Birth. (No date found), Rome. Son of Maurizio. He is also listed as Donos; as Domnus; and as Donnus.

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Deacon cardinalis of the Holy Roman Church before 676. He was of an advanced age when elected to the papacy almost three months after the death of Pope Adeodato II, which occurred on June 16, 676.

Papacy. Consecrated pope on November 2, 676. He kept his baptismal name as pope (1). During his brief pontificate, the schism between Rome and Ravenna ended. Initially, he reached an understanding with Archbishop Reparato, which implied the abandonment of the autocephalous status and independence from Rome, granted by Emperor Constans II in 666. In 677, the new archbishop of Ravenna, Teodoro, submitted to the pope renouncing that status and autonomy from Rome. Emperor Constantine V Pagonato was determined to settle the conflict between Byzantium and Rome because of the Monothelite controversy, and wanted to strengthen the pope's position in the West, because he was the only true interlocutor of the dialogue with the Church of the East. The emperor pressured Patriarch Theodorus I of Constantinople, who was a Monothelite and was even willing to remove the name of Pope Vitalian from the list of bishops, the Dittici (a request that the emperor angrily rejected), to write to Pope Donus, without including the customary profession of faith (the sinodica) but indicating his wish for good relations with Rome. Moreover, on August 12, 676, the monarch wrote a conciliatory letter to the ponitff asking him to send envoys to a meeting to solve theological differences between the two Churches and indicated that the exarch of Ravenna would provide transportation and cover the expenses. (But the pope had died by the time the imperial letter arrived in Rome). When the pope discovered in Rome a Syrian monastery of Nestorian monks, called Monasterium Boetianum, he sent its monks to several other monasteries hoping that they might be converted to the Chalcedonian doctrine and assigned that one to Roman monks. Pope Donus restored and beautified several churches, including St. Peter's basilica, which atrium he paved with marble. The pope also restored the church of S. Eufemia in via Appia, in the Alban territory of the basilica of S. Paolo fuori le mura, as well as another small church, called degli Apostoli in via Ostiense. He was also very generous with the Roman clergy. During his pontificate, Pope Donus ordained six bishops, ten priests and five deacons.

Death. April 11, 678, Rome. Buried in St. Peter's basilica, Rome, on the following April 15. His tomb was destroyed during the demolition of the old basilica and the construction of the new one in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1,; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. , no. ; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. ; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 145, no. 1; Gasparri, Stefano. "Dono." Enciclopedia dei papi. 3 vols. Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000, I, 610-612; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 77; Le Liber pontificalis. Paris : E. de Boccard, 1981, 1955. 3 v. : facsims. (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome). Notes: Reprint of the 1955 edition./ Includes indexes./ Vol. 3: "Additions et corrections de L. Duchesne publiées par Cyrille Vogel ... avec L'Histoire du Liber pontificalis dupuis l'édition de L. Duchesne une bibliographie et des tables générales, I, ; Montini, Renzo Uberto. Le tombe dei papi. Roma : Angelo Belardetti, 1957. Note: At head of title: Instituto di studi romani, p. 123, no. 78; Petruzzi, Caterina. "Dono, papa." Mondo vaticano. Passato e presente. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, p. 453-454; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 54; Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab conditio Ecclesia. Ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1956. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published : Lipsiae : Veit et comp., 1885-1888. Original t.p. included : Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia : ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Editionem secundam correctam et auctam edidit Philippus Jaffè ; auspiciis Gulielmi Wattenbach; curaverunt S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner, P. Ewald, I, 238.