Saint Martin of Todi

Martin did not disappoint the expectations of this great city. Piety towards God and mercy towards the poor were the two pivots upon which he turned his whole life. He was either praying, or he was occupied with the relief of the unfortunate or the governance of the flock that had been committed to him. He had a particular affection for religious, and he took singular pleasure in conversing with them. He received pilgrims, washed their feet, and treated them splendidly in his palace. He gave great alms to the needy and, so to speak, took the bread from his own mouth to give it to them. He restored several churches that had fallen into ruin, and he reconciled various families who had long harbored very cruel enmities among themselves; but his greatest care was to maintain the universal Church in the precious inheritance of the true faith.

For several years, Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Cyrus, Patriarch of Alexandria, no longer daring, after the decisions of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, to openly confuse the two natures in Jesus Christ as Eutyches had done, had sown in the East the pernicious heresy of Monothelitism, w hich attributed to the hérésie du Monothélisme Christological heresy supported by Constans II. God-Man only one intellect, one will, and one operation. Emperor Heraclius had adopted their sentiment and had even published it throughout his empire by means of a heretical exposition of faith, which he had sent everywhere in the form of an imperial edict. Paul, who had succeeded Sergius in the see of Constantinople after a man named Pyrrhus, had become a supporter of the same errors and had also involved Emperor Constans, grandson of Heraclius, notwithstanding the condemnation that Popes Severinus, John IV, and Theodore I had issued against them.

This prince, inspired and led by such a bad minister, seeing that his grandfather's exposition was disapproved of by most churches, and especially that the Roman Pontiffs had rejected and proscribed it as heretical, formed another, which he called the Type, by which he imposed silence on everyone regarding the subject of one or two wills and one or two operations in Jesus Christ: he ordered that neither should be spoken of, claiming by this means to suppress the true doctrine of the Church, which is that Jesus Christ, having two entire and perfect natures in one person, also has everything that belongs to these two natures: a divine intellect and a human intellect; a divine will and a human will; a divine operation and a human operation.

As soon as he was informed of the election of Saint Martin, he did not fail to send him this Type, to beg him to approve it and to strengthen it with his apostolic authority, as an edict necessary to pacify the troubles that were in the empire regarding religion; but this great Pope saw clearly that this exposition was only a ruse to ruin the orthodox faith and to insinuate into minds the poison of Monothelitism, and even to make it believed that Jesus Christ, as man, had neither intellect, nor will, nor operations of his own and by nature, but that the divinity served him for all these things; he replied steadfastly that he would rather lose a thousand lives than approve such a dangerous writing; that even if everyone were to separate themselves from the doctrine of the holy Fathers, who have always proposed to us Jesus Christ as an adorable being composed of two entire and perfect natures, he would never separate himself from it; and that neither promises, nor threats, nor death itself and the most cruel tortures would make him say or believe anything else.

After such a generous response, wishing to cut the root of the heresy at once, he assembled as soon as possible a council composed of more than one hundred bishops in the church of Saint concile composé de plus de cent évêques dans l'église Saint-Jean de Latran Council convened by Martin I to condemn Monothelitism. John Lateran; there, without fearing the indignation and fury of the emperor, he condemned his Type, as well as the Exposition of Heraclius, his grandfather, and declared anathema and excommunicated all those who followed them. He harangued several times, in the five synodal sessions, with a force and eloquence that were entirely divine, and he then wrote to all the prelates of the Catholic Church on this subject, a circular letter full of apostolic vigor, sending them at the same time the acts of the Council; this he did from the first year of his pontificate (October 5, 649); in this, his courage is all the more admirable, as at that time the three patriarchs of the East being infested with heresy, and the Lombards having powerful armies ready to descend upon Rome, the Holy See saw itself almost overwhelmed by the great number of its spiritual and temporal enemies.

Moreover, Ol ympius, the Exarc Olympius, exarque Father of Saint Ceronne. h whom the Emperor had sent to Italy with express orders to spread the Monothelite sect as much as he could and to have his Type received there, had entered Rome with a strong force and was making efforts to deceive the people and engage them in the sentiments of his master: so much so that it was in his very presence that the Pope held his Council and condemned what he had come to publish. One can imagine the spite of this officer, entirely devoted to the passions of the Emperor, to see his solicitations rendered useless by such a solemn condemnation. He had no other thought than to remove the Pope from Rome or to have him put to death; and, as the first means seemed more difficult to him, because of the incredible affection the people had for their blessed pastor, he finally determined to be his assassin himself and to commit this parricide at the foot of the altars, which was the place where one could least be suspicious. For this, he feigned to be on good terms with him, and to wish to receive communion from his own hand when he would celebrate Mass in the church of Saint Mary Major; but he gave orders to his squire that, when he saw the Pontiff descend to bring him the body of Our Lord, he should not fail to pierce him with his sword. Olympius indeed came to the church and approached the holy Table with the intention of assassinating the Lord's anointed; but, at the moment when the squire wanted to strike him with his sword to execute his detestable design, he became blind, and, in the confusion he was in, he could not execute his master's command. The Exarch saw clearly that this blow came from heaven; thus, he reconciled with Saint Martin, conformed to his teachings, and revealed to him all the details of the imperial instructions. Having thus made his peace with the holy Church of God, he left Rome with his army to go and fight in Sicily against the Saracens who had seized that country. But the plague soon decimated his troops and he himself died of it.

Constans Constant Byzantine emperor, promoter of the Monothelite heresy and persecutor of the Church. , learning of all that had happened, gave the government of Italy to Theodore Calliopas, and, joining to him the chamberlain Pellurius, whom he knew to be entirely devoted to his will, he sent them to Rome to seize the blessed Pontiff and send him to Constantinople. They executed this order without any resistance. As on the third day of their arrival, they came with many soldiers into Saint John Lateran to take him away, he placed himself into their hands, without allowing his clerics or his servants to defend him, and he did not wish for anyone to stir for him in the city, for fear that blood might be shed on his account. He was first taken to the imperial palace, where the exarch kept him for a few days. From there, he was secretly put on a ship, without the bishops, priests, and deacons, who absolutely wanted to accompany him, being able to notice. This was on June 19. He was taken for three months by land and by sea, through various cities, without any human relief, although he had been ill for more than nine months and his weakness was so great that he even had difficulty supporting himself. After that time, he was taken to Naxos, an island in the Aegean Sea, where he remained for a whole year, ill and destitute of all the help that was necessary for him.

On September 17 of the year 654, he arrived in Constantino Constantinople City where the saint exercised his ministry and patriarchate. ple, after unheard-of insults and outrages that pagans and barbarians would have been horrified to inflict upon the head of the Catholic Church; he was thrown into a prison called Pandearia, where he was kept locked up for three months without anyone having the liberty to speak to him. After three months of the most rigorous detention, he was carried by soldiers (for illness no longer left him the strength to walk) into the apartment of the sacellarius Troilus, and interrogated by the patrician Bucol sénat Assembly that conducted the interrogation of the Pope. eon: the senate was assembled to proceed with the interrogation of the holy Pontiff. When he arrived there, the sacellarius ordered him to stand to answer the questions that were to be put to him; his bearers replied that he could not stand because of his extreme weakness; but this barbarian, more insensitive than the rocks, mocked this helplessness, and insisted that he rise and stand in the middle of the assembly: two soldiers supported him, and in this attitude, he underwent the most brutal interrogation.

Bucoleon first addressed the heroic martyr: "Answer, wretch," he said, "what harm has the emperor done you? Has he confiscated your property? Can you reproach him for a single act of violence?" Martin did not answer a word; the facts spoke eloquently enough. The sacellarius then resumed with anger: "You answer nothing? Your accusers are about to enter." They were twenty in number, mostly soldiers, the others belonging to the dregs of the people. At their sight, the Pope said with a smile: "Are these the witnesses? Is this your procedure?" Then, as they were made to swear on the book of the Gospels, he turned to the magistrates, saying: "I beseech you, in the name of God, to dispense them from a sacrilegious oath; let them say what they will. Do yourselves what you are ordered to do. But do not expose them to losing their souls." The first of the false witnesses, pointing his finger at the Pope, cried out: "If he had fifty heads, he would deserve to lose them all for having conspired in the West against the emperor, in concert with Olympius, the former exarch." To this accusation formulated in such an energetic manner, Martin replied that he had never betrayed the interests of the emperor in political matters, but that he could not obey him when the cause of the faith was in peril. "Do not speak to us of the faith," replied the slanderer, "it is only a question here of the crime of high treason. We are all Christians and Orthodox, the Romans and us." — "Would to God," replied the Pope. "However, on the terrible day of judgment, I will bear witness against you regarding this faith." — "Why," he was then asked, "when Olympius was betraying the emperor, did you not turn him away from it?" — "How," said the Pope, "could I have resisted Olympius, who controlled all the forces of Italy? Is it I who made him exarch? But I conjure you, in the name of God, finish as soon as possible the mission with which you are charged. God knows that you are procuring for me a beautiful reward."

After this interrogation, the minutes of which were drawn up on the spot, the sacellarius returned to the Pontiff, and in a fit of true rage, he dared to lay a sacrilegious hand on the Lord's anointed. Constans witnessed this scene from a place where he could see everything without being seen. A soldier, on the order of the sacellarius, tore the Pope's mantle and stripped him of his pontifical ornaments. Reduced to almost complete nudity, Martin was loaded with irons and dragged through the streets of the city. In the midst of these outrages, the martyr maintained the same tranquility he would have shown in the midst of an assembly of pious faithful. He presented to his executioners a face full of majestic sweetness and did not cease to pray for them. Arrived at the praetorium, he was thrown into the prison of Diomedes, reserved for thieves and murderers. He was left there for a whole day without food. Meanwhile, the patriarch Paul having fallen ill, the emperor went to see him and told him how the Pope had been treated. Letting out a deep sigh, the dying man cried out while turning toward the wall: "Alas! This is what will put the seal on my condemnation." He expired shortly after.

On March 10, 655, the doors of the dungeon of the Diomede prison opened a second time, and Saint Martin saw the scribe Sagoleba enter, who said to him: "I have orders to transfer you to my dwelling, to await there the instructions that the sacellarius must transmit to me within two days." The Pope asked where they intended to take him permanently; but the scribe refused to answer. "At least," said the Pope, "leave me in this prison until the moment of departure for exile." This grace was not granted to him. It was the hour of sunset. The venerable Pontiff called his companions in captivity. "Brothers," he said, "bid me farewell, for they are going to take me from here." A chalice was kept in reserve for this farewell agape. Martin drank from it first, passed it to the other captives, then addressing one of them, the one he loved most: "Come, brother," he said, "and give me the kiss of peace." As the apostles once did before the cross of Calvary, all those present burst into tears. The one the Pope had called broke into sobs, and the sound of lamentations echoed outside the enclosure. The blessed Pontiff, moved by this demonstration, begged them to cease their complaints, and laying his venerable hands on their heads, he said with an angelic smile: "These are before God the true goods, the heavenly favors. Rejoice with me that I am found worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ." At this moment, the scribe appeared with his satellites; he took the Pope to his dwelling. A few days later, the august prisoner was embarked, in the greatest secrecy, on a ship that transported him to Cherson, modern-day Crimea. He arrived in the month of May 655. His sufferings, which seemed at their peak, increased even more. "The Cherson, la Crimée actuelle Place of exile and death of the Pope. famine and scarcity," he wrote to the clergy of Rome, "are such in this country that one speaks of bread but without seeing any." He had some right to expect that the Roman Church, of which he himself had dispensed alms with such liberality, would not forget the distress of the exiled Pontiff. But the cruel precautions of Constans prevented any aid from reaching him. The Pope's complaints about his abandonment and misery, mixed with the sentiment of the most ardent charity, deserve to be cited. "We are," he said in the same letter, "not only separated from the rest of the world, but as if buried alive in the midst of a people almost entirely pagan, among whom one finds no sentiment of humanity, not even the natural compassion that one encounters among barbarians. No provisions come to us except from outside; I have been able to procure nothing but a measure of wheat for four gold solidi. That no help reaches me is as astonishing as it is certain; but I bless the Lord for it, who regulates our sufferings as He pleases. I pray Him, through the intercession of Saint Peter, to keep you all unshakable in the orthodox faith, especially the pastor who governs you now! As for this miserable body, the Lord will take care of it; He is near.

What am I worried about? I hope in His mercy, it will not be long in ending my career."

Finally he died in the year 655, having held the Chair of Saint Peter for five years, four months and twelve days, or, according to the calculation of the Roman Breviary and the Liber Pontificalis, which count the years from the accession of this Pope until his death, six years, one month and twenty-six days. Two ordinations are attributed to him, in which he created eleven priests, five deacons and three bishops. His body was later transferred to Rome and deposited with great honor under the high altar of the church of Saint-Martin-ai-Monti. God honored him during his life a nd after his death with several Saint Ouen, archevêque de Rouen Archbishop of Rouen who recovered the martyr's body. miracles. Saint Ouen, Archbishop of Rouen, who lived at the same time, reports in the life of Saint Eligius that, while still a prisoner in Constantinople, he restored sight to a blind man by the power of his prayers; and the author who composed the history of his exile and martyrdom, and who had the honor of accompanying him everywhere, assures that after his death all kinds of illnesses were cured at his tomb. This is also what Pope Gregory II says in his Epistle to Leo the Isaurian, the emperor.

The Church justly honors him as a martyr, since he died only from the miseries caused by his imprisonment and exile. Those to whom God grants the grace to endure some persecutions for the defense of truth and justice must be encouraged by his example to bear the hardships of their state generously and to wait with patience for that great day when the wicked who have triumphed in this world will be punished with extreme rigor, and when the righteous who have been in tribulation, in rejection and in reproach, will be rewarded with great magnificence.

He is represented either in prison, or standing, his hands raised to heaven and praying in the place of his exile.

We have used, to complete this biography, the History of the Church, by Abbé Daru.