Pope Sabinian

Pope
Sabinian
Papacy began 13 September 604
Papacy ended 22 February 606
Predecessor Gregory I
Successor Boniface III
Personal details
Born Blera, Byzantine Empire
Died 22 February 606
Rome, Byzantine Empire

Pope Sabinian (Latin: Sabinianus, died 22 February 606) was Pope from 13 September 604 to his death in 606.[1] Pope during the Byzantine Papacy, he was fourth former apocrisiarius to Constantinople elected pope.

Sabinian was born at Blera (Bieda) near Viterbo. He had been sent by Pope Gregory I as Apostolic nuncio, to Constantinople, but he apparently was not entirely satisfactory in that office. He returned to Rome in 597.[1]

He was probably consecrated pope on 13 September 604. He incurred unpopularity by his unseasonable economies, although the Liber Pontificalis states that he distributed grain during a famine at Rome under his pontificate. The erudite Italian Augustinian Onofrio Panvinio (1529–1568), in his Epitome pontificum Romanorum (Venice, 1557), attributes to him the introduction of the custom of ringing bells at the canonical hours and the celebration of the Eucharist. The first attribution was this was in Guillaume Durand's thirteenth-century Rationale Divinorum Officiorum.[1]

During his reign, Sabinian was seen as a counterfoil to his predecessor Pope Gregory I. Whereas Gregory distributed grain to the Roman populace as invasion loomed, Sabinian sold it for high prices (though this may be a later interpolation by Gregory's biographers). The Liber Pontificalis praises him for "filling the church with clergy," in contrast to Gregory, who rose rapidly from simple monk to bishop of Rome.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3  "Pope Sabinianus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sabinianus.
Wikisource has the text of a 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article about Pope Sabinian.
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Gregory I
Pope
604–606
Succeeded by
Boniface III