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The date of his birth is
unknown; he died in April, May, or June, 824. He was the son
of a Roman named Bonosus. While still young he joined the
Roman clergy and was taken into the papal patriarchate
(Lateran Palace) where he was instructed in the Divine
Service and the Holy Scripture.
Leo III
having appointed him superior of the monastery of St.
Stephen near the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, he
took care of the pilgrims who came to Rome. On the death of
Stephen
IV (24 January, 817) Paschal was unanimously chosen as
his successor. On the following day he was consecrated and
enthroned. He entered into relations with Emperor Louis,
sending him several ambassadors in rapid succession. In 817
he received from the emperor a document, "Pactum
Ludovicianum", confirming the rights and possessions of the
Holy
See. This document with later amendments is still extant
(cf. especially Sickel, "Das Privileg Ottos I für die
römische Kirche", Innsbruck, 1883, 50 sqq., 174 sqq.).
Paschal remained on friendly terms with the Frankish
nobility and sent a special legation with rich gifts to the
marriage of King Lothair I, son of Emperor Louis. In spring,
823, Lothair went to Rome and on 5 April he was solemnly
crowned emperor by Paschal. Although the pope himself
opposed the sovereignty of the Frankish emperors over Rome
and Roman territory, high officials in the papal palace,
especially Primicerius Theodore and his son-in-law Leo
Nomenculator, were at the head of the party which supported
the Franks, and advocated the supremacy of the emperor.
Shortly after the departure of King Lothair in 823, both
these officials were blinded and killed by the pope's
servants. Paschal himself was accused of being the
originator of this deed, but he cleared himself of suspicion
by an oath. The ambassadors sent to Rome by Emperor Louis to
investigate the affair could not punish the perpetrators, as
the pope declared the murdered officials guilty of treason.
Paschal supported new missionary expeditions which went out
from the Frankish Empire. He sent a letter of introduction
to Bishop Halitgar of Cambria, and appointed Archbishop Ebo
of Rheims as papal legate to the pagan countries in Northern
Europe.
In 814 under Leo the
Armenian, the
Iconoclastic controversy broke out with renewed violence
in the Byzantine Empire.
Theodore of Studium, the great champion of orthodoxy,
wrote repeatedly to Pope Paschal, who encouraged him to
persevere. At the same time Theodosius of Constantinople,
unlawfully made patriarch by Emperor Leo, sent a legation to
the pope. The latter, however, remained loyal to the cause
of
Theodore of Studium, and dispatched legates to Leo to
win him from the
Iconoclasts, but without success. Numerous monks who had
been driven out of Greece by Leo came to Rome where the pope
received them kindly, assigning them places in the
newly-erected monasteries, such as St. Praxedis, St.
Cecilia, Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, near the Lateran Palace.
Paschal was very active in completing, restoring, and
beautifying churches and monasteries. The basilicas of St.
Praxedis, St. Cecilia, and S. Maria in Dominica were
completely rebuilt by him. The mosaics, which at that time
ornamented the apses of these three churches as well as the
chapel of St. Zeno in St. Praxedis, demonstrate to-day the
deterioration of this art. In St. Peter's he erected chapels
and altars, in which the remains of martyrs from the Roman
catacombs, especially those of Sts. Processus and Marinianus,
were placed. He also placed the
relics
of many Roman martyrs in the church of St. Praxedis where
their names are still legible. The discovery of the relies
of St. Cecilia and companions, and their translation to the
new church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, are well described
in "Liber Pontificalis" (cf. Kirsch, "Die hl. Cäcilia in der
römischen Kirche des Altertums", Paderborn, 1910). He made
great improvements in the choir of the church of S. Maria
Maggiore. Paschal was interred in the church of St. Praxedis,
and is honoured as a saint on 14 May. |
