Editing Pope Martin I (section)

==Early life and career==
Martin was born near Todi, Umbria, in the place nowadays named after him: Pian di San Martino, close to Todi. According to his biographer Theodore, Martin was of noble birth, of commanding intelligence, and showed great charity to the poor.

Piazza states that Martin belonged to the [[Religious order|order]] of [[Basil of Caesarea|St Basil]].<ref name="ce">{{Catholic |last=Mershman |first=Francis |year=1910 |wstitle=Pope St. Martin I |volume=9 |inline=1 |prescript=}}</ref> By 641, he was an abbot, and [[Pope John IV]] sent him to [[Dalmatia]] and [[Istria]] with large sums of money to alleviate the distress of the inhabitants, and redeem captives seized during the invasion of the [[Sclaveni]] (those parts mainly settled by [[Croats]]). As the ruined churches could not be rebuilt, the [[relic]]s of some of the more important Dalmatian saints<ref>In her monograph, ''The San Venanzio Chapel in Rome and the Martyr Shrine Sequence'', Gillian Mackie suggests two of these martyrs were the Salonitan bishops [[Venantius of Salona|Venantius]] and [[Saint Domnius|Domnius]]. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42630547?read-now=1&seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents.</ref> were brought to Rome. John, himself from Dalmatia, then had them venerated by building the Chapel of [[Venantius of Salona|St Venantius]]<ref name=Škunca>{{cite journal| url = http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=18281&lang=en| title = Škunca, Stanko Josip. "Pope John IV from Zadar and the Mission of Abbot Martin in 641", ''Radovi'', Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zadar, No.48 September 2006. pp. 187–198| journal = Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru| date = 5 September 2006| issue = 48| pages = 187–198| last1 = Škunca| first1 = Stanko Josip}}</ref> at the [[Lateran Baptistery]].<ref>Incorporating an impressive sanctuary mosaic, the project was completed under Pope Theodore I. [[Carlo Rainaldi]] was commissioned by the [[Ceva Grimaldi family]] in 1674 to restore the chapel. Nowadays, after restoration in 1967, the interior is mostly in bare brick.</ref> As Mackie suggests in her article, referenced above, the St Venantius Chapel remains an important early example of a ''martyrium'': a shrine specifically commissioned to venerate relics brought from afar. With regard to the [[martyr]] cult,<ref>The martyr cult offers insight into a significant chunk of early [[Christianity|Christian]] belief and practice. Informing how many [[Christians]] viewed society and themselves in the early centuries of Christianity is the veneration of martyrs. In the [[Old Testament]], ''Martyr Theology'' teaches that suffering and deaths by [[Jews|Jewish]] martyrs were examples to be imitated by fellow-Jews ([[2 Maccabees]] 6:30). In the [[New Testament]], [[Saint Peter|St Peter]] likewise taught in [[First Epistle of Peter]] 18–25 that [[Jesus]] died as an example. Prominent in both texts are the concepts of honour (see below), endurance, exemplary suffering, persecution and resolute trust in [[God]]. St Peter instructed Christians that if unjust suffering could be endured it would be imitating [[Jesus|Christ’s]] example. Were they to do so, they would receive a reward from God on the [[Last Judgment|day of judgment]]. 2 Maccabees likewise taught that devout Jews enduring unjust suffering would receive honour from God after death. Within both these texts, the modern everyday use of ''honour'' fails adequately to convey the sense of being saved from condemnation (despite a life led imperfectly).</ref> such structures represented the pinnacle of devotional building. They often became sites of pilgrimage.

Martin acted as ''[[papal apocrisiarius|apocrisiarius]]'' or [[Papal legate|legate]] ('nuncio') at [[Constantinople]] from the earliest years of [[Pope Theodore I|Theodore I]] (642–49). He sent him as ambassador to Constantinople, seat of the empire<ref>The Roman Empire is also known as the Byzantine Empire (330–1204 and 1261–1453), and the Latin Empire (1204–1261). Its eastern domains, after 1453, became the Ottoman Empire until 1922.</ref> in its eastern half. Albeit where the pope was based, Rome was by now second fiddle – economically, militarily and politically – to Constantinople. However, the eastern half of the Empire was suffering its own turbulence due to [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab expansion]], [[Siege of Jerusalem (636–637)|Jerusalem's conquest]] in 637, and theological disputes having polarised Christians (the major religion of the empire).<ref>In his 2020 monograph, Andrew Harris portrays an inefficient imperial court in Constantinople. To offset weak defence on its Syria-Arabia frontier, the empire had for centuries "managed" the feuding Arab tribes by sponsoring the Christian [[Ghassanids]] and various compliant non-Christian [[Arabs]]. Held in check by the Ghassanids was the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian's]] [[Lakhmid kingdom|Lakhmid]] vassal-state. While Constantinople made it worth their while, the Ghassanids would remain loyal. By 630, Constantinople had ceased making the payments. There followed some defection to the Lakhmids. It seems some instalments may have resumed within six years, because the empire was able to draw on Ghassanid allies for the [[Battle of the Yarmuk]]. Constantinople's faltering strategy was symptomatic of internal malaise, fruit of religious sectarianism, factions jostling for the imperial succession, profligate finances, and territory again slipping away after the [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628]]. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1159100.pdf</ref>

Being placed, for so much of Theodore's  papacy, in charge of diplomacy between the [[Lateran Palace|Lateran patriarchate]] and the [[Byzantine bureaucracy and aristocracy|Byzantine court]] speaks of Martin's preeminence. It was as a [[deacon]] that he was [[papal selection before 1059|elected]] to the papal throne after the pope died (13 May 649).{{sfn|Richards|1979|pp=186–187}}