Saint Agatho

Agatho was a Sicilian, Greek-speaking, perhaps a monk, and very old when he was consecrated on 27 June 678; later tradition made him over a hundred. Known for kindness and a good memory, he inherited the emperor's letter proposing a conference on the doctrine that had cost Martin his life. He took it seriously. A Roman synod at Easter 680, with a hundred and twenty-five bishops, prepared the Western position; the Spanish, Frankish, and English churches were consulted, and Wilfrid of York, in Rome on business of his own, signed for Britain. Agatho then sent legates to Constantinople with two letters, a synodal one and his own, setting out that Christ had two wills and two operations, and that the church of Rome, "founded on the rock," had never erred in the faith.

The council that opened in the imperial palace on 7 November 680 read his letter and adopted it as its standard, acclaiming, as Chalcedon had acclaimed Leo, that Peter had spoken through Agatho. It condemned Monothelitism, deposed its living defenders, and anathematized its dead ones, among them Pope Honorius. Agatho died on 10 January 681, before the council closed in September, and did not have to reconcile the acclamation with the anathema; Leo II did.

He persuaded Constantine IV to reduce the fee the church paid for imperial confirmation of a pope, and to revoke Ravenna's independence. He was buried in Saint Peter's; the Greeks keep his feast on 20 February, the Latins on 10 January.