ADRIANO III, POPE, saint. — A Roman, son of Benedetto, he was pope from 884 to 885, succeeding Marino. The *Liber Pontificalis* contains no biography of him, nor any of his letters. The information we have is very scarce and uncertain.
(photo by A. Silvagni)
Departing from the policy of his predecessor Marino, he returned to the conciliatory attitude of John VIII toward Photius, participating in the customary election rites. He had to suppress seditious movements energetically in the city of Rome. Martin of Opava, a 13th-century chronicler, attributes two decrees to this pope: by the first he would have abolished imperial interference in papal elections; by the second he would have decreed that if Charles the Fat died without heirs, the imperial crown was to be taken by an Italian prince; but these claims are not credible. Instead, Charles the Fat, who upon Carloman’s death had inherited his realm and reunited in his hands the whole ancient empire of Charlemagne, invited the pope to the diet at Worms to decide on the succession. He entrusted the government of the city to the imperial envoy John, bishop of Pavia, and set out. He died on the journey at Vilzicara (San Cesario near Spilamberto), a court of the abbey of Nonantola (addendum 885), where he was buried. He was honored there as a saint, and the cult was confirmed by Leo XIII on June 10, 1891.