Adrian II, Pope
Adrian II, Pope
Reigned from 862 to 872. Born c.792 in Rome, Italy. Before receiving minor orders he had married, and his wife and daughter were slain by Eleutherius who had forcefully married the latter. He strove to maintain peace among Charlemagne’s descendants and compelled King Lothair of Lorraine to take back his lawful wife. Through the Council of Constantinople (869) he effected the restoration of unity between East and West. He supported Saints Cyril and Methodius in their evangelization of the Slavs, and approved their rendering of the liturgy into Slavonic.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Adrian II, Pope
(Reigned 867-872.)
After the death of St. Nicholas I, the Roman clergy and people elected, much against his will, the venerable Cardinal Adrian, universally beloved for his charity and amiability, descended from a Roman family which had already given two pontiffs to the Church, Stephen III and Sergius II. Adrian was now seventy-five years old, and twice before had refused the dignity. He had been married before taking orders, and his old age was saddened by a domestic tragedy. As pope, he followed closely in the footsteps of his energetic predecessor. He strove to maintain peace among the greedy and incompetent descendants of Charlemagne. In an interview at Monte Cassino he admitted to communion the repentant King Lothair of Lorraine, after exacting from him a public oath that he had held no intercourse with his concubine since the pope’s prohibition, that he would take back his lawful wife Theutberga, and abide by the final decision of the Roman See. He upheld with vigour against Hincmar of Reims the unlimited right of bishops to appeal to the Sovereign Pontiff. At the Eighth General Council, which he convened at Constantinople in 869, and presided over through ten legates, he effected the deposition of Photius and the restoration of unity between the East and the West. He was unsuccessful in retaining the Bulgarians for the western patriarchate; that nation unwisely determined to adhere to Constantinople, a course which was destined to bring upon it ruin and stagnation. Adrian saved the western Slavs from a similar fate by seconding the efforts of the saintly brothers, Cyril and Methodius. Of enduring influence, for good or evil, was the endorsement he gave to their rendering of the liturgy in the Slavonic tongue. Adrian died towards the close of the year 872.
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Liber Pontif. (ed. DUCHESNE), 173-190; JAFFÉ, Regesta RR. PP. (2d ed.), I, 368-375, II, 703, 704, 745, 746; MANSI Coll. Conc., XV, 819 sq.; WATTERICH, Vitae Rom. Pont 631 sq.; LAPOTRE, Hadrien II et les fausses d cr tales, in Rev. des Quest. Hist. (1880), XXVII, 377-431; ARTAUD DE MONTOR, Lives and Times of the Roman Pontiffs (tr. New York, 1867), I, 225, 226; GORINI, Defense de l’Eglise (1866), III, 20-38, 160-176; ALEX. NATALIS, Hist. Eccl. (1778), VI, 399-409.
JAMES F. LOUGHLIN
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York