St. Nicholas I

Nicholas I became pope in 858 and quickly proved himself one of the strongest Roman pontiffs of the early Middle Ages. He did not wield authority for display. Again and again he used it in concrete cases where truth or justice was being bent by powerful men. He defended the sanctity of marriage against royal convenience, protected bishops and clergy against abuse, intervened firmly in disputes that touched both East and West, and gave careful pastoral guidance to the newly converted Bulgarians.

His strength was matched by personal charity: This life remembers his care for the poor of Rome as part of the same pastoral office, not as an unrelated pious detail. Nicholas understood the chair of Peter as a service that must sometimes resist emperors, kings, and ambitious churchmen for the sake of the faith and the weak. That is why his pontificate remained memorable long after the immediate quarrels had passed.