Pope Gregory III passed away on this day in 741. Pope Gregory had all the traits of an independent leader of the city of Rome. Maneuvering between the Byzantines and Lombards, he did all he could to defend Christian Orthodoxy. During his reign, Emperor Leo the Isaurian (r. 717–741) instated a church reform that became known as the heresy of Iconoclasm. Pope Gregory reached out to the Byzantine Emperor to call him to his senses. As a result, Leo tasked the Imperial Navy with apprehending the Pope. However, stormy weather prevented them from accomplishing this mission. To hit the Pope where it hurt, Leo confiscated papal patrimonies in Southern Italy. The issue of these confiscated landholdings became “a time bomb” in relations between Rome and Constantinople, even after the end of the Second Iconoclasm in 843. Pope Gregory was himself a Syrian and thus he became the last Pope of Rome originally from outside of Western Europe until Pope Francis was installed in 2013 (and the last altogether within the undivided Church). He also was the last pope to be approved by the Byzantine Exarch in Ravenna. Source: A Chronology of Byzantine Empire, Timothy Venning, ed. (New York, 2006). | 
