Pope Severinus
7th-century pope
Pope Severinus (died 2 August 640) was the bishop of Rome elected in October 638. He was caught up in a power struggle with Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who pressured him to accept Monothelitism. Severinus refused, which for over eighteen months hindered his efforts to obtain imperial recognition of his election. His pontificate was finally sanctioned on 28 May 640, but he died two months later.
Early career
Severinus was a Roman. His father was named Avienus, according to the Liber Pontificalis. The name of the father suggests descent from members of the Roman Senate. A previous Avienus was Roman consul in 501. Already an old man, Severinus was elected to succeed Honorius I as pope in mid-October 638.
Monothelite controversy
Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople had drawn up the Ecthesis in response to the orthodox synodical letter of Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pope Severinus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.