Paschal I of Rome

Paschal I of Rome was bishop of Rome from 25 January 817 until his death on 11 February 824. The Orthodox calendars do not include him, but the Church of Rome honours him as a saint from the time before the division of the Churches, and his memory is bound to the churches he built and the Greek monks he received.

He came from a noble Roman family. According to the Liber Pontificalis, his father's name was Bonosus and his mother's Theodora. Before his election he was abbot of the monastery of Saint Stephen, which cared for pilgrims coming to Rome. He was elected on 25 January 817, a day after the death of Pope Stephen IV, without the sanction of Emperor Louis the Pious, to whom he afterward apologized.

In his years Byzantium was passing through the second iconoclast persecution. Paschal sheltered Greek monks who had fled the persecution and gave work to exiled mosaic artists. He wrote to Louis the Pious and to the Byzantine emperor Leo the Armenian in support of those who opposed iconoclasm.

He rebuilt three basilicas of Rome, Santa Prassede, Santa Maria in Domnica and Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, adorned with mosaics that show his portrait. He is credited with finding the body of Saint Cecilia in the catacomb of Callixtus and placing it in her church. He also added two oratories to Old Saint Peter's.

At Easter 823 he anointed Lothair, son of Louis, as emperor. Toward the end of his ministry he was troubled by a revolt of Roman nobles, and the emperor sent commissioners to inquire. Paschal swore an oath of purgation before a synod of thirty-⁠four bishops.

After his death the Romans prevented his burial at Saint Peter's, and he was laid in Santa Prassede. Under Eugenius II his remains were later moved, according to some sources, to the Vatican. His day in the Church of Rome is 11 February.