Pope Saint Martin I

Pope Saint Martin I (known as Saint Martin, confessor and Pope of Rome in the Eastern Orthodox church) was a 7th century pope who, together with Saint Maximus the confessor, fought against the monothelite heresy.

Monothelitism was the false doctrine that Jesus Christ only had one will, in contrast to orthodox Christian teaching that asserts that Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully divine, and thus possessed both a human will and a divine will. Monothelite theology was developed out of political convenience - it was a compromise theology- a way to placate parts of the Byzantine empire where some people disputed that Christ was fully human and divine. 

In defiance of the Byzantine Roman Emperor Constans II, Saint Martin convened a council that condemned Monothelite teaching. In response the emperor sent soldiers to Rome to abduct him. Saint Martin was taken to Constantinople in chains, treated harshly in prison, subjected to a sham trial and exiled to Cherson (modern-day Crimea) where he soon met his death. Nevertheless, 25 years after he passed, the Sixth Ecumenical convened and vindicated Saint Martin's position, and monothelitism was declared a heresy.   

The Christian Saints Podcast is a joint production of Generative sounds & Paradosis Pavilion with oversight from Fr Symeon Kees

Paradosis Pavilion - https://youtube.com/@paradosispavilion9555

https://www.instagram.com/christiansaintspodcast
https://twitter.com/podcast_saints
https://www.facebook.com/christiansaintspodcast
https://www.threads.net/@christiansaintspodcast

Iconographic images used by kind permission of Nicholas Papas, who controls distribution rights of these images

Prints of all of Nick’s work can be found at Saint Demetrius Press - http://www.saintdemetriuspress.com

All music in these episodes is a production of Generative Sounds
https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com
Distribution rights of this episode & all music contained in it are controlled by Generative Sounds
Copyright 2021 - 2023

Transcript

 God is glorious in his saints! 
 
 Welcome to the Christian Saints Podcast. My name is Darren Ong, recording from Sepang in Malaysia. In this podcast, we explore the lives of the Christian saints, from the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Today, we will commemorate Saint Martin – known as Pope Saint Martin the first in the West, and Saint Martin the Confessor and Pope of Rome in the East. 
 
Saint Martin was born in Tuscany, in Italy and was elected to be Pope in the year 649. This was a time where the Byzantine (Roman) emperor, who at this time was based in Constantinople had enormous influence over the Roman pope. This was also a time when both the church and the Byzantine empire were beset with heresy. 
 
 In Syria and Egypt, the Monophysite heresy was very influential. Monophystism is the idea that Christ only had a divine nature, not a human nature – whereas the Orthodox Christian doctrine asserts in contrast that Christ is fully human and fully divine. But since these monophysite ideas were popular in parts of the Byzantine empire, and conflicts between Orthodox Christians and Monophysites were causing disunity, political leaders of the empire were anxious to play down the controversy.
 
 The Monothelite heresy was an attempt to reach a compromise position between the Monophysites, and the Orthodox or Chalcedonian Christians, who believed correctly that Christ was fully human and fully divine. Monothelite theology stated that Jesus Christ had one will (that is what the word Monothelite means). Still, this conflicted with Orthodox Christian theology, which asserts that Jesus had both a human and divine will – again, it was very important to true Christian theology that Christ is fully human and fully divine
 
 Saint Martin, together with Saint Maximus the Confessor would be the two saints most prominently engaged in this battle against the Monothelite heresy. It can be hard to appreciate today the siginificance of this Monothelite controversy, it can feel a lot like meaningless hair-splitting. But one way to understand it is by quoting this principle by Saint Gregory the Theologian – what he has not assumed has not been healed. Jesus Christ had to take on human nature in its fullness, in order to save it in his death and resurrection. To deny Jesus’ full humanity – including is human will – is to deny that he has the power to save humanity. Father Thomas Hopko explains this very well in his book, the Orthodox Faith:
 
 What was wrong with Monothelitism? Saint Maximus and Saint Martin, together with their staunch supporters, insisted that both Christ’s divine nature and his human nature each have its own proper energy (or activity) and capability/power to will. Christ, in His divine nature, has the same fullness of the divine will, energy, action, operation, and power which the Father and the Holy Spirit also have. And in His human nature, Christ has the same fullness of the human will, energy, action, operation, and power which every other human being has. He must have this key element in human nature, or else, as Saint Gregory the Theologian said in refuting Apollinarianism, “What He has not assumed has not been healed (or saved). ”

Christ has indeed healed and saved every aspect of human nature, including the natural human will, because He assumed every element/aspect of human nature when he became Incarnate. And it is through His genuinely human action, voluntarily submitting his natural human will to His divine will (the will of God), that Jesus Christ, as the new and final Adam, freely accepted crucifixion to liberate all of humanity from sin and death

Unfortunately, leaders of the time favoured political convenience over truth. In 648The Roman emperor Constans II released a document, known as the Typos of Constans forbidding discussion of the matter. In order to to prevent the conflict between the Monothelites and Chalcedonian Christians from disrupting unity in the empire, promising severe punishment on those who continued arguing for or against the Monothelite heresy.
 
 Saint Martin, in his capacity as Pope, courageously defied the emperors’ edict. A year later, in 649 Saint Martin and Saint Maximus the confessor convened the Lateran council of 649 affirming true Christian doctrine, and denouncing the monothelite heresy. Let us read now from some of the canons of that council:
 
If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers, that from two and in two natures substantially united unconfusedly and undividedly there is one and the same Lord and God, Jesus Christ, let him be condemned.

Canon 7. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers, the substantial difference of the natures preserved in Him, unconfusedly and undividedly, let him be condemned.

Canon 8. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers the substantial union of the natures recognized in Him undividedly and unconfusedly, let him be condemned.

Canon 9. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers, the natural properties of His Godhead and of His humanity preserved without diminution and without injury in Him, let him be condemned.

Canon 10. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers two wills of one and the same Christ our God, united uninterruptedly, divine and human, and on this account that through each of His natures the same one of His own free will is the operator [Editors add: operator] of our salvation, let him be condemned.

Canon 11. If anyone does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers two operations of one and the same Christ our God uninterruptedly united, divine and human, from this that through each of His natures He naturally is the same operator of our salvation, let him be condemned.

Canon 12. If anyone according to the wicked heretics confesses one will and one operation of Christ our God, to the destruction of the confession of the holy Fathers and to the denial of the same dispensation of our Savior, let him be condemned.

Canon 13. If anyone according to the wicked heretics, contrary to the doctrine of the Fathers, confesses both one will and one operation, although two wills and two operations, divine and human, have been substantially preserved in union in Christ God, and have been piously preached by our holy Fathers, let him be condemned.

Canon 14. If anyone according to the wicked heretics, together with one will and one operation, which is impiously confessed by the heretics, denies and rejects both two wills and in like manner two operations, that is, divine and human, which are preserved in unity in the very Christ God, and are proclaimed in regard to Him in an orthodox manner by the holy Fathers, let him be condemned.

Canon 15. If anyone according to the wicked heretics unwisely accepts the divine-human operation, which the Greeks call (Greek text deleted),as one operation, but does not confess that it is twofold according to the holy Fathers, that is, divine and human, or that the new application itself of the word “divine-human” which has been used is descriptive of one, but not demonstrative of the marvelous and glorious union of both, let him be condemned.

Canon 16. If anyone according to the wicked heretics in the destruction of the two wills and the two operations, that is, divine and human, preserved essentially in unity in Christ God, and piously preached by the holy Fathers, foolishly connects discords and differences with the mystery of His dispensation, and so attributes the evangelical and apostolic words about the same Savior not to one and the same person and essentially to the same Lord Himself and God, our Jesus Christ, according to blessed Cyril, so that he is shown to be by nature God and likewise man, let him be condemned.

Canon 17. If anyone in word and mind does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers all even to the last portion that has been handed down and preached in the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God, and likewise by the holy Fathers and the five venerable universal Councils, let him be condemned.
 
Both Saint Maximus and Saint Martin would suffer a great deal for their courage. The wicked emperor Constans II sent soldiers to kidnap them both. Here we read from Saint Martin’s own accounts of his arrest:
 
 Then I went from the church... in which army had confined me by use of weapons, in the presence of the exarch and Theodore the chamberlain and the clergy, he had said in a loud voice: “May he be anathema, whoever said or that Martin changed the faith even by one letter or is going to change it, and may they be anathema who have not remained until death in their right faith.” ...And I want you, most beloved brother, to know what you signalled about the faith, and the false slanders which they bring forward against the truth, that with the assistance of your prayers and those of all the faithful Christians who are with you, both in life and death I will defend the faith of our salvation, and, as the blessed apostle Paul teaches, for me Christ is life, and death is profit (Phil. 1:21).
 
 
 ***
 And so I was lying in front of the altar of the church on my little bed, and it was not yet past noon, when look, an army came with them into the church, concealed in shadow, all holding their spears and swords, or rather with their bows ready together with their shields. And such deeds were done there as should not even be spoken of. For indeed as leaves fall, shaken from the trees when the wind blows strongly in the winter season, so the candles of the holy church were knocked down by (their) weapons. And when they were cast down onto the pavement they were snuffed out, and there was heard a sound like a dreadful thunderclap in the same church, both from the clashing of weapons and from the number of candlesticks’? they smashed. Immediately upon their entry an order was issued by Calliopas to the priests and deacons, in which the deposition of my humble self was contained, on the grounds that | had snatched the episcopate contrary to the provisions of canon law and without right, and I was not worthy to be installed in the apostolic see, but in every way fit to be taken to this royal city while a bishop was substituted in my place. That has never yet happened, and I hope that it never has to happen, because in the absence of the pontiff, the archdeacon and the archpriest and the primicerius take the place of the pontiff. While these events were being stirred up therefore, what had been done concerning the faith ve already made clear to you. But because we were not prepared to fight back, I judged it infinitely better to die than to spill the blood of anyone on the ground. This indeed was done and without danger,°! with no few evils carried out which were not pleasing to God. 8. And so in the same hour in fact I gave myself up to be delivered before the emperor, and to offer no resistance.
 
These translations of Saint Martin’s writings were produced by Prof Bronwen Neil.

Saint Martin was taken by ship from Rome to Constantinople, suffering abuse and deprivation the whole time from the guards. In Constantinople, Saint Marin was subjected to a sham trial, where among other things he was falsely accused of conspiring with the Muslim invaders who were threatening the Byzantine empire. In Constantinople, Saint Martin rotted in prison where the abuses continued. Even Patriarch Paul of Constantinople, though he was a supporter of the Monothelites, was horrified at the treatment of Saint Martin and urged the emperor to stop tormenting him
 
 Ultimately, Saint Martin was exiled to Cherson, modern-day Crimea, which was a backwater of the Byzantine empire. Here, Saint Martin eventually pass. This text, known as the Confessio of Saint Martin, accounts his miserable last days, until his death in 655.

Although he was in a state of great affliction and placed in

exile, the same man, our most holy father who has often been

mentioned, asked for supplies of any kind, because of the many

frequent and serious physical troubles and all kinds of deprivations

of that area, for the reason that nothing was available there, notably

wheat which existed there in name but could not be found. For

this reason he wrote, swearing on oath, that when a boat came there

and had a little wheat in exchange for salt, he was barely able to
 buy from him one bushel of wheat for four gold coins, and

this with many entreaties. But his holy soul wrote of various

deprivations that he suffered there, oppressed not only by physical

deprivations, but also by the evils of the inhabitants and rulers

there such that he, completely destroyed, was withering away in a

much worse way, at the advice, of course, of those ruling in

Byzantium….
 And the same most holy, thrice blessed apostolic pope Martin, truly a new confessor and martyr for Christ our God, died in the same exile in Cherson, according to his request to the Lord God which he offered him with tears when he left the boat and trod on that land, that is, that he might end his life there, fightin the good fight, completing the journey of martyrdom and keeping good faith, on the sixteenth of September, the day on which the most precious and blessed memory of Euphemia — the most happy martyr and guardian of the correct faith — is celebrated according to the yearly cycle, in the fourteenth indiction. And buried in the tombs of the saints, almost a mile outside he was the city walls of Cherson, in the most precious and revered shrine of the most holy and worshipped above all the saints, most chaste and immaculate and thoroughly blessed and most glorious and most excellent of all created beings, most full of grace, bringing and bestowing joy, our lady, who is properly in nature and truth the one God-bearer, the eternally virgin Mary who is called Blachernes. He was made an example to be followed by all who have chosen to live well and to strive to the end, and have wished for what is most truly the truth. By the intercessions of this virgin and_ this confessor, may Christ our true God and Saviour, who proceeded from her — ineffably and without seed — for the sake of the human race, guard us and keep us safe, along with all who listen faithfully, and all people whom he has secured to purity of faith and conduct, in peace and perfect love and all justice up to the end. To the one who has one substance in divinity with God the father and the Holy Spirit, equal honour, the same power, kingdom without end, eternal rule, perpetual dominion, continual glory, the same majesty, through the ages everlasting, amen.
Even after the death of Saint Martin and his collaborator Saint Maximus the confessor, who also died in exile, the Monothelite heresy ultimately failed. The Muslim invaders conquered Egypt and Syria, the parts of the Byzantine empire where the Monothelite heretics were most powerful. Thus there was no longer any reason for the Byzantine emperors to continue advocating for this bizarre false theology. In the Sixth Ecunemical Council in the year 680, 25 years after Saint Martin’s death. The Emperor Constans’ son and successor, the Emperor (and Saint) Constantine IV called the council to settle the Monothelite controversy once and for all, and the council concluded with this final defeat of the Monothelite heresy:
 
"Christ had two natures with two activities: as God working miracles, rising from the dead and ascending into heaven; as Man, performing the ordinary acts of daily life. Each nature exercises its own free will." Christ's divine nature had a specific task to perform and so did His human nature. Each nature performed those tasks set forth without being confused, subjected to any change or working against each other. The two distinct natures and related to them activities were mystically united in the one Divine Person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Saint Martin’s did not live to see this victory, but his courage continues to be an inspiration many centuries later. He is celebrated as a Saint in every Christian tradition that venerates saints, and his feast day is on April 13.
 Pope Pius VII acknowledged Saint Martin in his 1800 encyclical Diu Satis:
 
Indeed, the famous Martin who long ago won great praise for this See, commends faithfulness and fortitude to Us by his strengthening and defense of the truth and by the endurance of labors and pains. He was driven from his See and from the City, stripped of his rule, his rank, and his entire fortune. As soon as he arrived in any peaceful place, he was forced to move. Despite his advanced age and an illness which prevented his walking, he was banished to a remote land and repeatedly threatened with an even more painful exile. Without the assistance offered by the pious generosity of individuals, he would not have had food for himself and his few attendants. Although he was tempted daily in his weakened and lonely state, he never surrendered his integrity. No deceit could trick, no fear perturb, no promises conquer, no difficulties or dangers break him.
 
And in this age of rampant disinformation and fake news, where again the leaders of our world disregard the truth in favour of political convenience, may the example and courage of Saint Martin continue to inspire us today.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Christian saints podcast. Look for the Christian Saints podcast page on Facebook or Instagram, or look for us on Twitter at podcast_saints. All music in this episode was composed by my good friend, James John Marks of Generative sounds. Please check out his music at https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com/
 
Let us not think that his conflict with the Byzantine emperor is emblematic of a struggle between the Eastern and Western church. He is celebrated rightly in the Orthodox Christian East as well, in Moscow there is a church dedicated to him, the Church of Saint Martin the Confessor and Pope of Rome. And there is an Eastern Orthodox troparion dedicated to him – so let us end our episode with this hymn.
 
You strengthened the Church with true doctrines, O godly-wise Hierarch Martin; / you confessed the two natures of Christ and vanquished heresy. / O venerable Father, / entreat Christ God that He may grant us great mercy.