Donus (or Domnus), Pope, son of a Roman called Mauricius; he was consecrated Bishop of Rome 2 Nov., 676, to succeed Adeodatus II, after an interval of four months and seventeen days; d. 11 April, 678. Of his life and acts but little is known. The “Liber Pontificalis” informs us that he paved the atrium or quadrangle in front of St. Peter’s with great blocks of white marble. He also restored the church of St. Euphemia on the Appian Way, and repaired the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, or, according to Duchesne’s conjecture, the little church on the road to St. Paul’s, which marks the spot where Sts. Peter and Paul are said to have parted on their way to martyrdom. During the pontificate of Donus, Reparatus, the Archbishop of Ravenna, returned to the obedience of the Holy See, thus ending the schism created by Archbishop Maurus who had aimed at making Ravenna autocephalous. In the time of this pope a colony of Nestorian monks was discovered in a Syrian monastery at Rome—the Monasterium Boetianum. The pope is said to have dispersed them through the various religious houses of the city, and to have given over their monastery to Roman monks. After a brief reign of one year, five months, and ten days, Donus died and was buried in St. Peter’s. His portrait in mosaic was at one time to seen in the church of St. Martina in the Forum.
Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne® (Paris, 1886), I, 348 sq.; Jarré, Regesta Rom. Pont. (Leipzig, 1885), I, 238; Mann, The Lives of the Popes (London, 1902), I, Pt. II, 20 sq.
Thomas Oestreich.