St. Evaristus: 99- 108 AD

Pope St. Evaristus, known also as Aristus, was the fifth Pope to govern the Catholic Church. He was born in Betlehem and had Hellenic Jewish origins. Pope Evaritus held office during the reign of Roman Emperor Domitian and is said to have divided Rome into several parishes, assigning a priest to each, and appointed seven deacons for the city.

Little is known about this pope, but rumor has it that Pope Evaristus is accorded the title of martyr, but there is no evidence to confirm this claim. It is probable that he was buried in Vatican near St. Peter’s tomb. His feast day is October 26th.

St. Anicetus: 150-167 AD

Pope Anicetus came from the city of Homs, in Syria. His name is Greek for the ‘unconquered’. During his reign, there was a controversy over the day of Passover. St. Polycarp came to the pope to discuss the date which he had celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan (April). The roman church however was accustomed to celebrate it on a Sunday, with the death of Jesus being on the preceding Friday. Though the two never came to an agreement over the date, Pope Anicetus granted St. Polycarp to continue practicing according to his own tradition in the church of Smyrna. Though he maintained the date of Easter to be on a Sunday, he did not insist that other churches follow this tradition as well.

Pope Anicetus actively opposed heresy. According to Liberal Pontificalis, a book of biographies of popes, Anicetus forbade priests to have long hair. This was probably due to the association of long hair with the Gnostics, whom the pope strongly objected.

His feast day is celebrated on the 17th of April, which is also presumed to be the date of his death.

John V: 685-686 AD

Pope John V was born in the Turkish city of Antakya, which was then known as Antioch. He was the first of ten Byzantine popes whose papacies were consecutive, and known as the ‘Byzantine Papacy’. His papacy lasted only a little over a year during most of which he was ill and bed-ridden.

His papacy is mostly remembered for his amelioration of relations with Byzantium and the alleviation of taxes on the church. Because he was favored by Emperor Constantine, he decreased the tax that was imposed on papal patrimonies such as Sicily and Calabria, and abolished other taxes. John V was known for his generosity and the donations he made to other clergy and to the poor.

Sergius I: 687-701 AD

Like John V before him, Pope Sergius I was also a native of Antakya. He is mostly renowned for his rejection of the Quinisext Council that Emperor Justinian wanted him to sign. The Council would have allowed priests to stay married after their ordination, and that made the status of the Patriarch of Constantinople equal to that of the Pope of Rome. This disagreement with the Emperor led him to send someone to Rome in order to abduct the Pope and bring him to Constantinople for trial. However, the exarch, or governor of Ravenna, sent his militia to the aid of the Pope and were able to keep him safe.

Pope Sergius I had good relations with the English. He baptized the King of West Saxons and made sure that St. Wilfred was allowed to maintain his see (or domain of authority). He ordained St. Willibrord and sent to preach to the Frisians- Germanic tribes. Also ordained by him was Berhtwald, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Sisinnius: 708 AD

Not much is known about this Syrian-born pope because his papacy lasted only 3 weeks. Due to his short term he only had a very small number of ecclesiastical acts. The only recorded one is the ordination of a bishop for Corsica.

Though his illness made it impossible for him to even feed himself, he was still known to have a strong character. Before his death he ordered the restoration of the city’s walls.

The donations he made to the papacy were minimal compared to the ones made by other popes. This could suggest that he came from a rather humble background.

Constantine: 708-715 AD

Pope Constantine was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy mentioned above. He was on the other hand, the first pope to carry an Eastern name. He was in fact said to be closer to Constantinople than any other Roman pope.

The amicable relations between the Pope and Prince Justinian II finally led to an agreement between the roman papacy and the Byzantine Empire over the Quinisext Council that previous popes had rejected. Prince Justinian received a communion at the hands of the pope and renewed the privileges of the Roman Church. As for the council, it is estimated that the pope only approved of those clauses that did not contradict the true faith. This seems to have been enough to satisfy the emperor.

When the pope returned to Rome from Constantinople, Prince Justinian was overthrown by Philippicus who was a proponent of Monothelitism- or the view that Jesus has two natures but one will. The pope rejected to cooperate with the new emperor and never mentioned his name during mass, as was custom with his predecessors. This situation only changed after Philippicus was overthrown.

St. Gregory III: 731-741 AD

The latest of Syrian popes, Gregory III was also the last pope to seek the approval of the Byzantine exarches before assuming his position.

During his papacy, Leo III was the Byzantine Emperor. Gregory immediately made an effort to appeal to him to reject iconoclasm, which had been a controversial issue in the empire. In reaction, Leo transferred the ecclesiastical powers over Constantinople to the Patriarch of the city and tried to seize papal patrimonies where he had power in Italy. The pope however, continued to oppose iconoclasm.

His disagreement with Emperor Leo did not stop him from coordinating with the Eastern Empire in order to recapture Ravenna after it had been taken by the Lombards- a tribe that ruled a kingdom in Italy. He also continued the fortification of the walls of Rome in anticipation of this Lombard threat. He even appealed to the Franks who refused to become involved in the conflict. The pope failed to curb the Lombard threat and died in 741.