Saint Sergius I

Sergius was born in Palermo to a family from Antioch and was a priest of Santa Susanna when Conon died. Two men claimed the succession at once, the archpriest Theodore holding the inner Lateran and the archdeacon Paschal, who had promised the exarch a hundred pounds of gold, the outer; the majority of clergy, army, and people met in the old imperial palace, elected Sergius, and carried him into the Lateran. Theodore yielded. Paschal held out until the exarch arrived, took the gold anyway, and confirmed Sergius, who was consecrated on 15 December 687.

The reign's crisis came from Constantinople. In 692 Justinian II's council in the domed hall of the palace, the Quinisext, issued a hundred and two canons on discipline, several aimed at Roman custom, permitting married clergy, forbidding the Saturday fast, and ranking Constantinople equal with Rome, and sent them for signature. Sergius refused, saying he would rather die. The emperor sent an officer, Zacharias, to arrest him. The militias of Ravenna and the Pentapolis marched on Rome to prevent it, surrounded the Lateran, and the Liber Pontificalis says Zacharias hid under the pope's bed until Sergius went out and calmed the troops. Justinian was deposed and his nose slit three years later.

He died on 8 September 701 and was buried in Saint Peter's. His feast is that day.