Pope Hormisdas
Feast 08-06
Patron of
About
Hormisdas, born at Frosinone in the Campagna to a wealthy family, was bishop of Rome from July 514 until his death on August 6, 523. He was widowed before ordination; his son Silverius later also became pope and is venerated as a saint. His pontificate was defined by the long Acacian schism, begun in 484 when Acacius of Constantinople sought to reconcile non-Chalcedonian Christians at the cost of orthodoxy. With patient diplomacy and the Formula of Hormisdas, a confession of faith drawn up in 519, he secured the reunion of Rome and Constantinople before a great crowd in the cathedral on March 28, 519. He is remembered as a peacemaker of the Church and a defender of the faith of Chalcedon.
Suggested prayer
O God, who gave St. Hormisdas the wisdom to heal a long division of Your Church and bring Constantinople back to the unity of the apostolic faith, grant through his intercession that all who confess the name of Christ may be one in the truth. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
