St Gregory III

Gregory III is the Syrian priest so respected for holiness and ability that the Roman people chose him by acclamation in 731. He inherited at once the bitter problem of dealing with Emperor Leo III and the imperial campaign against the veneration of holy images. Gregory sent protests, suffered the humiliation of having his messenger intercepted, then gathered a Roman synod that formally condemned iconoclasm and made Rome itself bear visible witness by honoring sacred images openly.

At the same time he had to govern as pope in other directions as well: he encouraged the western missions, especially those linked to St Boniface and St Willibald, faced Lombard political danger, and increasingly turned toward the Franks as Rome’s more realistic defenders. Gregory is not dramatic because of one scene, but because he had to hold doctrine, mission, and survival together at once.