Pope Saint Eugenius I
  June 2nd  

    This Eugenius was a Roman, who had been brought up in the service of the Church; he was, we are told, distinguished for his goodness, generosity and gentleness. A year or so after Pope St. Martin I was carried off from Rome, but while he was still living, Eugenius was appointed in his place, and Martin approved the appointment before he died. It is said that Eugenius was a nominee of the monothelite Emperor Constans II, but if this be true the emperor was disappointed in his protégée. On his election Eugenius sent legates to Constantinople, who came back with a request from Constans that the new pope would declare himself in communion with the Byzantine patriarch Peter, and bearing a theologically ambiguous letter from that hierarch. This letter was publicly discussed in the church of St. Mary Major, and so angered the assembled clergy and people that they would not let Eugenius begin Mass until he had promised to send its rejection to Constans - thereby making up for having tamely accepted Eugenius at the emperor's bidding - if they did. Eugenius would probably have suffered a like fate to his predecessor's had not the emperor's hands been full with a campaign against the Arabs. It was probably this pope who received St. Wilfrid from England on his first visit to Rome as a young man.

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See the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i; Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, p.. 341; and A. Clerval in DTC,. s.v. Eugène I.

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Butler's Lives of The Saints, Herbert J. Thurston, S.J. and Donald Attwater Nihil Obstat: PATRICIVS MORRIS, S.T.D., L.S.S., CENSOR DEPVTATVS. Imprimatur: E. MORROGH BERNARD, VICARIVS GENERALIS WESTMONASTERII: DIE XXIII FEBRVARII MCMLIII