Apr. 13 Monday of the Second Week of Easter; Opt Mem of St. Martin I, Pope and Martyr, Weekday

Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Martin I (d. 655), who was pope from 649 to 654. He was a courageous defender of the faith against heresy. He held a council at Rome which condemned the Monothelite heresy which taught that Christ had no human but only a divine will and defended that Christ was true God and true man. The heretical Byzantine emperor, Constans II, had him treacherously arrested and taken to Constantinople. After many sufferings and humiliations, he was exiled to Cherson in the Crimea where he died of exhaustion, broken by his sufferings, in 654.