Pope Saint Martin I

Special Note: In 2025, April 13 is celebrated as Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord and the beginning of Holy Week. As a way of honoring the Passion of Christ and the witness of the martyrs, all of the saints highlighted during this Holy Week will be chosen from those who offered their lives for Christ. The reflections and prayers will be taken from the liturgical texts of the corresponding day of Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum.

His life:

+ Martin was born in Italy and was elected Bishop of Rome in 649.

+ Soon after his election he convoked a council in Rome to condemn the Monothelite Heresy (which denied the human will of Christ) and the involvement of Emperor Constans II in Church affairs.

+ The emperor had Martin kidnapped and imprisoned in Constantinople. Although he was saved from execution through the intervention of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Pope Martin was exiled to Kherson, in the Crimea.

+ Pope Martin died of abuse and starvation in the 655. He is the last of the Bishops of Rome to be honored as a martyr.

+ The Feast of Pope Saint Martin I is celebrated in both the Eastern and Western Churches.

For prayer and reflection:

“The Lord is near. Why then am I anxious? I put my hope indeed in his mercies that the Lord will not delay to bring my course to an end in whatever way he has commanded.”—Pope Saint Martin I

Spiritual bonus:

On this day, the Church also remembers Blessed Rolando Rivi. A seminarian of the Diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla, Italy, and hoped to become a missionary. He was kidnapped, abused and tortured by Communist partisans and shot to death near Piani di Moncio, Modena, on April 13, 1945, at the age of 14. Blessed Rolando was beatified in 2013.

For prayer and reflection:

“Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, / Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.”—Verse before the Gospel for Psalm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Philippians 2:8-9)

Prayer

Almighty ever-living God,
who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross,
graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering
and so merit a share in his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(Collect for Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord)

Saint profiles prepared by Father Silas Henderson, S.D.S.