Birthplace
Rome
Pope from
2 June 575
Pope until
30 July 579
Died
30 July 579
Who he was
Benedict was a Roman, the son of Boniface, and was known to the Greeks as Bonosus. Because the Lombards cut Rome off from Constantinople, he waited nearly eleven months for the emperor's confirmation before he could be consecrated in June 575. Practically nothing else is known of him.
What he is remembered for
He reigned four years amid Lombard raids and famine, and died while trying to relieve the city. He made a grant of land to a monastery near Spoleto and, at one ordination, consecrated twenty-one bishops.
Sources
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