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Zachary I
741-752

This pope, son of Polycronius, a native of Syria, canon regular, then a Benedictine monk, was created cardinal-priest by Gregory III. Others say that he belonged to the Pontina family of San Severino, in Calabria, and was the fourth Neapolitan pope.

He was elected pontiff on the 30th of November, 741. As we have seen at the close of the reign of Gregory III, the consent of the exarch of Ravenna was not awaited, and the consecration of the pontiff took place without that formality, which thenceforth was totally abolished.

Saint Zachary confirmed the erection of three bishoprics established in Germany by Saint Boniface; subsequently he confirmed the archbishopric of Mainz, to which the same Saint Boniface gave as suffragans the bishops of Langres, of Cologne, of Worms, of Spires, and of Strasburg.

For nearly two years the Lombards had occupied four towns of the Papal States—Orta, Amelia, Bornazzo, and Bieda. Pope Zachary went to Terni to have a meeting with King Luitprand, still alarmed by the victories of Charles Martel, and the pope did not return to Rome until he had obtained the restitution of these towns one after the other, and even of some provinces also, including Sabina, which, thirty years previously, had been wrested from Pope Constantine.

In 743 Zachary, leaving the government of Rome to Stephen, patrician and duke, named by the Holy See, made a journey to Ravenna, again to resist the attacks of the lieutenants of Luitprand. From Ravenna he proceeded to visit King Luitprand himself at Pavia. The king could not resist the eloquence and the energetic representations of the pope, who reproached him with the violation of his promises made after the battle of Poitiers, with a continual breach of faith, and with impious and sacrilegious conduct. Luitprand was convinced, and immediately restored all the usurped territories. After the death of Luitprand, Rachis, Duke of Forli, succeeded to the Lombard throne, and Zachary proceeded to visit that prince at Perugia, to induce him to raise his siege of that city. The language of the pope was so persuasive that the prince not only desisted from his projects, but also abdicated his throne in favor of his brother, and retired into the monastery of Monte Cassino. Zachary exempted that monastery from the jurisdiction of the bishops, rendering it subject only to the authority of the Holy See. We have seen the holy and admirable union which was established between Gregory II, Gregory III, and Charles Martel. It will astonish no one, therefore, that Zachary was warmly attached to the son of the conqueror of the Saracens, the son of that great man who hurled them from France, and thus saved that kingdom from contact with the pestiferous errors of Mahometanism.

Boniface consulted Zachary with the most entire confidence. Sometimes, in Germany, priests who were rather illiterate administered baptism in terms that were not correct, and Boniface cited some examples. Zachary replied that the baptism should be deemed valid even when the priest had said words grammatically so faulty as "Baptizo te in nomine patria, et filia, et Spiritus Sancta." The pope also ordered that the priests could not celebrate the holy mysteries while leaning on a stick or having the head covered; and he commanded that churchmen should never appear in the street without the habit commonly called a soutane.

In 745 Zachary forbade names to be given to any of the angels, except Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. On the authority of some illuminated manuscripts, it has been maintained that four other angels were invoked—Uriel, Saltiel, Geudiel, and Barachiel. But the invocation of these four names was subsequently deemed to be a remnant of the superstition of the Basilians. The same prohibition appears in the acts of the synods of Orleans and Laodicea, and in the Capitularies of Charlemagne.

Saint Boniface, in his intimate correspondence with the pope, complained that one of the Roman clergy, named Virgilius, endeavored to create a variance between him and Odilo, Duke of Bavaria; and that this priest, moreover, taught many errors, especially these: "That there was another world, other men under the earth, another sun, and another moon." Zachary ordered him to reprimand Virgilius, and asked Odilo to send him to Rome to have his doctrine examined. Modern writers err in saying that Zachary condemned the opinion of the antipodes. He had in view only certain heretics who maintained the existence of a race of men not descended from Adam and not ransomed by Christ.

Zachary set free many slaves whom the Venetian merchants would have taken to Africa to sell them to the infidels. The Venetians appeared to depart from the system of moderation which had led them to be contented with a wise mode of internal administration under the protection of the pontiffs.

The ambition of wealth made some merchants of that city desire to push their commercial relations to distant parts at all risks. But commerce is not like industry: if in many points it shows egotism, it tempers this defect by a national and patriotic spirit that makes it tolerable. The commerce of the Venetians showed itself from the first, what it is too frequently everywhere, absolutely cosmopolitan and without respect for religion and one of its noblest doctrines, that which condemns slavery. Zachary for a moment arrested this scandal.

Saint Zachary governed the Church ten years, three months, and a few days. In three ordinations he created eighty-five bishops, thirty priests, and five deacons. He died on the 14th of March, 752, and was buried at the Vatican on the following day.

Anastasius the Librarian praises this pope for great affability, and for moderation, piety, and a spirit of compassion and forgiveness.

This biographical data is from "The Lives and Times of the Popes" by The Chevalier Artaud De Montor. Published by The Catholic Publication Society of New York in ten volumes in 1911. The pictures, included in the volumes, were reproduced from " Effigies Pontificum Romanorum Dominici Basae."