Adeodatus I (Deusdedit)
The son of a subdeacon, Pope/St. Adeodatus I was born in Rome and had been a priest for forty years when he was elected to the papal throne in 615. He was not a hieromonk and was the first priest who was not also a monastic to be elected pope since the election of John II. During Adeodatus' three-year reign, the Lombards and Byzantines were at war, and earthquakes and plagues also distressed the people. Adeodatus was generous in his aid to the victims of these disasters, as well as to the poor generally. He was the first pope to use leaden bullae to seal papal documents, which have been called bulls ever since. When the pope died in 618, he willed a year's stipend to each priest in Rome.
Karen Rae Keck
including the header and this copyright remain intact.