Pope Innocent I

Innocent I ( * before 401; † March 12 417) was Pope from December 21 to March 12 401 417

Life and worship

He was probably the son of an Innocent of Albano ( as his biographer in the Liber Pontificalis ) or the son of his predecessor Anastasius I ( as a contemporary of Jerome). His pontificate was overshadowed by the fall of the Western Roman Empire and of the siege and sack of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric I in 410

In his letters to the bishops Victricius of Rouen, Exuperius of Toulouse, Decentius Gubbio and others it is clear that he wanted to extend the supremacy of Rome over the universal Church. He urged the Western Church discipline after the Roman model align and claimed the supreme doctrinal decision for all important questions, the causa maiores. Their apostolic chair He had less success in the East ( intervention for John Chrysostom, * 344/345, † 407), although he tried to address the grounds of the papal vicariate of Thessalonica the influence of Constantinople. His name means: The Innocents (latin ).

The relics of St. Innocent were combined with those of his predecessor Anastasius made ​​after prior approval by Pope Sergius II 846 by the Saxon duke Liudolf to Gander home where they rest today in the crypt of the former collegiate church. The feast day is July 28.