While we don’t usually think of Roman popes as being Orthodox, this was, of course, the case for the first millennium, until Rome broke away from the Universal Church.  (There were exceptions, just as there were with certain bishops in the East.) In the Church’s calendar of saints are quite a number of bishops, or popes,* of Rome.  Some wear a martyr’s crown, others are notable for their significant contributions in strengthening the Church’s teaching of true doctrine.

ST. STEPHEN.   Of Roman birth but of Greek ancestry, he became bishop of Rome in 254, when internal disputes racking the Church were as much a threat as the external persecutions.  St. Stephen successfully opposed the learned presbyter Novatius, who heretically declared that the Church did not have the authority to extend clemency to those “lapsed” Christians who, unable to answer the call to martyrdom, had sacrificed to the gods and later wished to be reconciled to the Church.  He sparred furiously with St. Cyprian of Carthage on the issue of re-baptism, which St. Stephen refused to accept under any circumstances.  The issue was still unresolved when both saints suffered martyrdom in a new wave of persecution launched by the Emperor Valerian.  St. Stephen was beheaded, together with twelve of his priests, while serving the Divine Liturgy, and entered into his eternal rest in the year 257.  Commemorated August 2.

St. Stephen’s successor, Pope Sixtus II, was martyred the following year, together with his archdeacon, Laurence.  Commemorated August 10.

ST. SYLVESTER.  A Roman, he was 30 years old when he succeeded the Greek pope, St. Miltiades (April 10), as Bishop of Rome in 314.  When Emperor Constantine fell ill with leprosy, he was told by the Apostles Peter and Paul in a vision to seek out Bishop Sylvester, who proceeded to instruct him in the faith and baptized him to the healing of soul and body.  In gratitude the Emperor built for him the Lateran and other churches in Rome. The Saint later accompanied the Emperor’s mother, Queen Helena, to Jerusalem, where he assisted her in finding the Precious Cross of the Lord. As bishop, he regulated certain Christian practices, abolishing fasting on Saturdays except during lenten periods, and sent legates to the First Ecumenical Council.  Having selflessly guided the Church at Rome for 20 years, he reposed peacefully in 335.  Commemorated January 2.

ST. LEO (I) THE GREAT.  As archdeacon for Pope Sixtus III, he became his successor in 440 and waged a firm campaign against schism and heresy.  In opposition to the heretical teaching of Eutyches and Dioscorus, he wrote a celebrated Tome, defining the two natures and one person of Christ, which was later adopted at the Fourth Ecumenical Council. When Attila the Hun was advancing against the city in his westward sweep, St. Leo, attired in his episcopal vestments, went to meet him and persuaded him to spare the city, thus saving it from certain destruction.  Sensing that death was near, the Saint spent forty days in prayer and fasting, then peacefully gave his soul to the Lord in the year 461.  Commemorated February 18.

ST. MARTIN THE CONFESSOR.  An Italian, he became Pope of Rome in 649. At that time the Church was being shaken by the Monothelite heresy, which counted the Emperor Constans II among its partisans.  Pope Martin summoned 105 bishops to a Council at the Lateran, where Monothelitism was condemned. The infuriated Emperor, who had forbidden all discussion on the subject, had the Pope brought to Constantinople, where he was imprisoned with great privations.  Patriarch Paul, who sympathized with the heretics, on his deathbed repented and implored the Emperor to release Martin, but the Emperor merely commuted the death sentence to exile in Cherson, where the Saint soon died, in 655.  Christians of both East and West immediately acclaimed him a martyr.  Commemorated April 14.

ST. AGATHO.  A Greek born in Sicily of wealthy and devout parents, he gave away his inheritance after their death and retired to a monastery in Palermo.  (According to one hagiographer, he was married and spent some 20 years in secular pursuits before becoming a monk.)  He applied himself diligently to the ascetic life and was rewarded with the gift of working miracles.  In 678 he was called to succeed Domnus as Pope of Rome.  St. Agatho contributed to the deliberations of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, which universally condemned the Monothelite heresy, together with those who had accepted the heresy-including the former Pope Honorius (625-640), demonstrating how far the Church was from any idea of papal infallibility. The Council had not finished its proceedings when St. Agatho died, 10 January 682.  Commemorated February 20.

Also included on the Church’s calendar of saints are the popes Telesphorus (+136?)-February 22; Martyr Antherus (+236)-August 5; Martyr Fabian (+250)-August 5; Celestine (+432)-April 8; and the wonderworker Agapetus (+536)-April 17.

No doubt the most illustrious Roman pope, in the eyes of the Orthodox world, is ST. GREGORY (I) THE GREAT, more often called the Dialogist.  His holy life was recorded in four volumes by John, a deacon in the Church of Rome.

St. Gregory was born into a wealthy family, whose high social rank was outclassed by its spiritual nobility.  His uncle was the blessed Pope Felix of Rome; two aunts, Tarsilla and Emiliana, were also found worthy of blessed memory; and his mother, Sylvia, is counted among the saints. Gregory himself entered upon the path of righteousness in his youth and became a choice fruit of the family tree.

As a young man Gregory followed his father Gordion in a career as  a statesman, being first senator then governor of Rome.  But his ambitions lay in the next world, and when his father died, St. Gregory traded his material wealth for spiritual capital, distributing it generously among the poor and using it to build hospitals and monasteries.  In one of these monasteries, which he dedicated to the Apostle Andrew, he received the tonsure.  He did not enjoy his seclusion for long before Pope Benedict I ordained him a deacon and, in 578, sent him as papal nuncio to Constantinople.  He returned to his monastery six years later and was elevated to the rank of abbot.

Although he had parted with all his worldly goods, Gregory’s legendary love for the poor continued to attract them to his door.  One day there came  a man with a woeful story of how he had been shipwrecked, losing not only his own but others’ possessions as well.  The sympathetic Gregory gave the man six gold coins and readily did so again when the man returned. When he came a third time and Gregory had no more coins, he gave the man a silver tray. Later the man was revealed to be an angel of God, who thereafter remained to protect him and aid him in working miracles.

Upon the death of Pope Pelagius (+590), Gregory was unanimously elected his successor.  He tried to flee from such an honor, but when a pillar of fire revealed his place of hiding in the wilderness, he reluctantly accepted it as the will of God.

As Pope of Rome, Gregory continued to be extremely solicitous to the poor, inviting them in to eat at his own table. He also sent alms to the monks of the Holy Mountain and Mt. Sinai, and in Jerusalem he had a hostel built for pilgrims.

Like many of his predecessors, Gregory fought against heresies; he led back into the Church the schismatic bishops of Istria, and otherwise enforced ecclesiastical discipline.  He managed to organize liturgical chant, and is generally acknowledged as the author of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.  Best known of his instructive writings is a book called The Dialogues, in which he sets forth the lives and miracles of the Italian saints, in the engaging form of a dialogue.  He also conducted an active correspondence with various notables of his day, among them, Queen Theodelinda of the Lombards, Childebert, King of the Franks, and the King’s mother, Queen Brunichild.  That his writings appear divinely inspired is borne out by his archdeacon Peter, who frequently saw a dove hovering above the Saint’s head as he was writing.

Saint Gregory did not limit his concern to the preservation of the Faith, but likewise encouraged its dissemination.  It was under his aegis that St. Augustine established a mission in England among the “Angles,” and it is clear from the following letter that had the Saint’s duties not kept him in Rome, he would gladly have joined the brethren on the mission field.

To the Brethren Going to England
“Since it had been better not to have begun what is good than to return back from it when begun, you must, most beloved sons, fulfil the good work which with the help of the Lord you have begun. Let, then, neither the toil of the journey nor the tongues of evil-speaking men deter you; but with all instancy and all fervor go on with what under God’s guidance you have commenced, knowing that great toil is followed by the glory of an eternal reward. Obey in all things humbly Augustine your provost , who is returning to you, whom we also appoint your abbot, knowing that whatever may be fulfilled in you through his admonition will in all ways profit your souls. May Almighty God protect you with His grace, and grant to me to see the fruit of your labor in the eternal country; that so, even though I cannot labor with you, I may be found together wit you in the joy of the reward; for in truth I desire to labor. God keep you safe, most beloved sons.”

St. Gregory died peacefully in 604. Commemorated March 12.

Editor