Pope Saint Zachary

My first impression of his brief but oh-so-impressive biography is that we are so different. But that's a good thing. Patron saints function on multiple levels in the Catholic universe. And one of them is to inspire us to be better in areas we are weak in.

He was a fighter, but not in the "Rocky" mould; rather in the Pope John Paul the Great way. He faced down the Lombard king, at least twice. He scolded the Byzantine Emperor for iconoclastic tendencies. He purchased slaves to save them from being sold to the Saracens in Africa (the sack of Rome by them from Sicily was still about a century away). As the old Catholic Encyclopedia says: "...in a troubled era Zachary proved himself to be an excellent, capable, vigourous, and charitable successor of Peter."

So I will pray to this saint in the coming year for the gift of perseverance in good works, especially in relation to this blog.

And so, thank you to A Catholic Life.