Pope Saint Martin I

Pope Saint Martin I (649-55) convened a council which condemned the teaching of Monothelism. The Byzantine emperor sent soldiers to kidnap the Pope from the Lateran Basilica. He died shortly thereafter, tortures and cruel treatment having taken their toll. He is the last of the early popes to be venerated as a martyr.
Pope St. Celestine V

Pope St. Celestine V

He was the eleventh of twelve children. His father died early, and his mother raised him with an influence towards a religious vocation.  When...

Pope Saint Leo IX

Pope Saint Leo IX (1049-1054) worked for reform in the Church chiefly against simony, concubinage, and lay investiture. Upon his election to the Papacy he entered Rome as a simple traveler, and became known as the Pilgrim Pope.

Pope Saint Celestine V

Pope Saint Celestine V reigned a mere five months. The primary objective of his pontificate was to reform clergy. He abdicated on 13 December 1294, the last pope to do so until Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope St. Sylvester

Pope St. Sylvester, whom God appointed to govern his holy church in the first years of her temporal prosperity and triumph over her persecuting...
Pope St. Leo IX

Pope St. Leo IX

Pope St. Leo IX was the first pope who worked for reform in the Church. He was born in 1002 and given the name...
Bl. Pope John XXIII

Blessed Pope John XXIII

Although few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible....
Pope St. Martin I

Pope St. Martin I

When Martin I became pope in 649, Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine empire and the patriarch of Constantinople was the most influential...

Pope St. Hyginus

Pope Saint Hyginus was bishop of Rome from about 138 to about 140. He was born in Athens, Greece at an unknown date. During...

Pope Saint Cletus

Pope Saint Cletus, the third Pope, governed the Roman Church from about 76 to about 88 during the reigns of the Emperor Vespasian and of Domitian.