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Pope Paschal I
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Pope Paschal I was pope from 817 to February 11, 824.
A native of Rome, he was raised to the pontificate by the acclamation of the clergy, shortly after the death of Pope Stephen IV, and before the sanction of the emperor Louis the Pious had been obtained - a circumstance for which it was one of his first cares to apologize. His relations with the imperial house, however, never became cordial; and he was also unsuccessful in winning the sympathy of the Roman nobles.
In
822, he gave the legateship over the North (
Scandinavia) to
Ebbo,
archbishop of Rheims. He licensed him to preach to the
Danes, though Ebbo failed in three different attempts to convert them. Only later did
Saint Ansgar succeed there.
He died in Rome while the imperial commissioners were investigating the circumstances under which two papal officials that were testifying against the pope had been seized at the Lateran, blinded and afterwards beheaded; Paschal had shielded the murderers but denied all personal complicity in their crime. The Roman people refused him the honour of burial within the church of St Peter, but he now holds a place in the Roman calendar (May 16).
The pope, with the squared halo of the living peoples, is presenting a model of the basilica to Christ (outside of the picture).
The church of
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere was restored and
Santa Maria in Domnica rebuilt by him; he also extensively renovated the basilica of
Santa Prassede, which includes the famous
Episcopa Theodora mosaic of his mother.
