Pope Zachary
Zacharias, (Greek Ζαχαρίας του Πολυχρόνιου; * 679 in Santa Severina, † March 15 752 in Rome) was Pope of the Catholic Church from 741 to 752
The Vita Liber Pontificalis mentions the name of his father, Polychronios, and his membership in the Greek population. Time and place of his birth are unknown; if the family should not have heard the Greek population of Rome, nor would an origin from the Greek settlement areas of southern Italy in question. Probably on 10 December 741 he was appointed as successor Gregory III. consecrated, to which he had a close relationship. He was the last Greek on the Chair of Peter. His knowledge of Latin and Greek language enabled him to translate the Dialogi Gregory the Great into Greek. His private collection of liturgical books, he has donated to the St. Peter's Church.
His diplomatic skills against the Lombard kings owed the region a relatively peaceful time. In the year 751 he legitimized the dismissal of the last Merovingian king, Childeric III. by the Carolingian Pippin III.
Under his pontificate put in 745 established a council that only the biblical testified Archangel Raphael, Michael and Gabriel are likely to be revered as an archangel, but not the only apocryphal testified Uriel. In the year 751 Pope Zacharias had prohibit the consumption of rabbit meat. At that time, the hare was seen as a symbol of fertility because of its highly encourage mating instinct and its multiple offspring and therefore was the church leaders of the consumption of rabbits as immoral and moral hazard.
The improvement of the economic foundations of the Roman Church allowed him to various construction projects at Roman palaces and churches. In the Lateran Palace, seat of the papal administration, he built a ceremonial hall and a tower with bronze doors. Diakonia Church of Santa Maria Antiqua, which had already been decorated by one of its predecessor, the Greek also John VII, with frescoes, he did embellish further: There is also a contemporary fresco has received with his portrait.
His feast day is celebrated in the Catholic Church on March 15, the day he died.