Pope Benedict III
?–858 CE · Rome
A learned and respected Roman priest of San Callisto, Benedict III was elected in 855 but faced a violent challenge from the antipope Anastasius Bibliothecarius, backed by imperial agents who briefly imprisoned him; Roman support and a reversal of imperial favor secured his restoration and consecration. His short reign was devoted to repairing churches, relieving the poor, and managing relations with the Frankish kingdoms during their fragmentation. Historically, Benedict's well-attested, securely dated succession immediately after Leo IV leaves no room for the fictional 'Pope Joan' later alleged to have reigned then—making his pontificate a key point in disproving that medieval legend.
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RomeרומאItaly
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Rome in this era
Between the 8th and 15th centuries Rome was the seat of the popes and capital of the Papal States, which grew from the Frankish king Pepin's grant of 756; Charlemagne was crowned emperor in St Peter's in 800. The city shrank far below its ancient size, and from 1309 to 1377 the popes resided at Avignon before returning to Rome.
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Pope St. Leo IV, Pope Formosus, Pope St. Nicholas I, Pope Stephen VI
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Benedict III’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Pope St. Leo IV, Pope Formosus, Pope St. Nicholas I, Pope Stephen VI
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope Benedict III’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.