STEFANO [II]. — Roman presbyter elected upon the death of Zaccaria, between 16 and 23 March 752, but deceased four days later, before the consecratio then required in order to be considered pope.
Indeed, the Lib. Pont. (I, p. 440), which is a contemporary source for this period, and the oldest catalogues do not consider him as such; nevertheless, some still regard him as a true pope, thereby increasing by one the ordinal number of the popes bearing the same name. Since, historically and juridically, S. cannot be considered pope, he has been expunged from our chronology (v. PAPA). A. Pietro Frutz