Saint Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr

Pope Martin I (Latin: Martinus I, Greek: Πάπας Μαρτῖνος; between 590 and 600 – 16 September 655), also known as Martin the Confessor, was the bishop of Rome from 21 July 649 to his death 16 September 655. He had served as Pope Theodore I's ambassador to Constantinople, and was elected to succeed him as pope. He was the only pope when Constantinople controlled the papacy whose election had not awaited imperial mandate. For his strong opposition to Monothelitism, Pope Martin I was arrested by Emperor Constans II, carried off to Constantinople, and ultimately banished to Cherson. He is considered a saint by both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the last pope recognised as a martyr. Martin was born near Todi, Umbria, in the place nowadays named after him: Pian di San Martino, close to Todi. According to his biographer Theodore, Martin was of noble birth, of commanding intelligence, and showed great charity to the poor. Piazza states that Martin belonged to the order of St Basil. By 641, he was an abbot, and Pope John IV sent him to Dalmatia and Istria with large sums of money to alleviate the distress of the inhabitants, and redeem captives seized during the invasion of the Sclaveni (those parts mainly settled by Croats). As the ruined churches could not be rebuilt, the relics of some of the more important Dalmatian saints were brought to Rome. John, himself from Dalmatia, then had them venerated by building the Chapel of St Venantius at the Lateran Baptistery. As Mackie suggests in her article, the St Venantius Chapel remains an important early example of a martyrium: a shrine specifically commissioned to venerate relics brought from afar. With regard to the martyr cult, such structures represented the pinnacle of devotional building. They often became sites of pilgrimage. Martin acted as apocrisiarius or legate ('nuncio') at Constantinople from the earliest years of Theodore I (642–49).