New on TikTok: ⭐ Chapter I: The Heresy That Shook an Empire In the 7th century, the Christian world was fighting a spiritual wildfire called Monothelitism. ❗ The Heresy in One Sentence: Monothelites claimed Jesus had only ONE will — a divine will — and no human will. If that were true, then: • Jesus would not be fully human, • the Incarnation would be incomplete, • Christ’s obedience could not save humanity, • and salvation itself would unravel. The Church knew this was deadly. But politics complicates everything. The Byzantine Emperor and many Eastern bishops supported the heresy because it seemed like a theological shortcut to unify the empire. Thus the stage was set… ⸻ ⭐ Chapter II: A Pope Steps Into the Fire When Martin was elected Pope in 649, he inherited a Church surrounded by heresy and political intimidation. He didn’t flinch. Within months he called the Lateran Council of 649, an assembly that: • examined Monothelitism, • rejected it completely, • and defended the full humanity of Christ. This enraged the emperor. To silence the Pope, the emperor ordered something unthinkable: 👉 “Seize Martin. Bring him to trial.” No Pope had ever been arrested by the state. Martin would become the first. ⸻ ⭐ Chapter III: The Kidnapping of a Pope In 653, soldiers stormed Rome. They entered the Lateran Palace and seized the Pope at sword-point. He was: • dragged from the altar, • publicly mocked, • shipped like cargo across the Mediterranean, • imprisoned in Constantinople, • starved, beaten, and left in filth. Historians record that when he was brought before the imperial court: “His limbs were weak, his body wasted away, yet his eyes held a terrifying clarity.” The emperor expected him to beg for mercy. Instead Martin declared: “I suffer for the truth of Christ. I fear neither emperor nor death.” ⸻ ⭐ Chapter IV: Exile to the Ends of the Earth Unable to execute a Pope outright, the imperial court sentenced him to exile in Chersonesus, a remote outpost in the Crimea — cold, desolate, disease-ridden. He arrived already half-dead. There, he was abandoned with almost no food or companions. But he continued writing letters to the Church — letters full of courage: “The Lord sees all. Endure in the truth.” After months of starvation and illness, he died on September 16, 655. He died as he lived: a shepherd who refused to betray Christ’s humanity. ⸻ ⭐ Chapter V: Heaven Speaks His Name The Church — East and West — recognized the truth at once: Martin was not defeated, he was crowned. He became one of the last Popes honored as a martyr, and in the Greek liturgy he is still praised as: “The infallible and holy exponent of the divine dogmas.” His body was brought back to Rome and buried in the Church of St. Sylvester. His legacy? Every Christian who professes that Jesus is fully God and fully man, with both divine and human will, stands on the courage of St. Martin I. He saved the doctrine of Christ’s humanity. He saved the integrity of salvation. He saved the Church from imperial control. ⸻ ⭐ SUMMARY OF EVERY RED-PANEL FACT (OFFICIAL & COMPLETE) ✔ St. Martin suffered greatly in defense of the Faith ✔ His zeal and energy provoked the hatred of the Monothelites ✔ Monothelites = heretics who denied that Christ had a human will ✔ Severe imperial influence made them attempt to murder him ✔ Divine Providence frustrated the assassination ✔ He was dragged to prison, then exiled to Crimea ✔ He died in 655 in Chersonesus (Crimea) ✔ Although a Roman Pontiff, his feast is kept in the Greek Orthodox Church ✔ They cal