This pope got carried away

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

	St. Gregory III When: died 741 Where: Rome (born in Syria) What: Pope Feast: Dec. 10

We've all seen the images of football coaches being carried off the field on the shoulders of their jubilant players after a big game. But imagine choosing a pope that way.

That's exactly what happened with Pope Gregory III. On Feb. 11, 731, during the funeral procession for Pope Gregory II, the crowd carried away the Syrian-born priest - who was widely respected in Rome as a holy and learned priest - and proclaimed him pope.

Immediately, the new pontiff inherited a problem from his predecessor: Emperor Leo the Iconoclast opposed the veneration of sacred images.

Gregory III responded by speaking against the emperor and calling two synods in Rome where the clergy and lay people condemned this belief - iconoclasm - as a heresy and ordered the excommunication of anyone who either spoke against the practice or destroyed the images.

The emperor responded by sending a fleet to Rome to arrest the pope and bring him back to Constantinople, but the ships were lost in a storm at sea. So instead, he seized the papal estates in Calabria and Sicily and gave the patriarch of Constantinople jurisdiction over some provinces the pope was in charge of.

Gregory also sent St. Willibald to assist St. Boniface in the German missions. And he completed rebuilding the wall around Rome, a project begun by his predecessor.

In 731, he addressed a problem in Germany when he sent a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz reminding Christians there that the church forbid them selling their Christian slaves to pagans to use in sacrifices.

When the Lombards again threatened to attack Rome, Gregory sought help from Charles Martel, who ruled the Merovingian Franks from 719 to 741, rather than from the emperor in Constantinople.

St. Gregory died weeks after the death of Charles Martel.

His life teaches us a number of lessons, including how much say the laity of his time had in the church, both in electing him as the pope and in the decisions of the two Roman synods. Gregory also reminds us of the need to follow our consciences, particularly when the consequences might not be pleasant.