Origins and Election
Gregory was born in Bilad al-Sham, in the territory of the Umayyad Caliphate, the son of a Syrian Christian named John. He served as cardinal-deacon from 726 until his election to the papacy.
He was elected pope by popular acclamation on 11 February 731 while attending the funeral procession of his predecessor. His consecration as Bishop of Rome did not follow until 18 March 731, more than a month later, pending confirmation from the Byzantine exarch at Ravenna. He was the last pope to require such ratification from Constantinople.
Opposition to Iconoclasm
Upon taking office, Gregory immediately opposed the iconoclastic policies of Emperor Leo III. He dispatched legates and letters to remonstrate with the emperor, but his outreach received no favorable response, and one of his representatives was arrested by imperial order.
In November 731 he convened a synod at Rome that condemned iconoclasm outright and excommunicated the destroyers of icons. Leo III responded by attempting naval enforcement, but the fleet he sent was shipwrecked in the Adriatic Sea.
The emperor then confiscated the papal patrimonies in Sicily and Calabria and transferred ecclesiastical jurisdiction over those regions from Rome to the Patriarch of Constantinople, stripping the popes of authority they had previously held.
Gregory expressed his commitment to the veneration of images through extensive church construction and decoration. He repaired and beautified numerous churches and commissioned icons of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints. Using onyx and marble columns given by the exarch Eutychius, he erected an iconostasis at St. Peter's Basilica, and he built there a new oratory of Our Lady to house the relics of many saints. He also established the monastery of St. Chrysogonus in Rome.
Support for the Northern Missions
Gregory continued the support, begun by his predecessor Gregory II, for the missionary work of Saint Boniface in Germany, elevating him to the rank of archbishop in 732. Around 737, when Boniface visited Rome, Gregory directed Saint Willibald to assist his labors.
He also approved Tatwine and Nothhelm as Archbishops of Canterbury, bestowing the pallium, and encouraged missionary efforts across northern Europe.
The Lombard Threat
From about 737 to 739, the Lombard king Liutprand's campaigns threatened Rome. Gregory restored the city's defensive walls and recovered the stronghold of Gallese.
He appealed to Charles Martel, the Frankish mayor of the palace, begging for military intervention. Charles sent Frankish ambassadors to Rome in 739, offering implicit diplomatic support and a temporary peace, but he declined direct military action, being occupied with his own campaigns against Umayyad forces in Gaul.
Repose and Veneration
Gregory died on 28 November 741 in Rome and was buried in St. Peter's Basilica, in the oratory of Our Lady he had built at the beginning of his pontificate.
He remained the last pope of Syrian origin for 1,272 years, until the election of Pope Francis in 2013. In the Roman Catholic Church his feast is kept on 10 December; in the Orthodox Church he is commemorated on 28 November, the day of his repose. No formal act of glorification by an Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction is recorded in the available sources; his veneration in Orthodoxy rests on his pre-schism status as a bishop of Rome and his defense of the holy icons.
