Pope Sabinian

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Sabinian (died February 22, 606) was pope from 604 to 606.

He was born at Blera (Bieda) near Viterbo and was consecrated pope probably on September 13, 604.

He had been sent by Pope Gregory I as Apostolic nuncio, to Constantinople, but he apparently was not entirely satisfactory in that office. He returned to Rome in 597.

He incurred unpopularity by his unseasonable economies, although the Liber Pontificalis states that he distributed grain during a famine at Rome under his pontificate. The erudite Italian Augustinian Onofrio Panvinio (1529-1568) in his Epitome pontificum Romanorum (Venice, 1557) attributes to him the introduction of the custom of ringing bells at the canonical hours and the celebration of the Eucharist.

During his reign, Sabinian was seen as a counterfoil to Gregory. Whereas Gregory distributed grain to the Roman populace as invasion loomed, Sabinian sold it for high prices (though this may be a later interpolation by Gregory's biographers). The Liber Pontificalis praises him for "filling the church with clergy," in contrast to Gregory who rose rapidly from simple monk to become bishop of Rome.

References

• Duff, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, Yale University Press, 2001, p. 72–73. ISBN 0300091656
• Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present, Thames & Hudson, 2002, p. 54. ISBN 0500017980.

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