ADRIANO III, PAPA, saint. - A Roman, son of Benedetto, he was pope from 884 to 885, succeeding Marino. We have neither his biography in the Liber Pontificalis nor any letters of his. The information is very scant and uncertain.
Departing from the policy of his predecessor Marino, he returned, in regard to Fozio, to the conciliatory attitude of Giovanni VIII, informing him of his election. He had to suppress energetically seditious movements in the city of Rome. Martino Polono, a 13th-century chronicler, attributes two decrees to this Pope: by the first he is said to have abolished imperial interference in the election of Popes; by the second he is said to have established that, should Carlo il Grosso die without issue, the imperial crown was to be worn by an Italian prince; but these are not worthy of credence. Carlo il Grosso, on the other hand, who upon the death of Carlomanno had inherited his possessions, thereby reuniting in his hands the whole of the former empire of Carlomagno, invited the Pope to the diet of Worms to decide the succession. A. entrusted the government of the city to the imperial envoy Giovanni, bishop of Pavia, and departed. He died while travelling at Vilzicara (S. Cesario near Spilamberto), an estate of the abbey of Nonautola (Aug. 885), where he was buried. There he was honoured as a saint, and his cult was confirmed by Leone XIII on 10 June 1891.