Pope Sabinian (Latin:Sabinianus) was thebishop of Rome from 13 September 604 to his death on 22 February 606. His pontificate occurred during theEastern Roman domination of thepapacy. He was the fourth formerapocrisiarius to Constantinople to be elected pope.
Sabinian was born atBlera (Bieda) nearViterbo. He had been sent byPope Gregory I, who had a high opinion of him, asapocrisiarius to the imperial court inConstantinople. In 595, Gregory was angered by Sabinian's lack of resolution in discussion withEmperor Maurice about the disputed assumption of the title "ecumenical patriarch" byJohn IV of Constantinople. Sabinian was then recalled and sent on a mission toGaul the same year.[1] He returned toRome in 597.[2]
Sabinian waselected to succeed Gregory probably in March 604, but had to wait forimperial ratification before beingconsecrated in September.[1] During his pontificate, Sabinian was seen as a counterfoil to Gregory I. TheLiber pontificalis praises him for "filling the church with clergy", in contrast to Gregory, who tended to fill ecclesiastical positions with monks.[2][1]
Sabinian incurred unpopularity by his unseasonable economies,[3] although theLiber pontificalis states that he distributed grain during a famine at Rome under his pontificate. Whereas Gregory distributed grain to the Roman populace as invasion loomed, when the danger had passed Sabinian sold it to them. Because he was unable or unwilling to allow the people to have the grain for little or nothing, there grew up in later times a number of legends in which his predecessor was represented punishing him for avarice. Sabinian died 22 February 606. His funeral procession through the city had to change course to avoid hostile Romans.[4]
Onofrio Panvinio, in his 1557Epitome pontificum Romanorum, attributes to Sabinian the introduction of the custom of ringingbells at thecanonical hours and the celebration of theEucharist,[3] hence expressions such aso'clock (Latinclocca: a bell). The first attribution of this was inGuillaume Durand's thirteenth-centuryRationale Divinorum Officiorum.[2]
^abcAttwater, Aubrey (1939).A Dictionary of Popes: From Peter to Pius XII. Oxford University Press. p. 65.ISBN0199295816.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Ekonomou, Andrew J. 2007.Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752. Lexington Books.ISBN978-0739119778
Maxwell-Stuart, P. G.Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present, Thames & Hudson, 2002, p. 54.ISBN0-500-01798-0.
