Pope Sergius I

Pope Sergius I (Born circa 650 – 8 September 701) was Pope from December 15, 687 to his death in 701. He was elected at a time when two rivals, the Archdeacon Paschal and the Archpriest Theodore, were locked in dispute about which of them should become pope.

His papacy was dominated by his response to the Quinisext Council, whose canons he refused to accept. Thereupon the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II ordered Sergius' abduction (as his predecessor Constans II had done with Pope Martin I), but the Roman people and the Italian militia of the Exarch of Ravenna refused to allow the exarch to remove Sergius to Constantinople.

Early life

Sergius I came from an Antiochene Syrian family which had settled at Palermo in Sicily. Sergius left Sicily and arrived in Rome during the pontificate of Pope Adeodatus II. He may have been among the many Sicilian clergy in Rome, at that time, due to the Islamic Caliphate battles against Sicily in the mid-7th century.Pope Leo II, ordained him cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna on 27 June 683, and he rose through the ranks of the clergy. He remained cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna until his selection as pope.

Pope Sergius

Pope Sergius could refer to:

Sergius I

Sergius I may refer to:

See also

Sergius I of Naples

Sergius I (died 864) was the first duke of Naples of his dynasty, often dubbed the "Sergi," which ruled over Naples for almost three centuries from his accession in 840 until the death of his namesake Sergius VII in 1137.

Sergius was originally the dux of Cumae, a Neapolitan dependency. In 840, with the Franks trying to take the city, the people elected Sergius as duke (or magister militum) of Naples. This was a move towards complete independence from the Byzantine Empire, which was incapable of defending the Ducatus Neapolitanus from the Lombards. Sergius continued the beneficial alliance the Neapolitans had made with the Saracens of Palermo earlier. He aided them in taking Bari from the Byzantines in 841 and Messina in 842. By turning away from the Byzantines and towards the papacy and the Franks, he opened the way for the expulsion of the Moslems from the Campania.

The Saracens soon became too dangerous to keep as friends and Naples was forced to ally with Amalfi, Gaeta, and Sorrento, its practically independent underlings, and make war on the Moslems. The Christians forced them out of Ponza and defended Rome in 846, though the Vatican was sacked. In 849, Sergius led his fleet alongside that of Gaeta and the Vatican in the successful Battle of Ostia.