POPE JOHN VI, THE 85TH POPE

Pope John VI was born to a family of Greek descent in Ephesus, Turkey probably between 650 and 655, AD. Ephesus was 300 miles from Athens, Greece and 322 miles from the Byzantium capital of Constantinople. He was several weeks by ship from Rome.

By the time he was middle-aged, John was living in Rome. In 700, he was appointed cardinal-deacon by Pope Sergius.  When Sergius died on September 8, 701, it did not take long for the election to be approved. John became Pope John VI on October 30. If the exarch was still approving the elections, it would have been Theophylactos.

However, Theophylactos was in a problem of his own. Around the time of the election of John, the garrison of Ravenna, the seat of the Empire’s exarch, made an attempt on the life of the new exarch. He escaped with soldiers and went to Sicily. Within months, the exarch was given orders by Emperor Tiberius III to cause trouble for the new pontiff. Thus, the chamberlain, patricius and exarch, Theophylactos, took his troops by ship and went to Rome. Romans, being a suspicious lot, seeing the troops approach, called out the militia. Men from the entire area surrounded Rome, to protect it, and settle things with the exarch. John was able to talk the militia into backing off. But they wanted those who had informed against Rome in other dealings with past imperial officials. Some of the men had to be paid off to save the imperial troops.

Unfortunately, Giaulf, the Lombard duke of Benevento, heard about the problems Rome was having with the exarch. This seemed to be the best time to invade the Campania, the area around Rome, and make chaos. He and his troops devastated the countryside. They got within five miles of the walls of Rome and set up camp. With them were hundreds of captives, mostly residents of Campania. The number of warriors and weapons told Pope John that the militia could not possibly win a battle. So John sent priests with ransom money to save the captives. It worked and Giaulf and his men eventually left.

The Lombards had stolen a large swath of papal patrimony, including the Cottian Alps, an area bordering the French Alps. In 703, some of the Lombards attacked Ravenna. King Aripert II, Lombard though he was, refused to help. He wanted good relations with the papacy and the empire. He nursed a friendship with Pope John VI by donating vast tracts of land in the Cottian Alps to the Holy See, thus returning the land to the papacy.

In 704, the elderly Archbishop Wilfrid of York was again expelled from his see. He once again traveled to Rome to plead his case before Pope John. John, surrounded himself with Greek-speaking counselors, like Boniface, the papal counselor. John decided to hold a synod of mainly Greek-speaking bishops to hear the case. This was very difficult on Wilfrid, who did not speak the language. However, the bishops did exonerate Wilfrid from his accusations and returned him to the see at York. He kept it until he died five years later. Not only did Wilfrid get his see back, but Pope John sent letters to King Athelred of Mercia, with mandates to be followed. It took a year before the mandates were activated, however.

Like other eastern pontiffs, John was very concerned with missionary work. He sent the pallium to Berhtwald, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Sergius had confirmed the appointment, but died before he could send the pallium to the new archbishop.

Pope John also helped in the reconstruction of various churches in Rome, adding beauty to several of them.

On January 11, 705, Pope John VI died. He was buried in the old St Peter’s Basilica. He died more peacefully than Emperor Tiberius III did the following summer. The empire was falling apart.