Pope Saint Benedict II (684-685)

The return of a Roman pope after two Sicilians

Agatho and Leo II, his two immediate predecessors, were Sicilians. Their origin is not incidental: it corresponded to a Rome still strongly tied to the Greek and Byzantine world, at the very moment when it had to negotiate with Constantinople and receive a council convened in the East.^[8][9]

Benedict II, by contrast, is presented by the sources as Roman. Treccani explains his election as "undoubtedly the consequence of the greater confidence animating the city clergy of the Urbs after the restoration of religious peace with the East" through the condemnation of monothelitism: the Roman clergy chose a man drawn from its own ranks, trained from childhood in the Roman Church.^[10]

His election therefore amounts to more than a mere change of name. It marks a turning point: Rome emerged from the most acute phase of the Christological crisis and once again put forward a pope shaped by its own liturgical institutions.

A brief pontificate in the aftermath of Constantinople III

Constantinople III had defined, on 16 September 681, that Christ possesses two natural wills and two natural operations, against monothelitism.^[11] Agatho had prepared the Roman confession; Leo II had confirmed the council and had its acts translated; Benedict II inherited the moment when this reception had to continue in the Western Churches.^[12]

This position explains almost his entire pontificate. He did not reopen the controversy, but he managed its aftermath: Spain had to subscribe, Archbishop Julian of Toledo formulated his own responses, Macarius of Antioch remained obstinate, and Rome sought to avoid turning the recovered unity into a new Western conflict.^[13][14]

The pope who shortened papal vacancies

The long vacancy preceding Benedict II is a massive fact. Leo II died in the last days of June 683 and was buried on 3 July; Benedict was not consecrated until 26 June 684, almost a year later.^[15][16] The reason was not merely local: the Roman election still had to obtain imperial authorization.

Benedict II then obtained from Constantine IV ordinances allowing the man elected to the Apostolic See to be ordained without delay, with confirmation able to pass through the exarch of Italy at Ravenna.^[17][18] This reform did not yet make the papacy fully independent of the Empire, but it reduced a concrete blockage that had paralysed Rome after Agatho and Leo II.

Table of witnesses

The Holy See and the official dates

The current Vatican entry gives Benedict II as the 81st pope, with the pontificate beginning on 26 June 684, ending on 8 May 685, and birth in Rome.^[19] These data fix the title of this article: Pope Saint Benedict II (684-685). The dates in parentheses are those of the pontificate, not those of his life: the date of birth is unknown — this is the convention of the Ignispedia series of pontifical articles (Leo II 682-683, Agatho 678-681), life dates being given only when they are known.

The birth date of around 635 is only a modern estimate: the Fontistoriche entry displays it ("Roma, 635"), but the very text of the Liber Pontificalis gives only the Roman origin and the father named John, and the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) states the date of birth as unknown.^[20][21] The reliable data therefore remain: Roman origin, father John, ecclesial formation from childhood, death on 8 May 685.

The Liber Pontificalis: a portrait of a Roman cleric

The pontifical notice calls him Benedictus iunior, the "younger Benedict", probably to distinguish him from Benedict I. It gives a duration of ten months and twelve days, consistent with the official pontificate from June 684 to May 685.^[22]

The portrait stresses three traits: formation in the Scriptures, liturgical chant, pastoral virtues. Benedict II had served the Church "from the beginning of his life", had studied from childhood the chant and the divine Scriptures, then had shown himself worthy of the priesthood.^[23]

Treccani stresses that these traits characterize men from Roman families who had gone through the entire career of the city clergy from childhood, notably in the schola cantorum.^[24]

Treccani: the political context of the short biography

Ottorino Bertolini's notice is decisive because it places each fact in its context. It explains why the long vacancy before Benedict II stemmed from the religious situation born of Constantinople III and the condemnation of Honorius: the emperor could delay authorization for as long as he wished to be certain of the sentiments of the Roman clergy and of the man elected.^[25]

It also shows that Constantine IV's divales iussiones are not a technical detail. By sending them to the clergy, the people and the army of Rome, but directly through Benedict II, the emperor recognizes in the bishop of Rome the most qualified authority to serve as the link between imperial power and the city.^[26]

A Roman, son of John

The Liber Pontificalis gives the simple formula: Benedictus iunior, natione Romanus, de patre Iohanne.^[27] Benedict II was therefore Roman, son of John. The sources give neither his mother, nor his family's precise neighbourhood, nor a complete biography before his election.

This silence does not leave the figure empty. On the contrary, the little the notice preserves is very telling: he is presented not as an aristocrat, a monk come from afar or a Byzantine diplomat, but as a cleric raised in the very institutions of the Roman Church.

The schola cantorum

New Advent says that he was sent young to the schola cantorum and distinguished himself there by his knowledge of the Scriptures and by his chant.^[28] Treccani takes up the idea, linking it to the regular formation of the Roman clergy: the schola cantorum is not only a school of music, but a place where one learns to serve the liturgy of Rome with Scripture, voice, memory and discipline.

This point brings him close to Leo II, likewise praised for chant and psalmody.^[29] But the nuance is different: Leo II is the bilingual Sicilian who translates the Greek council; Benedict II is the Roman whose authority comes from the local continuity of the clergy of the Urbs.

Scripture, chant and government

To a modern reader, chant may seem secondary. In seventh-century Rome, it was not. The pope governed a Church in which faith was proclaimed by the readings, sung in the offices, guarded by the basilicas, handed on by processions and remembered around the tombs of the martyrs.

Benedict II's portrait thus unites liturgy and government. The man trained to sing the Catholic faith becomes the one who must see it received after Constantinople III. It is no accident that the Liber Pontificalis praises at once his biblical knowledge, his chant, his humility and his generous hand.

Almost a year between Leo II and Benedict II

Leo II died at the end of June 683 and was buried on 3 July 683.^[30][31] Benedict II was elected in 683, but his consecration did not take place until 26 June 684.^[32] Treccani stresses that this situation reproduced, in a slightly shorter form, the vacancy that had preceded Leo II after Agatho's death.^[33]

The immediate cause lay in the Byzantine regime: the pontifical election had to be announced to the sovereign, and the man elected could not be consecrated until authorization arrived. After the condemnation of monothelitism and of Honorius, the emperor had an interest in making sure that the new Roman elect would not disturb the fragile doctrinal peace.^[34]

The Roman electoral body

Treccani notes that Constantine IV's ordinances were addressed to the clergy, the populus and the felicissimus exercitus of the city of Rome: the three components of the electoral body — ecclesiastical, civil and military.^[35]

This fact recalls that the seventh-century papacy was not yet elected by a conclave of cardinals in the later medieval sense. Rome was an imperial city, with its clergy, its people, its armed forces, its officials and its link with the exarch of Ravenna. The pope was the successor of Peter, but his election unfolded in a very concrete civic and Byzantine reality.

The reform obtained from Constantine IV

The Liber Pontificalis states that Benedict II received imperial ordinances allowing whoever should be elected to the Apostolic See to be ordained pontiff at once, without delay.^[36] New Advent summarizes: the measure perhaps abolished direct imperial confirmation, or made it available through the exarch in Italy.^[37]

« Il concéda que la personne élue au Siège apostolique fût ordonnée pontife aussitôt, sans retard. » — Liber Pontificalis, life of Benedict II^[38]

Treccani gives the most precise interpretation: Constantine IV restored the delegation to the exarch of Italy, residing at Ravenna, to issue future authorizations, and also restored the old Roman tradition of leading the elect at once in procession to the Lateran palace.^[39]

The imperial ordinances

The Liber Pontificalis describes the ordinances as coming from the most clement prince Constantine, addressed to the venerable clergy, the people and the most fortunate army of the Roman city.^[40] The formula is imperial, but it recognizes Rome as a community organized around its bishop.

The historical significance is twofold. On the one hand, Rome remained within the orbit of the Empire: the emperor could still legislate on the modalities of recognizing the pope. On the other, the emperor was now dealing with a city whose pope, clergy and army had shown their capacity for action during the monothelite crisis.^[41]

The locks of Justinian and Heraclius

The notice adds a gesture strange to a modern reader: Benedict II, with the clergy and the army, received locks of hair from Constantine IV's sons, Justinian and Heraclius, sent by the emperor with another ordinance.^[42]

« Il reçut, avec le clergé et l'armée, les mèches des cheveux de Justinien et d'Héraclius, fils du très clément prince. » — Liber Pontificalis, life of Benedict II^[43]

Treccani explains the symbolic value of this gesture: the sending and receiving of the locks had "undoubtedly, for Constantine IV, the value of a symbol of the restored union of Rome with Byzantium", and, according to the usages of the time, "the symbolic value of the offering and acceptance of another direct bond", by which "the sons of the reigning sovereign henceforth became the adoptive sons of a Rome embodied by its bishop", with its clergy, officers and soldiers committing themselves as allies and protectors of the young princes.^[44]

A restored union, but not a servile one

The comparison with the icon of Phocas received by Gregory the Great in 603 is proposed by Treccani himself. In 603, Rome recognized the accession of a new sovereign; under Benedict II, Constantine IV's gesture, "without precedent in the history of the constitutional relations between the Byzantine emperors and the ancient capital of the Empire", reveals a less strictly servile relationship: Rome remained in the Empire, but the popes, the clergy and the Roman forces had acquired a consistency of their own.^[45]

Benedict II thus appears as a transitional figure. He did not break with Byzantium. On the contrary, he received a sign of union. But this union passed through Rome and through the pope, not through a mere municipal administration.

Continuity with Leo II

Leo II had charged the regional notary Peter with going to Spain to have the decisions of Constantinople III subscribed by the bishops of the Visigothic kingdom. He had given him letters for King Erwig, for Count Simplicius, for Archbishop Quiricus of Toledo, for all the bishops of the kingdom, as well as part of the acts translated from Greek into Latin.^[46]

Benedict II intervened even before his consecration. Treccani describes him at that point as priest, elected in the name of God to the apostolic Holy See: he confirmed Peter in his mission and ordered him to depart.^[47]

This fact is important: Benedict began serving the Roman See in a momentous dogmatic dossier even before receiving pontifical consecration. The de facto government of the pope-elect responded to a doctrinal emergency.

Toledo and Visigothic autonomy

The Roman mission met a very strong Spanish Church. Quiricus of Toledo had died in January 680; his successor Julian of Toledo was one of the most learned bishops of the kingdom and already enjoyed considerable authority since the Twelfth Council of Toledo.^[48]

The Fourteenth Council of Toledo, held from 14 to 20 November 684, received the acts of Constantinople III, but did so according to its own procedure. The Visigothic bishops also approved Julian's Apologeticum fidei, giving it an honour comparable to that of decretal letters.^[49][50]

Two simplistic readings would be false. Spain did not refuse Constantinople III; it received it. But it did not receive it as a passive province: it asserted a theological competence of its own, centred on Toledo.

The tensions around Julian of Toledo

Julian sent Benedict II a first Apologeticum fidei. Then, in a second Apologeticum known through the acts of the Fifteenth Council of Toledo in 688, the tone grew harsher: Julian set himself up as the pope's master in grammar as in exegesis, reproaching "that man" for having passed over expressions "read hastily and distractedly", and supposing that the pope, "through inattentive reading, had misunderstood the text".^[51]

Benedict II died on 8 May 685; it is unknown whether Julian's first reply reached him in his lifetime. Rome did not counter-attack under his immediate successors John V, Conon and Sergius I. Treccani reads this silence as "certainly prompted in Rome by the deliberate resolve not to give substance to a painful conflict with the Visigothic Church", which could have fractured Western solidarity against the Eastern error.^[52]

A condemned patriarch sent to Rome

Macarius of Antioch had been one of the great monothelite resisters at the council. Condemned with others, he was sent to Rome by Constantine IV to be placed under the spiritual care of Leo II, then of Benedict II.^[53]

The dossier was pastoral and doctrinal. It was not merely a matter of guarding a prisoner; it was a matter of attempting to bring a former patriarch back to the Catholic confession of Christ's two wills.

Forty days of reflection

Treccani reports that Benedict II found Macarius still obstinate. He granted him forty days of reflection and had him visited daily by a counsellor named Boniface, to instruct him and win him back to the restored unity of the dyothelite faith.^[54]

The figure of forty days gives the gesture a spiritual colour: a time of trial, of conversion, of ecclesial patience. Benedict II was not merely the guardian of a condemnation; he attempted a healing.

The failure of a patient pastoral care

The attempt failed, as it had already failed under Leo II.^[55] Not every doctrinal dossier ends in a visible reconciliation. The Church can give time, instruct, visit, entreat, and still meet obstinacy.

The spiritual lesson is clear: Benedict II united dogmatic firmness with patience toward the person. He did not relativize Constantinople III; nor did he reduce Macarius to a name in a list of anathemas.

Saint Peter's and Saint Lawrence in Lucina

The Liber Pontificalis attributes to Benedict II restorations in the church of the blessed apostle Peter and in the church of the martyr Saint Lawrence called in Lucina.^[56] Treccani confirms that his activity in sacred building was notable, notably for Saint Peter's basilica.^[57]

« Il restaura l'église du bienheureux apôtre Pierre, ainsi que celle du bienheureux martyr Laurent, appelée Lucina. » — Liber Pontificalis, life of Benedict II^[58]

The pontificate was short, but the gestures were concrete. In early medieval Rome, restoring a basilica was not a secondary embellishment: it meant maintaining the place where apostolic memory was formed, where the liturgy was celebrated, where pilgrims came to pray, where the city understood its Christian identity.

Saint Valentine and Saint Mary ad Martyres

The pontifical notice also mentions the church of Saint Valentine on the Via Flaminia, where Benedict II had a rich altar covering made, with nails, goldsmith work and a precious border.^[59]

It adds another gift to Saint Mary ad Martyres, that is, the Pantheon dedicated to the Virgin and the martyrs since Boniface IV: a purple covering with a cross, ornaments and gold nails, surrounded by a very beautiful silk border.^[60]

These textile and liturgical details are precious. They show how a pope poor in heart could be generous toward altars: personal poverty is not contempt for sacred beauty.

Chalices and ornaments

Benedict II also had two ministerial chalices of gold made, each weighing one pound.^[61] This type of note, typical of the Liber Pontificalis, is not a cold inventory: it preserves the material memory of the Roman liturgy.

In his case, the inventory confirms his moral portrait. The pope generous toward the poor was also generous toward worship. He gave to persons and to altars, to deaconries and to churches, to mercy and to the splendour of worship.

Paupertatis amator

The Liber Pontificalis calls Benedict II paupertatis amator, lover of poverty, then describes him as humble, gentle, compassionate toward all and of a most generous hand.^[62]

« Ami de la pauvreté, humble, doux, compatissant envers tous et d'une main très large. » — Liber Pontificalis, life of Benedict II^[63]

This portrait must not be reduced to a hagiographical formula. It is confirmed by his financial acts: at the time of his death, he left thirty pounds of gold to the clergy, the monasteries, the deaconries and the mansionarii, the lay guardians or attendants of places of worship.^[64]

The first mention of the monasteria diaconiae

Treccani notes that the expression monasteria diaconiae appears here for the first time in the pontifical biography: "the first testimony of the solicitude immediately shown by the popes toward this type of charitable and welfare bodies". These bodies, inspired by Eastern models, were monasteries entrusted to monks, often of Greek or Eastern origin, charged with the charitable activities designated by the term diaconia, in the original sense of "service".^[65]

The detail matters for the history of Rome. It does not prove that the deaconries were born under Benedict II: it attests that, in his time, these bodies were taking shape in the city and that the papacy was already taking an interest in them. Benedict II extended to these monasteria diaconiae the legacy of thirty pounds of gold which he left to the clergy, the mansionarii and the monasteries.^[66]

The promotion of the clergy at Easter

The Liber Pontificalis reports that, at holy Easter, Benedict II increased the honours of the clergy in its various orders.^[67] Treccani places this gesture at Easter 685, on 26 March, shortly before the illness that would carry him off.^[68]

This action extends his identity. He himself was a product of the Roman clergy trained from childhood; having become pope, he supported and honoured the various orders of that same clergy.

A cause inherited from Agatho

New Advent recalls that Benedict II was among the popes who supported the cause of Saint Wilfrid of York, referring to Eddius, Vita Wilfridi.^[69] The affair went back to Agatho, who had examined in Rome Wilfrid's appeal after his deposition and the division of his diocese.^[70]

Rome and the missionary England

This dossier shows Rome's continuity toward the English Church, from Gregory the Great through Vitalian, Theodore of Tarsus, Hadrian and Agatho.^[71][72] Even a very brief pontificate kept a link with distant Churches.

For Benedict II, the issue was not to govern England day by day. It was to confirm an earlier Roman decision and to uphold the value of appeal to the Apostolic See in a complex episcopal conflict.

A star between Christmas and Theophany

The pontifical notice reports that in Benedict II's time a star appeared at night, near the vigils, for several days of clear sky, between the Lord's Christmas and Theophany, obscured as it were, like the moon under a cloud.^[73]

It adds that in February, after the feast of Saint Valentine, a star appeared in broad daylight from the west around midday, then declined toward the east.^[74]

These details must not be turned into a forced astronomical demonstration. They show how the Liber Pontificalis recorded extraordinary events: celestial signs, eruptions, ordinations, works, illnesses and deaths formed the landmarks of a religious memory.

The eruption of Vesuvius

The same text reports that in March, Mount Vesuvius in Campania erupted for several days, so that the neighbouring places were devastated by dust and ash.^[75]

The event recalls the vulnerability of Byzantine Italy. Rome was not only occupied with dogmatic debates; it lived in a territory subject to epidemics, volcanoes, famines, raids, fiscal burdens and political uncertainties.

Illness after Easter

After honouring the clergy at Easter, Benedict II quickly fell ill and died shortly afterwards.^[76] Treccani places his illness just after Easter 685 and confirms death on 8 May.^[77]

His effective pontificate thus lasted less than a year from consecration, but nearly two years if one counts the time elapsed since the election.^[78]

Twelve bishops ordained

The Liber Pontificalis reports that Benedict II ordained twelve bishops for various places.^[79] The figure is modest compared with some predecessors, but it recalls that even a short pontificate continued to provide for the Churches.

There is nothing spectacular here. The apostolic succession was maintained through these ordinary gestures: ordaining, sending, supporting, restoring, giving, instructing.

Burial at Saint Peter's and the memory of 8 May

Benedict II was buried beside the blessed apostle Peter on the eighth day before the Ides of May, that is, on 8 May.^[80] The Holy See gives the same date as the end of the pontificate.^[81]

This date of death and burial must be distinguished from the feast date, which varies according to calendars. Treccani notes that his name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology on 8 May, in the line of manuscript traditions derived from additions to Ado of Vienne's Martyrology, and Vatican News lists him in the 8 May calendar as San Benedetto II, Papa.^[82][83] But the New Catholic Encyclopedia gives his feast on 7 May ("Feast: May 7"), as does Father Joseph Brusher S. J. in Popes Through the Ages ("his feast is kept on May 7") and several online Catholic calendars, including the 7 May saint of the day on Nobility.org; the English Wikipedia and its list of Orthodox saints give the same date.^[84] Benedict II's liturgical memory is therefore celebrated on 7 or 8 May according to calendars, on a death attested on 8 May 685.

A holiness without spectacular brilliance

Benedict II does not have the narrative stature of Martin I, nor the dogmatic role of Agatho, nor the decisive function of Leo II in confirming Constantinople III. His holiness is more discreet: serving the Church from childhood, singing the faith, knowing the Scriptures, remaining humble, supporting the poor, restoring churches, giving to the deaconries.

This discretion is precious for a Catholic encyclopedia. Not all saintly popes are dramatic heroes. Some are men of continuity, who receive a fragile inheritance and prevent it from being lost.

Received truth must be administered

After a great doctrinal definition, a less visible work remains: translating the acts, sending them, having them subscribed, responding to local sensitivities, correcting opponents, avoiding needless conflicts, preserving the unity of the Churches. Benedict II belongs to this work.

His place after Leo II shows that orthodoxy is not only a conciliar text. It must become ecclesial reception, discipline, communion, diplomatic prudence, patience toward resisters and quiet firmness.

Rome sings, governs and serves

The finest portrait of Benedict II perhaps lies in the union of three gestures: he was trained to sing the faith; he obtained a reform that shortened vacancies of the Apostolic See; he left his gold to clerics, monasteries, deaconries and guardians of churches.

Chant, government, charity: these are three dimensions of a single service. The Roman papacy holds not only through definitions; it also holds through voices that pray, institutions that function and poor who are not forgotten.

• Pope Saint Leo II — immediate predecessor, confirmer of Constantinople III and of the condemnation of Honorius.
• Pope Saint Agatho — pope of the Roman synod of 680 and of the dogmatic letter received by Constantinople III.
• Council of Constantinople III (680-681) — definition of the two natural wills and two natural operations of Christ.
• Pope Honorius I — dossier of the posthumous condemnation in the monothelite crisis.
• Pope Saint Martin I — martyr pope of resistance to the imperial Typos.
• Pope Saint Vitalian — context of the Byzantine papacy, England and Ravenna.
• The old Saint Peter's basilica — burial place of Benedict II and Roman pontifical memory.