Saint Gregory II

Saint Gregory II (669?-731), pope (715-731), whose reign was marked by his struggle with the Byzantine emperor Leo III. Born in Rome, Gregory succeeded Constantine. During the early part of his pontificate, he supported the Eastern Roman Empire in preference to the Lombard invaders of Italy. Later, however, he broke with Leo III because of Leo's excessive taxation of Italian imperial subjects and his policy of iconoclasm, which prohibited the religious use of images. Leo attempted to subdue Gregory by force, but the pope, with the support of the Lombards and the people of Rome, succeeded in evading the emperor. Gregory supported St. Boniface, an English Benedictine monk, in his missionary work in Bavaria, Thüringen, Hessen, and Friesland. Gregory's feast day is February 11.