Pope Donus (died on 11 April 678) was thebishop of Rome from 676 to his death on 11 April 678. Few details survive about him or his achievements beyond what is recorded in theLiber Pontificalis.
Donus was the son of a Roman named Maurice.[1] He becamepope on 2 November 676, having beenselected to succeedAdeodatus II.[2] By that time, Donus was already elderly.[1]
Donus expanded the clergy ofRome with twelve new priests and five deacons. He also consecrated six bishops for varioussees.[3] One of these may have been Vitalianus of Arezzo.[4] He had theatrium ofOld St. Peter's Basilica paved with large blocks of white marble, and restored other churches ofRome, notably the church of St. Euphemia on the Appian Way and theBasilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.[5] Donus was shocked to discover a colony ofNestorian monks in Boetianum, a Syrian monastery in Rome. He gave their monastery to Roman monks and dispersed them through the various religious houses of the city in the hope that they would acceptChalcedonian Christianity. The Nestorians were possibly refugees fleeing theMuslim conquest of the Levant.[6]
During the pontificate of Donus, Archbishop Reparatus of Ravenna returned to the obedience of theHoly See, thus ending the schism created by Archbishop Maurus, who had aimed at making Ravennaautocephalous.[7] Donus' relations with Constantinople tended towards the conciliatory. On 10 August 678, EmperorConstantine IV addressed him as "the most holy and blessed archbishop of our ancient Rome and the universal pope," hoping to attract him to engage in negotiations with thepatriarch of Constantinople and theMonothelites.[8] He ordered thatPope Vitalianus' name be put back in thediptychs of those bishops in communion with Constantinople, an act which caused him a great deal of trouble from the Monothelites and PatriarchTheodore I of Constantinople.[9]
Donus died on 11 April 678 and was buried the same day in Old St. Peter's Basilica. He was succeeded byAgatho.[10]
^Duchesne,Liber Pontificalis I, p. 348, who conjectures in note 2 that the church in question was not the Basilica, but instead a small church commemorating the parting of Peter and Paul on their way to execution. Mann, pp. 20–21.
^John Moorhead (27 Nov 2014).The Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity. Routledge.ISBN9781317578260....the advances of Persians and then Arabs in the middle east that were responsible for the coming of Maximos to Africa and, presumably, Theodore of Tarsus to Rome, could easily have brought many more, such as the Syrian monks whom pope Donus discovered were Nestorians.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Donus".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Doglu, Paolo. "Il papato tra l'impero bizantino e l'Occidente nel VII e VIII secolo," in:Gabriele De Rosa and Giorgio Cracco, ed. (2001).Il papato e l'Europa. Soveria Mannelli (Catanzaro): Rubbettino Editore. pp. 55–79, at pp. 61–64.ISBN978-88-498-0222-1.
