Photograph of Pope Agatho.
Pope Agatho

Overview

Pope Saint Agatho (c. 577January 10, 681) was pope from June 27, 678 to January 10, 681.

Background and reign

A Greek born in Sicily of wealthy and devout parents, he allegedly gave away his inheritance after their death and retired to a monastery in Palermo. This belief is based on a letter written by St. Gregory the Great to the abbot of St. Hermes in Palermo, a Benedictine Monastery, mentioning an Agatho. In this letter, Gregory wrote that the abbot could receive Agatho into his monastery if Agatho's wife was willing to enter a convent. While there are reasons to believe that Pope Agatho is this monk, he would have been over 100 years old at the time of his election.

Shortly after Agatho became Pope, St Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, arrived at Rome to invoke the authority of the Holy See in his behalf. Wilfrid had been deposed from his see by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had carved up Wilfrid's diocese, appointing three bishops to govern the new sees. At a synod which Pope Agatho convoked in the Lateran to investigate the affair, it was decided that Wilfrid's diocese should indeed be divided, but that Wilfrid himself should name the bishops.

The major event of his pontificate was the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680–1), which ended the Monothelite heresy that had been tolerated by previous popes (Honorius among them). The council began when Emperor Constantine IV, desired to heal the schism that separated the two sides. He wrote to Pope Donus suggesting a conference on the matter, but Donus was dead by the time the letter arrived. However, Agatho was quick to seize the olive branch offered by the emperor. He ordered councils held throughout the West so that legates could present the universal tradition of the Western Church. Then he sent a large delegation to meet the Easterners at Constantinople.

The legates and patriarchs gathered in the imperial palace on November 7, 680. The Monothelites presented their case. Then the letter of Pope Agatho was read which explained the traditional belief of the Church that Christ was of two wills, divine and human. The council agreed that Peter spoke through Agatho. Patriarch George of Constantinople accepted Agatho's letter, as did most of the bishops present. The council proclaimed the existence of the two wills in Christ and condemned Monothelitism, with Pope Honorius being included in the condemnation. When the council ended in September of 681 the decrees were sent to the Pope, but Agatho had died in January. The Council had not only ended the Monothelite heresy, but had healed the schism.

Agatho also undertook negotiations between the Holy See and Constantine, concerning the relations of the Byzantine Court to papal elections. Constantine promised Agatho to abolish or reduce the tax that the popes had had to pay to the imperial treasury on their consecration.

He is venerated as a saint by both Latins and Greeks.

Some Traditionalist Catholics say he was the first pope to take, as part of his inauguration, what they call the Papal Oath.

Notes

External links

Who is Pope Agatho connected to?
Add a Connection

That biography says:

...Benedict made his fifth and final trip to Rome in 679 to bring back books for a library, saintly relics, stonemasons, glaziers, and a grant from Pope Agatho granting his monastery certain privileges. Benedict made five overseas voyages in all to stock the library...
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Honorius I? Tell the world.

This biography says:

...The major event of his pontificate was the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680–1), which ended the Monothelite heresy that had been tolerated by previous popes (Honorius among them). The council began when Emperor Constantine IV, desired to heal the schism that separated the two sides. He wrote to Pope Donus suggesting a conference on the matter, but Donus was dead by the time the letter arrived...

This biography says:

...Shortly after Agatho became Pope, St Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, arrived at Rome to invoke the authority of the Holy See in his behalf. Wilfrid had been deposed from his see by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had carved up Wilfrid's diocese, appointing three bishops to govern the new sees...

That biography says:

...Wilfrid went to Rome in 677 to appeal Theodore's decision. On the way he sojourned at the court of Aldgisl, the Frisian king in Utrecht for most of 678. Pope Agatho held a synod in October of 679 where the pope ordered Wilfrid's restoration, but that the new dioceses should be retained...

That biography says:

...610 — February 29 682), also known as Barbas, was a bishop of Benevento from 663 to 682. He succeeded Ildebrand in this capacity. He assisted in a church council called by Pope Agatho in Rome in 680 and in 681 attended the Third Council of Constantinople against the Monothelites.

That biography says:

...This council had been held in Constantinople against the Monothelite controversy, and had been presided over by the legates of Pope Agatho. After Leo had notified the emperor that the decrees of the council had been confirmed, he made them known to the nations of the West...
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Stephen I? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Hilarius? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Callixtus III? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Paul I? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Innocent VII? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Vitalian? Tell the world.

That biography says:

...In the same period, Wilfred, Archbishop of York, claimed to speak, as metropolitan archbishop, "for all the northern part of Britain and of Ireland" at a council held in Rome in the time of Pope Agatho, thus claiming jurisdiction over the Irish church....
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope John Paul II? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Sylvester II? Tell the world.
How is Pope Agatho connected to Pope Gelasius I? Tell the world.