VITALIAN, SAINT

born , Segni, Duchy of Rome died , c. Jan. 27, 672, Rome; feast day January 27 Latin Vitalianus pope from 657 to 672. Consecrated as St. Eugenius I's successor on July 30, 657, Vitalian soon dealt peacefully with monothelitism, a heresy maintaining that Christ had only one will. In 648 the Byzantine emperor Constans II had issued his Typos, an edict forbidding discussion of the monothelite question and attempting to impose unity on the church. Instead, the Typos caused a schism between the Eastern and Western churches. Vitalian avoided condemnation of the Typos, whereupon Constans confirmed his election to the papacy. In 663 Constans visited Rome, where he was royally received by the pope. Constans, in return, however, confiscated all the bronze ornaments of Rome. In 668 Vitalian consecrated St. Theodore of Tarsus as the first archbishop of Canterbury to rule the whole English church.