St. Martin I

Their story

Martin was born in Todi, in central Italy, and served the Church in Rome, including as the pope's representative in Constantinople. In 649 he was elected pope. At that time a heresy called Monothelitism was spreading. It taught that Jesus had only a divine will and no human will. The Church insisted that Jesus, true God and true man, has both a divine and a human will, and that His human will freely embraced the will of the Father, as He prayed in the garden: "Not my will but yours be done." The emperor in Constantinople supported the heresy and had forbidden anyone to discuss the question. Soon after his election, Martin called a council in Rome that clearly taught the truth and condemned the error. The emperor was furious. In 653 his soldiers arrested Martin in Rome, though he was ill, and carried him by ship to Constantinople. There Martin was kept in prison for months, put on trial for treason, publicly humiliated and condemned. He was then exiled to Crimea, on the far shore of the Black Sea. In letters from exile he wrote of his hunger and sickness and of feeling forgotten by his friends, yet he prayed for them and entrusted himself to God. He died there in 655. He is the last pope honored as a martyr, and his faithfulness helped preserve the truth about Jesus for the whole Church.