AGATHO, POPE, ST.

Pontificate: June 27, 678 to Jan. 10, 681. He helped conclude the struggle against monothelitism, supporting the council convened by constantine iv pogonatus, 680–681 (see constantinople iii, council of). Agatho achieved fullest Western participation through local synods in Milan, England, Gaul, and in Rome (Easter, 680), where 125 bishops, mostly from Italy, met and appointed three legates to Constantinople. Presiding over the council, which also condemned honorius i, they signed its acts and delivered a letter from the Roman synod describing the lack of clerical education resulting from poverty in the western Church and the consequent obligations upon clerics to support themselves. A second letter from Agatho to Constantine IV, inspired by the Tome of leo i, combined clear teaching with a firm proclamation of Roman infallibility. He likewise praised Constantine's toleration of Monothelites. Agatho upheld Bishop wilfrid of york's appeal to Rome against his metropolitan's unexpected division of Wilfrid's diocese, sent the archcantor John to introduce the Roman liturgy into England, secured the remission of an imperial tax on newly elected popes, and regularized the See of ravenna.

Feast: Jan. 10.

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[c. m. aherne]