Zachary

• Type — Pope • Honorific Prefix — Pope Saint • Name — Zachary • Title — Bishop of Rome • Church — Church of Rome • Term Start — 3 or 5 December 741 • Term End — 15 March 752 • Predecessor — Gregory III • Successor — Stephen II • Consecration — 4 or 6 December 741 • Cardinal — 12 April 732 • Created Cardinal By — Gregory III • Born — 679 • Birthplace — Santa Severina, Calabria, Eastern Roman Empire • Died — 15 March 752 (aged 72–73) • Place of death — Rome, Duchy of Rome • Feast Day — 15 March • Venerated — Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church

Zachary was born into a family of Greek origin, in the Calabrian town of Santa Severina. He was most probably a deacon of the Roman Church and as such signed the decrees of the Roman council of 732. He was selected to succeed Gregory III as pope on 3 December or 5 December 741.

Gregory III's alliance with the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto put papal cities at risk when the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento rebelled. Zachary turned to King Liutprand the Lombard directly. Out of respect for Zachary the king restored to the church of Rome all the territory seized by the Lombards and sent back the captives without ransom. The contemporary history (Liber pontificalis) dwells chiefly on Zachary's personal influence with Liutprand, and with his successor Ratchis. At the request of the Exarchate of Ravenna, Zachary persuaded Liutprand to abandon a planned attack on Ravenna and to restore territory seized from the city. Zachary corresponded with Archbishop Boniface of Mainz, counseling him about dealing with disreputable prelates such as Milo, bishop of Reims and Trier. "As for Milo and his like, who are doing great injury to the church of God, preach in season and out of season, according to the word of the Apostle, that they cease from their evil ways." At Boniface's request, Zachary confirmed three newly established bishoprics of Würzburg, Büraburg, and Erfurt. In 742 he appointed Boniface as papal legate to the Concilium Germanicum, hosted by Carloman, one of the Frankish mayors of the Palace. In a later letter Zachary confirmed the metropolitans appointed by Boniface to Rouen, Reims and Sens. In 745 Zachary convened a synod in Rome to discourage a tendency toward the worship of angels. Zachary corresponded with temporal rulers as well. Answering a question from the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Pepin the Short, who planned to usurp the Frankish throne from the puppet-king Childeric III, Zachary rendered the opinion that it was better that he should be king who had the royal power than he who had not. Shortly thereafter, the Frankish nobles decided to abandon Childeric, the last Merovingian king, in favor of Pepin. Zachary remonstrated with the Byzantine emperor Constantine V on his iconoclastic policies. Zachary built the original church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva over an ancient temple to Minerva near the Pantheon. He also restored the decaying Lateran Palace, moving the relic of the head of Saint George to the church of San Giorgio al Velabro. After Venetian merchants bought many slaves in Rome to sell to the Muslims of Africa, Zachary forbade such traffic and then paid the merchants their price, giving the slaves their freedom.