Pope_Julius_I

Julius I





Birth name

Julius


Papacy began

February 6, 337


Papacy ended

April 12, 352


Predecessor

Mark


Successor

Liberius


Born

???
Rome, Italy


Died

April 12, 352
Rome, Italy


Other popes named Julius


Pope Saint Julius I (Unknown – April 12, 352), was pope from February 6, 337 to April 12, 352. Julius is chiefly known by the part he took in the Arian controversy and for bolstering the role of the papacy as the defender of "orthodoxy" in the face of changing imperial politics.
Living during a period of shifting attitudes by the Roman emperors who had only recently begun showing special favor to Christianity, Julius supported the anti-Arian leader Athanasius of Alexandria in his struggle against the patriarch of Constantinople, Eusebius of Nicomedia. Banished for a second time from Alexandria, Athanasius was welcomed to Rome, where he was accepted as a legitimate bishop by a synod presided over by Julius in 342. Julius' subsequent letter to the Eastern bishops represents an early instance of the claims of primacy for the bishop of Rome.
It was also through the influence of Julius that the Council of Sardica was held a few months later. The council did not succeed in uniting the eastern and western bishops in support of the restoration of Athanasius and other anti-Arian leaders, and its 76 eastern bishops withdrew to Philippopolis where they went so far as to adopt an Arian creed and to excommunicate Julius and his supporters. However, some 300 western bishops remained in place at Sardica and confirmed the decisions of the previous Roman synod, as well as affirming the pope's authority.

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Background
1.2 Support of Athanasius
1.3 The Council of Sardica
1.4 Later years


2 Legacy
3 References
4 Credits



Julius died on April 12, 352, and was succeeded by Liberius. He is considered a saint in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, with his feast day on April 12.

Biography
 Pope Julius I
Background
The long reign of Pope Silvester I had been followed by the brief papacy of Pope Mark. After Mark's death, the papal chair remained vacant for four months. What occasioned this comparatively long vacancy is unknown, although it is worth noting that serious controversy now raged over the continuing Arian controversy, which had been by no means settled at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The Liber Pontificalis reports that, before coming to the papacy, Julius had suffered exile as a result of the Arianizing policy of the emperors, although this report is not entirely trusted by scholars.
On February 6, 337, Julius was finally elected pope. A native of Rome, he was the son of a man named Rusticus.

Support of Athanasius
During the reign of Constantine the Great, the anti-Arian patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria had been banished after Constantine became persuaded that his previous policy of attempting to suppress Arianism was unwise. After the emperor's death in May 337, his son Constantine II, as governor of Gaul, permitted Athanasius to return to his see of Alexandria. An opposing party in Egypt, however, recognized a rival bishop in the person of Pistus. They sent a delegation to Julius asking him to admit Pistus into communion with Rome, also delivering to the pope the decisions of the Council of Tyre (335) to prove that Athanasius had been validly deposed.
For his part, Athanasius sent envoys to Rome to deliver to Julius a conciliar letter from certain other Egyptian bishops, containing a justification of Athanasius as their patriarch. The two opposing delegations were summoned by Pope Julius for a hearing. The anti-Athanasian envoys now asked the pope to assemble a major council, before which both parties should present their case for decision.

 Athanasius of Alexandria
Julius convened the synod at Rome, having dispatched two envoys to bear a letter of invitation to the eastern bishops. In the meantime, under the leadership of Eusebius of Nicomedia, the patriarch of Constantinople, a council had been held at Antioch which had elected George of Cappadocia as patriarch of Alexandria in the place of both Pistus and Athanasius. George was duly installed at Alexandria over the violent objections of the supporters of Athanasius, who was now once again forced into exile.
Believing the matter to be settled, the other eastern bishops consequently refused to attend the synod summoned by Julius. Rome, meanwhile, became a refuge for Athanasius and other anti-Arian leaders, among them Marcellus of Ancyra, who had been removed by the pro-Arian party. The Roman council was held in the autumn of 340 or 341, under the presidency of the pope. After Athanasius and Marcellus both made satisfactory professions of faith, they were exonerated and declared to be re-established in their episcopal rights. Julius communicated this decision in a notable letter to the bishops of the Eusebian party in the East, in which he justified his proceedings and strongly objected to the refusal of the Eastern bishops to attend the Roman council. Even if Athanasius and his companions were somewhat to blame in their actions, the pope admitted, the Alexandrian church should first have written to the pope before taking action against them. "Can you be ignorant," Julius wrote, "that this is the custom, that we should be written to first, so that from here what is just may be defined?"

The Council of Sardica
Meanwhile, the political tide had turned for the moment in the pope's direction. Constantine's son Constans had defeated his brother Constantine II, and was now ruler over the greater part of the Roman Empire. He favored the Nicaean party over that of Eusebius of Nicomedia. At the request of the pope and other western bishops, Constans interceded with his brother Constantius II, the emperor of the East, in favor of the bishops who had been deposed by the Eusebian party. Both rulers agreed that there should be convened an ecumenical council of the Western and Eastern bishops at Sardica (the modern Sofia, Bulgaria).
The Council of Sardica took place in the autumn of 342 or 343, Julius sending as his representatives the priests Archidamus and Philoxenus and the deacon Leo. However, the eastern bishops, sensing that they were outnumbered, soon departed and held a separate synod in Philippopolis. The western council then proceeded to confirm Athanasius' innocence and also established regulations for the proper procedure against accused bishops, including recognition of the supreme authority of the pope.
In Philippopolis, the eastern bishops anathematized the term homoousios ("same substance," referring to the relationship of God the Son to God the Father), which had been adopted at Nicaea against the Arians, and excommunicated Julius I together with their rivals at the Council in Sardica. They also introduced the new term anomoian ("not similar"), going further even than the Arian party had at Nicaea in affirming a difference in substance between Christ and God the Father.

Later years
However, Constantius II declined to restore Athanasius until after the death of George, Athanasius' rival, in 346. Pope Julius took this occasion to write a letter, which is still extant, to the priests, deacons, and the faithful of Alexandria, to congratulate them on the return of their pastor. At this time two bishops who had been deposed by the Council of Sardica, Ursacius of Singidunum and Valens of Mursia, formally recanted the formerly Arian views before Julius, who then restored to them their episcopal sees. Despite these accomplishments, Julius' policy of support for Athanasius still did not prevail, as Constantius II pursued an increasingly aggressive policy of accommodation with Arianism.

Legacy
 The church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, originally built during Julius' reign, is one of the oldest in Rome.
Julius died on April 12, 352, and was buried in the catacombs of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way. Very soon after his death, was honored as a saint. His body was later transported to the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Although he had hoped that the council of Sardica would be recognized as an ecumenical council, the schism which took place there only perpetuated and exacerbated the Arian controversy. Constantius II's policy of attempting to force the Nicene party to accept communion with moderate Arians would have the upper hand for the next decade. However, Julius' pro-Athanasian actions ultimately proved important to the victory of Nicene Christianity and the defeat of Arianism at the First Council of Constantinople in 381.
During the pontificate of Julius, there was a rapid increase in the number of Christians in Rome, where Julius had two new basilicas erected: the titular church of Julius (now Santa Maria in Trastevere) and the Basilica Julia (now the Church of the Twelve Apostles). Beside these he built three churches over cemeteries outside the walls of Rome: one on the road to Porto, a second on the Via Aurelia, and a third on the Via Flaminia at the tomb of the martyr Saint Valentine. The ruins of the last-mentioned were discovered in the nineteenth century.
The practice of venerating the saints at the tombs of the martyrs also continued to spread rapidly during Julius' day. Under his pontificate, if not earlier, catalogs of feast-days of saints came into use. For example the Roman feast-calendar of Philocalus dates from the year 336.
Several of Julius’ letters are preserved in Athanasius’ work, Apology Against the Arians. Also through Athanasius, who remained in Rome several years subsequent to 339, the tradition of Egyptian monastic life became well-known in the capital, and the example of the hermits of the Egyptian deserts found many imitators in the Roman church and later western tradition.
The feast day of Saint Julius I is celebrated on April 12.




Roman Catholic Popes


Preceded by:
Mark

Bishop of Rome 
Pope
337–352

Succeeded by: Liberius


ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
This article incorporates text from the Catholic Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

Chapman, John. Studies on the Early Papacy. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1971. ISBN 9780804611398
Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300091656
Fortescue, Adrian, and Scott M.P. Reid. The Early Papacy: To the Synod of Chalcedon in 451. Southampton: Saint Austin Press, 1997. ISBN 9781901157604
Kelly, John N.D., and Michael J. Walsh. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. ISBN 9780198614333
Loomis, Louise Ropes. The Book of Popes (Liber Pontificalis). Merchantville, NJ: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 1889758868
Maxwell-Stuart, P.G., and Toby A. Wilkinson. Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present. W.W. Norton & Co Inc, 1997. ISBN 9780500017982


Popes of the Catholic Church
Peter 
Linus 
Anacletus 
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Evaristus 
Alexander I 
Sixtus I 
Telesphorus 
Hyginus 
Pius I 
Anicetus 
Soter 
Eleuterus 
Victor I 
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Callixtus I 
Urban I 
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Anterus 
Fabian 
Cornelius 
Lucius I 
Stephen I 
Sixtus II 
Dionysius 
Felix I 
Eutychian 
Caius 
Marcellinus 
Marcellus I 
Eusebius 
Miltiades 
Sylvester I 
Mark


Julius I 
Liberius 
Damasus I 
Siricius 
Anastasius I 
Innocent I 
Zosimus 
Boniface I 
Celestine I 
Sixtus III
Leo I 
Hilarius 
Simplicius 
Felix III 
Gelasius I 
Anastasius II 
Symmachus 
Hormisdas 
 John I 
Felix IV 
Boniface II 
John II 
Agapetus I 
Silverius 
Vigilius 
Pelagius I
John III 
Benedict I 
Pelagius II 
Gregory I 
Sabinian 
Boniface III 
Boniface IV 
Adeodatus I


Boniface V 
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Severinus 
John IV 
Theodore I 
Martin I 
Eugene I
Vitalian 
Adeodatus II 
Donus 
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John V 
Conon 
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John VI 
John VII 
Sisinnius 
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Gregory II 
Gregory III
Zachary 
Stephen II 
Paul I 
Stephen III 
Adrian I 
Leo III 
Stephen IV 
Paschal I 
Eugene II 
 Valentine 
Gregory IV 
Sergius II


Leo IV 
Benedict III 
Nicholas I 
Adrian II 
John VIII 
Marinus I 
Adrian III 
Stephen V 
Formosus 
Boniface VI 
Stephen VI 
Romanus 
Theodore II 
John IX 
Benedict IV 
Leo V 
Sergius III 
Anastasius III 
Lando 
John X 
Leo VI 
Stephen VII 
John XI 
Leo VII 
Stephen VIII 
Marinus II 
Agapetus II 
John XII 
Leo VIII 
Benedict V 
John XIII 
Benedict VI 
Benedict VII 
John XIV


John XV 
Gregory V 
Sylvester II 
John XVII 
John XVIII 
Sergius IV 
 Benedict VIII 
John XIX 
Benedict IX 
Sylvester III 
Benedict IX 
Gregory VI 
Clement II 
Benedict IX 
Damasus II 
Leo IX 
Victor II 
Stephen IX 
Nicholas II 
Alexander II 
Gregory VII 
Victor III 
Urban II 
Paschal II 
Gelasius II 
Callixtus II 
Honorius II 
Innocent II 
Celestine II 
Lucius II 
Eugene III 
Anastasius IV 
Adrian IV 
Alexander III


Lucius III 
Urban III 
Gregory VIII 
Clement III 
Celestine III 
Innocent III 
Honorius III 
Gregory IX 
Celestine IV 
Innocent IV 
Alexander IV 
Urban IV 
Clement IV 
Gregory X 
Innocent V 
Adrian V 
John XXI 
Nicholas III 
Martin IV 
Honorius IV 
Nicholas IV 
Celestine V 
Boniface VIII 
Benedict XI 
Clement V 
John XXII 
Benedict XII 
Clement VI 
Innocent VI 
Urban V 
Gregory XI 
Urban VI 
Boniface IX 
Innocent VII


Gregory XII 
Martin V 
Eugene IV 
Nicholas V 
Callixtus III 
Pius II 
Paul II 
Sixtus IV 
Innocent VIII 
Alexander VI 
Pius III 
Julius II 
Leo X 
Adrian VI 
Clement VII 
Paul III 
Julius III 
Marcellus II 
Paul IV 
Pius IV 
Pius V 
Gregory XIII 
Sixtus V 
Urban VII 
Gregory XIV 
Innocent IX 
Clement VIII 
Leo XI 
Paul V 
Gregory XV 
Urban VIII 
Innocent X 
Alexander VII 
Clement IX


Clement X 
Innocent XI 
Alexander VIII 
Innocent XII 
Clement XI 
Innocent XIII 
Benedict XIII 
Clement XII 
Benedict XIV 
Clement XIII 
Clement XIV 
Pius VI 
Pius VII 
Leo XII 
Pius VIII 
Gregory XVI 
Pius IX 
Leo XIII 
Pius X 
Benedict XV 
Pius XI 
Pius XII 
John XXIII 
Paul VI 
John Paul I 
John Paul II
Benedict XVI

Currently: Francis

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