Anastasius II of Rome

Anastasius II of Rome was bishop of Rome from 24 November 496 to 19 November 498. He is remembered for his attempt to heal the Acacian schism, which had divided Rome from Constantinople for almost fifteen years. He was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and does not appear in the ancient martyrologies; the sources consulted record no commemoration of him in the Orthodox calendars.

Early life

He was born in Rome, the son of a priest, and was a deacon of the Roman Church before he was elected bishop. His predecessors, Felix III and Gelasius I, had taken a hard line toward the East and had excommunicated many, among them Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople. Anastasius was elected chiefly with the support of those who wanted to improve relations with the East and to end the schism.

The attempt at reconciliation

Immediately after his election he sent two bishops, Cresconius and Germanus, to Constantinople with a letter to Emperor Anastasius I, announcing his election and expressing his hope for the unity of the Church. In the letter he wrote that the power of the sacraments does not depend on the worthiness of the one who performs them, likening grace to the rays of the sun, which stay clean even when they pass through filthy places. On this basis, though he still regarded Acacius as a schismatic, he accepted the baptisms and ordinations Acacius had performed as valid, and judged that after his death unity might be restored. The emperor seemed willing to cooperate but asked for acceptance of Zeno's Henotikon, a compromise text.

It is said that he gave Holy Communion to Photinus of Thessalonica, an associate of Acacius, which angered many bishops and clergy in Rome. Many refused to receive communion from him, and the disagreement reached breaking point. Other accounts say that to win the East the pope would have had to take a gentler position toward the Monophysites, in exchange for the emperor's recognition of King Theodoric.

His end and his memory

Anastasius died unexpectedly in 498, at the height of these tensions. Those who had opposed his efforts took his death for divine punishment. The parties split openly and each elected its own bishop, Symmachus and Laurentius, and so the Laurentian schism began, which made any rapprochement with the East impossible for a long time.

In the Middle Ages he was regarded as a traitor and an apostate. The Book of the Pontiffs and the Decretum of Gratian carried this opinion forward, and Dante placed him in hell, but historians today regard this judgment as unjust and born of a confused tradition in which he was mixed up with Emperor Anastasius I. He was buried in Saint Peter's Basilica.