St. Martin I
Martin · 649 – 655
Condemned Monothelitism at the Lateran Council, was arrested by the emperor, and died in exile -- the last pope venerated as a martyr.
Martin was from Todi in Umbria. He convened the Lateran Council of 649, which condemned both Monothelitism and the imperial edicts supporting it. Emperor Constans II was furious. In 653, imperial soldiers arrested Martin from the Lateran, dragged him to Constantinople, publicly humiliated him, tried him for treason, and exiled him to Crimea. His letters from exile describe hunger, illness, and abandonment. He is the last pope honored as a martyr by the Church. He died in Crimea in 655, broken in body but unbroken in his defense of orthodox Christology.
Arrested at the Altar
Martin knew what was coming. The emperor had already warned him. But he held the council anyway, condemned the heresy, and waited. When the soldiers came, he was too sick to resist. They carried him out of Rome, put him on trial in Constantinople, and sent him to die in Crimea. His letters from exile are among the most painful documents in papal history.