Listen Live
Pause
Sorry, no results.
Please try another keyword
Martin was born in Tuscany at the end of the sixth century. He served as a papal nuncio under Pope Theodore I. Upon the death of Theodore in the year of Our Lord 649, Martin was elected pope. The Emperor Constans II was a supporter of the Monothelite heresy, and so Martin had himself consecrated without waiting for the customary imperial approval of his election. That same year Martin also convened a council at the Lateran which firmly condemned the heresy and issued excommunications. Emperor Constans sent the exarch Olympius into Italy while the council was still in session, with orders to influence the council or even kill Martin. Olympius failed at both goals, with one assassin claiming he was miraculously prevented from even seeing the pope. Constans sent a second exarch, Calliopas, to depose Martin as a usurper. Martin, already ill, eventually gave himself up peacefully to avoid bloodshed, and he was taken to Constantinople as a prisoner, mistreated the whole way. After a long and cruel imprisonment, the patient pontiff was banished to the Crimea, where he finally succumbed to illness, abuse, and starvation in the year of Our Lord 655 as the last pope to be martyred.
THE birthday [into heaven] of St. Martin, pope and martyr. Because he had convoked a council at Rome, and condemned the heretics Sergius, Paul and Pyrrhus, he was taken prisoner treacherously by order of the heretical emperor Constans, carried to Constantinople and banished to Chersonesus, where he ended his life, consumed with afflictions endured for the Catholic faith, and with a reputation for many miracles. His body was subsequently transferred to Rome, and deposited in the church of the Saints Silvester and Martin.
In Asia, the martyrdom of the Saints Aurelius and Publius, bishops.
In the diocese of Sens, St. Paternus, martyr.
At Ghent, St. Livinus, bishop and martyr.
In Poland, the holy martyrs Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac and Christinus, hermits.
At Witebsk, in Poland, the martyrdom of St. Josaphat, of the Order of St. Basil, archbishop of Polotzk, who was cruelly murdered by the schismatics, through hatred of Catholic unity and truth. He was canonized by Pius IX in 1867.
At Avignon, St. Rufus, first bishop of that city.
At Cologne, the decease of St. Cunibert, bishop.
At Tarazona, in Spain, blessed AEmilian, a priest who wrought numberless miracles, and whose wonderful life was written by St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa.
At Constantinople, St. Nilus, abbot who resigned the office of governor of the city to become a monk, and was distinguished for learning and sanctity, in the time of Theodosius the Younger.
Also, at Constantinople, St. Theodore Studita, who became celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church by his vigorous defence of the faith against the Iconoclasts.
At Alcala, in Spain, St. Didacus, confessor, of the Order of Minorites, who was renowned for his humility. Inscribed on the catalogue of the saints by Sixtus V, his feast is kept on the thirteenth of this month.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.