It’s the Feast of St Martin I, 3rd Class, with the color of Red. In this episode: the meditation: “Appropriating the Threefold Efficacy of the Mass”, today’s news from the Church: “Left-wing Parties Once More Fail to Seize Control of Cordoba Cathedral”, a preview of the Sermon: “A Crisis of Faith”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop.
Saint Martin I was a pope who paid dearly for his courage. Born in Umbria at the beginning of the seventh century, he rose through the ranks of the Church as a man of learning, purity, and integrity. Before his election to the papacy in 649, he had already served as papal ambassador to Constantinople, where he saw firsthand the growing tension between the Eastern and Western Churches. It was a time of deep confusion: emperors and patriarchs were promoting a doctrine called Monothelitism, which claimed that Christ had only one will, not both divine and human. For Martin, this was not a minor theological detail. It threatened the very truth of the Incarnation, that Christ is fully God and fully man.
Soon after becoming pope, Martin called the Lateran Council of 649, gathering bishops from across the Christian world to defend the faith. The council condemned Monothelitism and reaffirmed that Christ’s two natures act together in harmony. It was a clear stand for orthodoxy, but it enraged the Byzantine Emperor Constans II, who had hoped to impose peace by silencing both sides. The emperor sent an order for Martin’s arrest, branding him a traitor. For more than a year, the pope managed to evade capture, but in 653 imperial troops broke into the Lateran and dragged the frail pontiff from his bed.
He was taken to Constantinople,...
