The 62nd Pope
Benedict I
Benedict I the 62nd Pope
Pope Benedict I (575 – 579)
When it comes to the four year pontificate of Pope Benedict I, the word "unknown" is the most appropriate term to use. One can blame the Lombard invasion of Italy. Communication links with Constantinople were greatly impeded. It was a custom for the emperor to formally confirm the election of a new pope. Pope Benedict was pope for eleven months before that confirmation arrived.
The lean amount information known about Benedict and his time as pope consist in the facts that he was a Roman, he gave an estate to an Abbot Stephen of St. Mark, and that he ordained 15 priests, three deacons, and twenty one bishops.
The Lombards had laid siege to Rome in 579. Pope Benedict I was believed to have been a victim of the famine that struck the city.
He was interred in Saint Peter Basilica.
Habemus papam