Who he was
Sergius was of noble birth, from a family that gave the Church two other popes. He was schooled in the papal choir school, made a cardinal-priest by St Paschal I and archpriest under Gregory IV. Most of the electors chose him, but a crowd tried to force the deacon John into the chair; John was shut up in a monastery and Sergius consecrated.
What he is remembered for
Because he was consecrated without waiting for the Emperor Lothair, the emperor sent his son Louis with an army, but Sergius calmed him and crowned him king. In 846 Saracen raiders sacked the basilicas of St Peter and St Paul outside the walls, though the city itself held. He improved churches, aqueducts and the Lateran basilica; one hostile version of his life in the Liber Pontificalis is judged much exaggerated by the others.
Sources
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