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Pope Paschal I

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Pope Saint
Paschal I
Bishop of Rome
Mosaic at Santa Prassede
Mosaic at Santa Prassede
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 25 January 817
Papacy ended 11 February 824
Predecessor Stephen IV
Successor Eugene II
Personal details
Born Rome, Papal States
Died 11 February 824
Rome, Papal States
Buried Santa Prassede, Rome
Parents Episcopa Theodora and Bonusus
Sainthood
Feast day 11 February or 16 May
14 May Eastern Orthodox Church
Venerated in Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Attributes Papal vestments
Pallium
Other popes named Paschal

Pope Paschal I (Latin: Paschalis I; died 824) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 25 January 817 to his death in 824.

Paschal was a member of an aristocratic Roman family. Before his election to the papacy, he was abbot of St. Stephen's monastery, which served pilgrims. In Rome in 823 he crowned Lothair I as Holy Roman Emperor. He rebuilt a number of churches in Rome, including three basilicas.

Early life

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Paschal was a native of Lazio Rome born Pascale Massimi and son of Bonosus and Episcopa Theodora.[1] The Liber Censuum says that Paschal was from the Massimi branch of the Massimo family, as was his predecessor, Stephen IV.[2]

Pope Leo III placed Paschal in charge of the monastery of St Stephen of the Abyssinians, where his responsibilities included the care of pilgrims visiting Rome. According to early modern accounts, Leo III may have elevated Paschal as the cardinal priest of Santa Prassede.[3] Goodson attributes this account to a "desire to explain the attention that the pope so lavishly and prominently paid to that church later in his career."[3]

Accession

Paschal became pope on 25 January 817, just one day after the sudden death of Stephen IV.[3] This decision was made without the sanction of Emperor Louis the Pious. Paschal began his pontificate apologizing for this slight, stressing that the office had been thrust upon him.[4] He claimed that the decision had been made to avoid factional strife in Rome. According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope Paschal's legate Theodore returned with a document titled Pactum cum Paschali pontifice, in which the emperor congratulated Paschal, recognized his sovereignty over the Papal States, and guaranteed the free election of future pontiffs.[5] This document has since been challenged by historians as a forgery.[6]

Papacy

At first, Emperor Louis confirmed the agreement reached in Rheims with Paschal's predecessor, Stephen IV, and detailed in the document Pactum Ludovicanum about free papal elections and noninterference in Church affairs unless officially asked for help. The two worked together to send Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims to evangelize the Danes in 822.[4]

On Easter Sunday of 823, Paschal crowned and anointed Louis's son Lothair I. Lothair was less amenable to cooperating with the Papal Curia than his father. He held a court and declared Farfa Abbey, just north of Rome, exempt from papal taxation. Paschal's aristocratic opponents in the papal palace, especially his former legate, Theodore, and his son-in-law, Leo, who turned to the young leader of the Franks for support in their opposition to Paschal. The decision outraged the Roman nobility and led to an uprising against the authority of the Roman Curia in northern Italy led by Theodore and Leo. The revolt was quickly suppressed, and two of its leaders were seized, blinded, and afterwards beheaded by members of the papal household. Paschal denied any involvement, but the Emperor remained suspicious and sent two commissioners to investigate. Paschal refused to submit to the authority of the imperial court, but he did take an oath of purgation before a synod of thirty-four bishops.[4] The commissioners returned to Aachen, and Emperor Louis let the matter drop.

Construction projects

Paschal gave shelter to exiled monks from the Byzantine Empire who had fled persecution for their opposition to iconoclasm.[7] He both offered the exiled Byzantine mosaic artists work decorating churches in Rome[5] and wrote to Louis the Pious[8] and the Byzantine emperor Leo the Armenian in support of those who opposed iconoclasm.[4]

Paschal rebuilt three basilicas of Rome: Santa Prassede, Santa Maria in Domnica, and Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.[9] These churches contain mosaics with lifelike portraits of Paschal.[4] Paschal is credited with finding the body of Saint Cecilia in the Catacomb of Callixtus and translating it to the rebuild the basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Paschal also undertook significant renovations on Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.[10] In addition, Paschal added two oratories to Old St. Peter's Basilica, SS. Processus et Martinianus and SS. Xistus et Fabianus, which did not survive the 16th century renovation of St. Peter's.[11]

Paschal is also sometimes credited with the renovation of Santo Stefano del Cacco in early modern sources, but this renovation was actually undertaken by Pope Paschal II.[12]

According to Goodson, Paschal "used church-building to express the authority of the papacy as an independent state."[13]

Writings

Only six known letters written by Paschal remain.[14] The first (Jaffé 2546) confirms the possessions of the Territorial Abbey of Farfa.[14] The second and third (Jaffé 2547 and Jaffé 2548) were written to a Frankish abbot prior to and after his elevation as archbishop of Vienne.[14] The fourth (Jaffé 2550) was written to Louis the Pious.[14] The fifth (Jaffé 2551, preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana) confirms the privileges of the church of Ravenna.[14] The last (Jaffé 2553) was written to Ebbo, the archbishop of Reims.[15][14]

Death

Paschal died on 11 February 824. The Roman Curia refused him the honour of burial within St. Peter's Basilica because of his harsh government of the Roman people.[4] He was instead buried in the Basilica of Santa Prassede, which also contains the famous Episcopa Theodora mosaic of his mother.[16]

Paschal was canonized in the late sixteenth century. His feast day in the Roman calendar prior to 1963 was 14 May.[17][4] It is currently celebrated on 11 February.

Pope and Patriarch of Rome (817–824),[18] confessor is honored in Orthodox Church on 14 May.[19][20]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Paschal I, Pope (817-824), the date of his birth is unknown; he died in April, May, or June, 824. He was the son of a Roman named Bonosus. While still young he joined the Roman clergy and was taken into the papal patriarchate (Lateran Palace) where he was instructed in the Divine Service and the Holy Scripture. Leo III having appointed him superior of the monastery of St. Stephen near the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, he took care of the pilgrims who came to Rome. On the death of Stephen IV (24 January, 817) Paschal was unanimously chosen as his successor. On the following day he was consecrated and enthroned. He entered into relations with Emperor Louis, sending him several ambassadors in rapid succession. In 817 he received from the emperor a document, "Pactum Ludovicianum", confirming the rights and possessions of the Holy See. This document with later amendments is still extant (cf. especially Sickel, "Das Privileg Ottos I für die römische Kirche", Innsbruck, 1883, 50 sqq., 174 sqq.). Paschal remained on friendly terms with the Frankish nobility and sent a special legation with rich gifts to the marriage of King Lothair I, son of Emperor Louis. In spring, 823, Lothair went to Rome and on 5 April he was solemnly crowned emperor by Paschal. Although the pope himself opposed the sovereignty of the Frankish emperors over Rome and Roman territory, high officials in the papal palace, especially Primicerius Theodore and his son-in-law Leo Nomenculator, were at the head of the party which supported the Franks, and advocated the supremacy of the emperor. Shortly after the departure of King Lothair in 823, both these officials were blinded and killed by the pope's servants. Paschal himself was accused of being the originator of this deed, but he cleared himself of suspicion by an oath. The ambassadors sent to Rome by Emperor Louis to investigate the affair could not punish the perpetrators, as the pope declared the murdered officials guilty of treason. Paschal supported new missionary expeditions which went out from the Frankish Empire. He sent a letter of introduction to Bishop Halitgar of Cambria, and appointed Archbishop Ebo of Rheims as papal legate to the pagan countries in Northern Europe.

In 814 under Leo the Armenian, the Iconoclastic controversy broke out with renewed violence in the Byzantine Empire. Theodore of Studium, the great champion of orthodoxy, wrote repeatedly to Pope Paschal, who encouraged him to persevere. At the same time Theodosius of Constantinople, unlawfully made patriarch by Emperor Leo, sent a legation to the pope. The latter, however, remained loyal to the cause of Theodore of Studium, and dispatched legates to Leo to win him from the Iconoclasts, but without success. Numerous monks who had been driven out of Greece by Leo came to Rome where the pope received them kindly, assigning them places in the newly-erected monasteries, such as St. Praxedis, St. Cecilia, Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, near the Lateran Palace. Paschal was very active in completing, restoring, and beautifying churches and monasteries. The basilicas of St. Praxedis, St. Cecilia, and S. Maria in Dominica were completely rebuilt by him. The mosaics, which at that time ornamented the apses of these three churches as well as the chapel of St. Zeno in St. Praxedis, demonstrate to-day the deterioration of this art. In St. Peter's he erected chapels and altars, in which the remains of martyrs from the Roman catacombs, especially those of Sts. Processus and Marinianus, were placed. He also placed the relics of many Roman martyrs in the church of St. Praxedis where their names are still legible. The discovery of the relies of St. Cecilia and companions, and their translation to the new church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, are well described in "Liber Pontificalis" (cf. Kirsch, "Die hl. Cäcilia in der römischen Kirche des Altertums", Paderborn, 1910). He made great improvements in the choir of the church of S. Maria Maggiore. Paschal was interred in the church of St. Praxedis, and is honoured as a saint on 14 May.

Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, II, 52 sqq.; Einhardi Annals in Mon. Germ, hist.: Script., I, 124 sqq.; Jaffé, Regesta Rom. Pont., 2nd ed., I (Leipzig, 1885), 318 sqq.; Simson, Jahrbücher der deutschen Reiches unter Ludwig dem Frommen (Leipzig, 1874-76); Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l'Etat pontifical in Revue d'hist. et de littér. religeuses, I (Paris, 1896), 297 sqq.; Hartmann, Geschichte Italiens im Mittelalter, III, pt. i (Gotha, 1008); Marucchi, Basiliques el églises de Rome (Rome, 1902).

J. P. Kirsch

References

  1. Back to citation Osborne, John, ed. (2023), "Paschal I, the Church of Santa Prassede and the Question of a 'Carolingian Renovatio' in Rome", Rome in the Ninth Century: A History in Art, British School at Rome Studies, Cambridge University Press, pp. 51–85, doi:10.1017/9781009415422.003, ISBN 978-1-009-41542-2
  2. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, p. 9 & n.13.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Goodson, 2010, p. 9.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 Back to citation occurrence 4.3 Back to citation occurrence 4.4 Back to citation occurrence 4.5 Back to citation occurrence 4.6 O'Brien, Richard P. (2000). Lives of the Popes. New York: Harper Collins. pp. 132-133. ISBN 0-06-065304-3.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 John N.D. Kelly, Gran Dizionario Illustrato dei Papi, p. 271
  6. Back to citation Claudio Rendina, I papi, p. 256
  7. Back to citation "Saint Paschal I | pope". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  8. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, p. 12.
  9. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, p. 3.
  10. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, p.4.
  11. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, pp. 3-4.
  12. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, p. 5 n.7.
  13. Back to citation Goodson, 2010, p. 14.
  14. Back to citation occurrence 14.0 Back to citation occurrence 14.1 Back to citation occurrence 14.2 Back to citation occurrence 14.3 Back to citation occurrence 14.4 Back to citation occurrence 14.5 Goodson, 2010, p. 8 & n.11.
  15. Back to citation Philippus Jaffe (1885). S. Loewenfeld (ed.). Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII (in Latin) (secunda ed.). Leipzig: Veit. pp. 318–320.
  16. Back to citation John N.D. Kelly, Gran Dizionario Illustrato dei Papi, p. 272
  17. Back to citation "Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Paschal I". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  18. Back to citation "ИТАЛИЯ. I". www.pravenc.ru. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  19. Back to citation "14.05: Memoria di San Pasquale I, Papa e Patriarca di Roma, che confessa la retta fede di fronte e contro l'eresia iconoclasta (verso l'anno 824)". www.ortodossia.it. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  20. Back to citation "98. ПАСХАЛИЙ I". Церковно-Научный Центр "Православная Энциклопедия" (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-06-01.

Further reading

  • Goodson, Caroline J. 2010. The Rome of Pope Paschal I: Papal Power, Urban Renovation, Church Rebuilding and Relic Translation, 817–824. Cambridge University Press.
  • John N.D. Kelly, Gran Dizionario Illustrato dei Papi, Edizioni Piemme S.p. A., 1989, Casale Monferrato (AL), ISBN 88-384-1326-6
  • Claudio Rendina, I papi, Ed. Newton Compton, Roma, 1990
  • Duchesne, Louis Marie Olivier (1911). "Paschal s.v. Paschal I.". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 881–882.
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