Deepertruth: St. Martin I, Last of the Early Popes venerated as a Martyr

649 A.D. was a time of great turmoil in the world. The Arab-Byzantine war was in full swing as the Arab Naval forces conquered Cyprus as Abdullah ibn Saad sought to exert the Moslem world in the Middle East. The governor of Syria, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan mobilizes a navy that challenges the Byzantine Empire in the Aegean Sea with Christian slaves. The spread of Islam was in full force beginning the threatening of the Christian World. The Persian hordes destroyed the Holy Shrines where they took power.

On May 14 649, Pope Theodore I (the 72 successor of St. Peter) dies who was known to have been a true Shephard for the Catholic Faith caring for the poor and destitute. On July 5, 649 A.D., St. Martin I was elected as the 73rd successor of St. Peter who had to deal with a terrible heresy call Monothelitism that maintained Jesus Christ had but one will. This was a problem primarily from the Eastern lung of the Church. The Lateran Council (649) was called originally by Pope Theodore which St. Martin I convened the Council beginning on October 5 to condemn this heresy. The Council of Constantinople (the sixth ecumenical council 680-681) condemned Monothelitism.