Paul I of Rome

Saint Paul I of Rome was bishop of Rome from 757 to 767. He came from a noble Roman family and shepherded the Church at a time when Rome was threatened by the Lombards and was drifting ever further from the emperor in Constantinople.

He was raised with his brother Stephen in the school of the Lateran palace and served as a deacon. When Stephen became bishop of Rome, Paul was often sent by him to negotiate with the Lombard kings. After Stephen's death on 26 April 757 he was chosen by the majority, against a party that wanted Archdeacon Theophylact, and was ordained on 29 May 757.

His ministry unfolded between the Frankish and Lombard kings. He kept in touch with Pepin the Short, urging him to keep the alliance with Rome, while in 758 the Lombard king Desiderius seized the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento and forced him to write a letter in his favour. Later Pepin gave him support and arbitrated between the Roman and Lombard claims. Because of the growing estrangement from the Eastern Roman Empire, Paul often lived in dread that the emperor would send an army against Rome.

He reposed in the Lord on 28 June 767. As a bishop of Rome before the separation of the Churches he is honoured as a saint of the undivided Church and commemorated on 28 June.