Zacharias Santa-Severina

Born [date unknown] in Santa Severina, Calabria, Byzantine Empire

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Biography

Pope Zachary Santa-Severina is Notable.

Zachary was Greek, born in Santa Severina, Calabria, Byzantine Empire.^[1] His father was Polichronius.^[2]

He was probably a deacon in the Roman Church and as such signed the decrees of the Roman Council of 732.^[2] The role of a deacon is to act as an ambassador for the bishop,^[3] or in this case for the Pope.

He was elected pope on 29 November 741 and consecrated and enthroned on 5 December 741.^[2] The Vatican gives his papacy beginning on 3 December 741.^[4]

He held a synod at Rome in 743 attended by sixty bishops.^[2] In 745 he held the general synod for the Frankish kingdom called by Pepin and Carloman.^[2] Pope Zachary received Carloman into a monastic order at Soracte in 747.^[2]

Zachary was zealous in restoring the Roman churches as benefactor, including the Lateran palace. He was well known for almsgiving to the poor also.^[2]

Flocknote Popes in a Year ^[5] tells us:

Zachary, Greek by birth and the last of the Byzantine popes, was born around the year 679. He was elected immediately after the death of St. Gregory III, being immensely popular among the clergy and a close advisor to his predecessor. Zachary took great care of Rome’s churches, restoring many including the Lateran Basilica. During that process, workers discovered the head of St. George and had it moved to the church bearing the same name.

Zachary was also immensely generous, often giving alms to the poor from his own palace. He was a skilled diplomat in dealing with both the trigger-happy Lombards and the new iconoclastic emperor, Constantine V.

Zachary died after a 10-year reign on March 15, 752. He was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Zachary’s most important accomplishments involved all the moving and shaking going on in Western Europe at that time. St. Boniface was still at work evangelizing the region, and found such success in reorganizing the German Church that he established new dioceses in modern-day Cologne and Mainz, and became very close with the Carolingians, who ruled much of the region. Their leader, Pepin the Short (yes, that’s his real name), actually petitioned the pope on the advice of St. Boniface to depose the current king, who was by that time ruling in name only. Zachary, after carefully considering the situation, rubber-stamped the idea. Soon afterward, Boniface consecrated Pepin as King of the Franks, thus granting the Church vital protection against the many pagan neighbors who were very against the missionaries’ efforts.

Zachary was the first pope to bypass the approval of the emperor once elected. For decades, new pontiffs would send word to the emperor or his representatives before proceeding with his consecration. But the lack of real sway held by the Byzantine Empire by that point in history rendered such action all but unnecessary.

Around the year 745, the Bubonic plague decimated a third of the population of Asia Minor (Turkey) and progressed through the Balkan Peninsula toward Rome. Not good.

Pope Zachary died around 15 March 752 and was buried in St Peter's Basilica.^[1][2]

Research Notes

This profile is being updated by the Popes Project.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikipedia Pope Zachary
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} Catholic Encyclopedia
3. ↑ Collins, John N (1990) Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources, OUP, 1990.
4. ↑ Vatican
5. ↑ Flocknote Popes in a Year
   SOURCES (and further reading)
   John, E. (1964). The Popes: A concise biographical history. New York: Hawthorn Books.
   Pope St. Zachary - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15743b.htm
   Pope Zachary - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Zachary
   740s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/740s