Zacharias (d. 752), pope. By birth a Greek from Calabria, Zacharias became a deacon at Rome, and on the death of Gregory III was elected pope in 741. He persuaded the Lombard Liutprand to restore all the Roman territory he had occupied during thirty years, and to desist from besieging Ravenna. He attacked the iconoclastic policy of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, but built up a cordial relationship with the Franks, largely through Boniface, with whom he had a lively correspondence, part of which survives, over several years. These give the impression of great vigour and deep sympathy. He told Boniface to suspend polygamous and murderous priests, to abolish superstitious practices even if these were practised at Rome, to recognize the baptisms of those whose Latin was extremely inaccurate; with his synod of 745 he condemned the heretics Clement and Adalbert who had caused much trouble to Boniface. His share in the transfer of political power from the Merovingian to the Carolingian line, was important and significant. While he was pope, Zacharias translated the Dialogues of Gregory the Great into Greek, which enjoyed a wide diffusion. Feast: 15 March (in the East, 5 September), but no really early evidence for the cult survives.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Mar. II (1668), 406–11; M. Tangl (ed.), Bonifatii et Lullae Epistolae (M.G.H., 1916); W. Levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (1956); C. H. Talbot, Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany (1954). O.D.P., pp. 89–90
