St. Leo II

Leo II is one of those short-reigning popes whose story grows stronger the more closely its parts are gathered together. A Sicilian by birth, he succeeded Pope Agatho in 681 and is remembered first for confirming the acts of the sixth ecumenical council, which condemned Monothelism and dealt also with the failure of Honorius to denounce the error plainly when he should have done so. That doctrinal labor belongs at the center of his pontificate because Leo helped secure an important settlement for the Church. But he is not reduced to a name at the bottom of conciliar paperwork. The Liber Pontificalis remembers him as preacher, teacher, and pastor: eloquent, generous to the needy, skilled in sacred music, and equally at home in Greek and Latin.

He built churches, translated martyrs' relics from the catacombs to a chapel prepared for them, and cared quietly for the poor and for the dignity of Roman worship. The whole portrait is compact rather than dramatic, yet that compactness is exactly the point. Leo's pontificate is brief, but it is not thin. He taught clearly, governed soberly, and helped anchor the Church in truth without noise or self-display.