• St. Josaphat (1623). Bishop, Martyr. (Current)
• St. Martin I (654). Martyr, Pope. (Traditional)

ST. MARTIN, who occupied the Roman See from A.D. 649 to 655, incurred the enmity of the Byzantine court by his energetic opposition to the Monothelite heresy, and the Exarch Olympius went so far as to endeavor to procure the assassination of the Pope as he stood at the altar in the church of St. Mary Major; but the would-be murderer was miraculously struck blind, and his master refused to have any further hand in the matter. His successor had no such scruples; he seized Martin, and conveyed him on board a vessel bound for Constantinople. After a three months’ voyage, the island of Naxos was reached, where the Pope was kept in confinement for a year, and finally, in 654, brought in chains to the imperial city. He was then banished to the Tauric Chersonese, where he lingered on for four months in sickness and starvation, till God released him by death on the 12th of November, 655.

REFLECTION: There have been times in the history of Christianity when its truths have seemed on the verge of extinction. But there is one Church whose testimony has never failed: it is the Church of St. Peter, the Apostolic and Roman See. Put your whole trust in her teaching.

WORD OF THE DAY

MONOTHELITISM. A heresy that began in the seventh century out of an attempt to conciliate the Monophysites. The latter confused the idea of personality with the undivided activity of a single will, claiming that there was a kind of divine-human operation in Christ. The Monothelites recognized the orthodox doctrine of Christ’s two natures but taught that these two natures had a common will and a common activity. This view was urged by Sergius (d. 638), Patriarch of Constantinople, who had brought Pope Honorius to support his cause. The East was divided in controversy for over a half century, until the Sixth General Council held at Constantinople condemned Monothelitism in 681. (Etym. Greek monos, single + thelein, will.)

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)