Papacy began 26 June 684 Successor Pope John V Papacy ended 8 May 685 Predecessor Pope Leo II | Birth name Benedictus Sabellus Posthumous style Saint Name Pope II Term ended May 8, 685 AD | |
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Died May 8, 685 AD, Rome, Italy Similar People Pope Benedict IV, Pope Leo II, Pope Benedict VI, Pope John III, Pope John IV | ||
Pope Benedict II (Latin: Benedictus II) was Pope from 26 June 684 to his death in 685. Pope Saint Benedict II's feast day is May 7.
Biography
Benedict was born in Rome. It is possible that he was a member of the Savelli family, though this is not certain. Sent when young to the schola cantorum, he distinguished himself by his knowledge of the Scriptures and by his singing.
The bishops of Rome were anciently chosen by the clergy and people of Rome, according to the discipline of those times; the Christian emperors were the head of the people, on which account their consent was required. But whilst they resided in the East, this condition produced often long delays and considerable inconveniences. Although chosen in 683, he was not ordained until 684 awaiting the permission of Emperor Constantine IV. According to the Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, he obtained from the Emperor a decree which either abolished imperial confirmations altogether or made them obtainable from the Exarch of Ravenna. This gave the power of confirmations of papal nominations directly to the Church and the people of Rome. Benedict symbolically adopted Constantine's two sons Justinian and Heraclius.
To help to suppress Monothelitism, he endeavoured to secure the subscriptions of the bishops of Hispania to the decrees of the Third Council of Constantinople of 680/1, and to bring about the submission to the decrees of Macarius, the deposed bishop of Antioch.
Restorations of numerous churches in Rome are ascribed to the less than a year's pontificate of Benedict II. After a pontificate of about eleven months, Pope Benedict II died on May 8, 685 and was buried in St. Peter's.