Pope Agatho
Agathon († January 10 681 in Rome) was Pope from 678 to 681 His name means " the Good " (Greek ).
He came from Sicily and became a monk. According to legend, he was for three years a stone in his mouth, to learn to be silent.
On 27 June 678, he became the successor to the Donus and continued its policy. So managed Agathon to bring the city of Ravenna, which was independent for 666, again under the sovereignty of the Popes. The most important event of his pontificate was the completion of the Monothelitism - dispute.
Monothelitism dispute
Emperor Constantine IV, Pope Donus invited in August 678, to send three of its own representatives and twelve bishops to Constantinople Opel, to resolve the dispute between the Monothelites, at the top of the Patriarch of Constantinople Opel and Antioch, and the Roman direction, he himself designated as neutral. When the letter came off, the addressee was already dead. Agathon instead held a synod of the whole West, traveled to the March on 25 680 125 bishops to Rome. This reflects the Western Church known for teaching by two-time will of Jesus. A delegation of seven ministers, including three bishops, and some monks should communicate the result to the emperor.
Constantine IV, until then tending to Monothelitism, changed his attitude 680, contrary to expectations and was condemning the Monothelitism ready, whatever it was, that the parts of the empire, where this faith was the most common ( Egypt, Palestine and Syria ) were lost through conquest to the Arabs, while the monotheletische Patriarch Theodore had been replaced by the romfreundlichen Georgios. Konstantin expressed, therefore, that dogmatic discussions for this reason have become superfluous. On September 10, 680 he issued an order to a general synod, which was opened by Constantine Opel already on November 7, under the chairmanship of Constantine IV in the imperial palace and lasted intermittently until September 16, 681. The Patriarch of Antioch, Macarius, a Monothelet, defended his position with fakes that have been identified by the Council, refused the conversion of his heresy and was deposed in March 681.
On 16 September, the Council unanimously decided the condemnation of Monothelitism as heresy. Agathon, who had died on 10 January, she has not experienced. For the first time a pope, Honorius, who had the Monothelitism shown towards conciliatory, the anathema, and thus the curse of the Monothelete heretics fell prey.
The Catholic Church commemorates Pope Agathon on 10 January, the Orthodox Church on February 20.
Pope Agathon is not to be confused with the Coptic Pope Agathon of Alexandria ( 654-673 ).