Agapetus I

Pope Agapetus I was Bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 until his death the following year. He was a native of Rome and the son of Gordianus, a priest who lost his life during the factional violence that marked the pontificate of Symmachus. Agapetus served as archdeacon of the Roman Church, an office that placed him among the leading clergy of the city, before the clergy and people elected him to succeed Pope John II. Little else can be established with certainty about his early life; later writers sometimes associated his family with other distinguished Roman ecclesiastical lineages, but such claims remain difficult to verify from contemporary evidence.

The political situation in Italy shaped his short reign. After the death of the Ostrogothic king Athalaric and the killing of the regent Amalasuntha, King Theodahad faced the prospect of an imperial invasion. Justinian I was already preparing the campaign that would become the Gothic War. Theodahad compelled Agapetus to travel to Constantinople in the winter of 535–536 in order to intercede with the emperor and, if possible, to avert war. The pope arrived in the eastern capital in early 536. He discovered that the patriarchate of Constantinople was held by Anthimus, previously bishop of Trebizond, a cleric of Miaphysite views who had been installed through the influence of Empress Theodora and whose translation from one see to another contravened established canons.

Agapetus declined to communicate with Anthimus and demanded that the see be filled by a bishop who accepted the Council of Chalcedon. Imperial pressure was applied, yet the pope held his ground. Later narratives report a sharp exchange in which Agapetus is said to have told Justinian that he had expected to meet a Christian emperor rather than a new Diocletian; whether or not the wording is authentic, the outcome is well attested. Anthimus was removed, and on 13 March 536 Agapetus consecrated Mennas, a supporter of Chalcedon, as patriarch of Constantinople. During the same stay Agapetus took part in the condemnation of other leading Miaphysites, among them figures connected with Severus of Antioch. These measures, though they could not prevent the outbreak of war in Italy, reinforced the authority of the Roman see as a guardian of Chalcedonian doctrine in the East and influenced the synods held at Constantinople later in 536 after the pope’s death.

Agapetus fell ill in Constantinople and died there on 22 April 536. His body was returned to Rome in a lead coffin and buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. He was succeeded by Silverius. Although he occupied the papal office for less than twelve months, his confrontation with Anthimus and his consecration of Mennas became a standard episode in Latin and Greek accounts of sixth-century church history. He has been honored as a saint in both East and West. Western liturgical tradition has long kept his feast on 20 September, a date linked with his burial or the translation of his remains; Eastern calendars have commemorated him in April, near the day of his death.