanity in every single aspect but sin, Christ never sinned.

Due to the St. Martin’s view of this situation the Byzantine emperor decided to retaliate against St. Martin and sent his own representative to Italy during the council. He commanded his representatives to either arrest St. Martin who was the Pope or have him killed. A henchman of the emperor, attempted to assassinate the Pope while he was distributing Holy Communion. That henchman who tried to assassinate the Pope later testified that he suddenly lost his eyesight and could not kill the Pope.

During the year 653, the emperor again wanted to silence St. Martin. However this time he sent a delegation to capture him. This was a very difficult thing to do and resulted in St. Martin being taken to Constantinople before being exiled to the island of Naxos for a year. Everyone who had tried to send help and support to the exiled Pope were denounced as traitors to the Byzantine empire. Eventually St. Martin had returned to Constantinople as a prisoner, and sentenced to death.

St. Martin told the executioners that they should strip him of his clothes and lead him through the city, before locking him in a prison with a group of murderers. St. Martin was beaten so badly that he looked like he was going to die. During the very last moment, both the Patriarch of Constantinople and the emperor agreed that the Pontiff should not be executed.

Instead St. Martin was kept in a prison before he was banished again, to an island that was suffering from a severe famine. During this time St. Martin wrote to a friend that he was “not only separated from the rest of the world,” but “even deprived of the means to live.”

St. Martin died in exile during the year 655. St. Martin’s relics were later brought back to Rome. The Third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople eventually vindicated St. Martin, by confirming in 681 that Christ had both a divine and a human will. St. Martin’s feast day is celebrated on April 13th.

Prayer to St. Martin l:

St. Martin intercede that we may be able to stand against heresy and blasphemy regardless of how much persecution or abuse we may encounter for protecting the truth. St. Martin give us the strength and wisdom we need to state our points in a persuasive and caring manner so that we may continue to treat those who we may not agree with, with love. St. Martin help us to guide more people to Christ through a loving and caring manner so that we may all be united in heaven.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord and Mary Our Mother in Heaven

Amen

St. Martin pray for us

St. Joseph pray for us

May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.

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Works cited:

Information (read from, not taken):

Catholic Online. “Pope Saint Martin I.” Pope Saint Martin I - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online Accessed 13 April 2021.

Images:

St. Martin I. April 13, 2021. st. martin 1 - Google Search.