Pope Agapetus I
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Pope Saint Agapetus I |
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| Papacy began | 13 May 535 |
| Papacy ended | 22 April 536 |
| Predecessor | John II |
| Successor | Silverius |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rome, Ostrogothic Kingdom |
| Died | 22 April 536 Constantinople, Eastern Roman Empire |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 20 September (West) 17 April (East) |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
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Papal styles of Pope Agapetus I |
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| Reference style | His Holiness |
| Spoken style | Your Holiness |
| Religious style | Holy Father |
| Posthumous style | Saint |
Pope Agapetus I (died 22 April 536) was Pope from 13 May 535 to his death in 536. He is not to be confused with another Saint Agapetus, an Early Christian martyr with the feast day of 6 August.
Agapetus was born in Rome, although his exact date of birth is unknown. He was the son of Gordianus, a Roman priest who had been slain during the riots in the days of Pope Symmachus (term 498–514). The name of his father might point to a familial relation with two other Popes: Felix III (483–492) and Gregory I (590–604). Gregory was a descendant of Felix. Gregory's father, Gordianus, held the position of Regionarius in the Roman Church. Nothing further is known about the position.
Agapetus collaborated with Cassiodorus in founding at Rome a library of ecclesiastical authors in Greek and Latin and helped Cassiodorus with the project of translating the standard Greek philosophers into Latin.
Jeffrey Richards describes him as "the last survivor of the Symmachan old guard", having been ordained as a deacon perhaps as early as 502, during the Laurentian schism. He was elevated from archdeacon to pope in 535. His first official act was to burn, in the presence of the assembled clergy, the anathema which Boniface II had pronounced against the latter's deceased rival Dioscurus on a false charge of simony and had ordered to be preserved in the Roman archives.
He confirmed the decrees of the council of Carthage, after the retaking of North Africa from the Vandals, according to which converts from Arianism were declared ineligible to Holy Orders and those already ordained were merely admitted to lay communion. He accepted an appeal from Contumeliosus, Bishop of Riez, whom a council at Marseilles had condemned for immorality, and he ordered Caesarius of Arles to grant the accused a new trial before papal delegates.
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