Pope Donus
| Pope Donus | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Rome | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Papacy began | 2 November 676 |
| Papacy ended | 11 April 678 |
| Predecessor | Adeodatus II |
| Successor | Agatho |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rome, Byzantine Empire |
| Died | 11 April 678 Rome, Byzantine Empire |
Pope Donus (died on 11 April 678), known as Pope Donus I until 1947, was the bishop of Rome from 676 to his death on 11 April 678. Few details survive about him or his achievements beyond what is recorded in the Liber Pontificalis.
Election
Donus was the son of a Roman named Maurice.[1] He became pope on 2 November 676, having been selected to succeed Adeodatus II.[2] By that time, Donus was already elderly.[1]
Pontificate
Donus expanded the clergy of Rome with twelve new priests and five deacons. He also consecrated six bishops for various sees.[3] One of these may have been Vitalianus of Arezzo.[4] He had the atrium of Old St. Peter's Basilica paved with large blocks of white marble, and restored other churches of Rome, notably the church of St. Euphemia on the Appian Way and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.[5] Donus was shocked to discover a colony of Nestorian monks in Boetianum, a Syrian monastery in Rome. He gave their monastery to Roman monks and dispersed them through the various religious houses of the city in the hope that they would accept Chalcedonian Christianity. The Nestorians were possibly refugees fleeing the Muslim conquest of the Levant.[6]
During the pontificate of Donus, Archbishop Reparatus of Ravenna returned to the obedience of the Holy See, thus ending the schism created by Archbishop Maurus, who had aimed at making Ravenna autocephalous.[7] Donus' relations with Constantinople tended towards the conciliatory. On 10 August 678, Emperor Constantine IV addressed him as "the most holy and blessed archbishop of our ancient Rome and the universal pope," hoping to attract him to engage in negotiations with the patriarch of Constantinople and the Monothelites.[8] He ordered that Pope Vitalianus' name be put back in the diptychs of those bishops in communion with Constantinople, an act which caused him a great deal of trouble from the Monothelites and Patriarch Theodore I of Constantinople.[9]
Donus died on 11 April 678 and was buried the same day in Old St. Peter's Basilica. He was succeeded by Agatho.[10]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Pope Donus — (Or DOMNUS).
Son of a Roman called Mauricius; he was consecrated Bishop of Rome 2 Nov., 676, to succeed Adeodatus II, after an interval of four months and seventeen days; d. 11 April, 678. Of his life and acts but little is known. The "Liber Pontificalis" informs us that he paved the atrium or quadrangle in front of St. Peter's with great blocks of white marble. He also restored the church of St. Euphemia on the Appian Way, and repaired the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, or, according to Duchesne's conjecture, the little church on the road to St. Paul's, which marks the spot where Sts. Peter and Paul are said to have parted on their way to martyrdom. During the pontificate of Donus, Reparatus, the Archbishop of Ravenna, returned to the obedience of the Holy See, thus ending the schism created by Archbishop Maurus who had aimed at making Ravenna autocephalous. In the time of this pope a colony of Nestorian monks was discovered in a Syrian monastery at Rome - the Monasterium Boetianum. The pope is said to have dispersed them through the various religious houses of the city, and to have given over their monastery to Roman monks. After a brief reign of one year, five months, and ten days, Donus died and was buried in St. Peter's. His portrait in mosaic was at one time to be seen in the church of St. Martina in the Forum.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Attwater, Aubrey (1939). A Dictionary of Popes: From Peter to Pius XII. p. 74.
- Back to citation John Moorhead. The Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity. p. 198.
- Back to citation Duchesne, p. 348.
- Back to citation Jacopo Burali d'Arezzo (1638). Vite de'vescovi Aretini... dall'anno CCCXXXVI sino all'anno MDCXXXVIII, etc (in Italian). Arezzo: Ercole Gori. p. 19.
- Back to citation Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis I, p. 348, who conjectures in note 2 that the church in question was not the Basilica, but instead a small church commemorating the parting of Peter and Paul on their way to execution. Mann, pp. 20–21.
- Back to citation John Moorhead (27 Nov 2014). The Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity. Routledge. ISBN 9781317578260. “...the advances of Persians and then Arabs in the middle east that were responsible for the coming of Maximos to Africa and, presumably, Theodore of Tarsus to Rome, could easily have brought many more, such as the Syrian monks whom pope Donus discovered were Nestorians.”
- Back to citation Oestereich, Thomas. "Pope Donus." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 September 2017]
- Back to citation Delogu, p. 61 note 14: Dono sanctissimo ac beatissimo archiepiscopo antiquae nostrae Romae et universali papae.... J.P. Migne, ed. (1863). *Patrologiae latinae: 87: Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum qui in 7. saeculi secunda parte floruerunt opera omnia... juxta memoratissimas editiones D. Mabillonii... (in Latin and Greek). Migne. pp. 1147–1153.
- Back to citation Baronius (ed. Theiner), p. 600 (year 677, no. 2). The restoration was ordered by the VI Ecumenical Council.
- Back to citation Duchesne, p. 348.
Bibliography
- Baronius, Caesar (1867). Augustinus Theiner (ed.). Annales ecclesiastici: A.D. 1-1571 denuo excusi et ad nostra usque tempora perducti ab Augustino Theiner (in Latin). Vol. Tomus undecimus (600-679). Bar-Le-Duc: Typis et sumptibus Ludovici Guerin. pp. 592–604.
- Doglu, Paolo. "Il papato tra l'impero bizantino e l'Occidente nel VII e VIII secolo," in: Gabriele De Rosa and Giorgio Cracco, ed. (2001). Il papato e l'Europa. Soveria Mannelli (Catanzaro): Rubbettino Editore. pp. 55–79, at pp. 61–64. ISBN 978-88-498-0222-1.
- Duchesne, Louis (ed.) (1886). Le Liber pontificalis; texte, introduction et commentaire par L. Duchesne Tome premier. Paris: E. Thorin. pp. 348–349.
- Mann, Horace Kinder (1903). The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages. Volume I, Part II. London: Kegan Paul. pp. 20–22.
External links
- Gasparri, Stefano (2000). "Dono". Enciclopedia dei Papi (in Italian) Retrieved: 2016-11-27.
- Pope Donus in Patron Saints Index