Pope Agatho

Pope Agatho (c. 577 – 10 January 681) served as the bishop of Rome from 27 June 678 until his death on 10 January 681.¹ He heard the appeal of Wilfrid of York, who had been displaced from his see by the division of the archdiocese ordered by Theodore of Canterbury. During Agatho's tenure, the Sixth Ecumenical Council was convened to deal with monothelitism. He is venerated as a saint by both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He is said to have been the longest lived pope ever.²

Early life

The details of Agatho's early life are uncertain. It has been written that he was born around 577³ in Palermo, Sicily, and was of Greek origin, whose parents died when he was young. After the death of his parents, it is said that he joined the monastery of San Giovanni degli Eremiti in Palermo.⁴ Due to the Rashidun Caliphate's raids on Sicily that began in 652, many Sicilian clergy had fled to Rome, and Agatho may have been among them.⁵

He served several years as treasurer of the church of Rome. He succeeded Pope Donus, and ascended to the papacy on 27 June 678, a Sunday.⁶

Papacy

Shortly after Agatho became pope, Bishop Wilfrid of York arrived in Rome to invoke the authority of the on his behalf. Wilfrid had been deposed from his see by Archbishop , who had carved up Wilfrid's diocese and appointed three bishops to govern the new sees. At a which Pope Agatho convoked in the to investigate the affair, it was decided that Wilfrid's diocese should indeed be divided, but that Wilfrid himself should name the bishops.