** Saint Pope Pius V

In the list of popes given in the Holy See's annual directory, Annuario Pontificio, the following note is attached to the name of Pope Leo VIII ( 963 – 965 ): At this point, as again in the mid-eleventh century, we come across elections in which problems of harmonising historical criteria and those of theology and canon law make it impossible to decide clearly which side possessed the legitimacy whose factual existence guarantees the unbroken lawful succession of the successors of Saint Peter.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI gave a homily about him in Saint Peter's square.

Antipope Felix II was installed as Pope in 355 after the Emperor Constantius II banished the reigning Pope, Liberius, for refusing to subscribe the sentence of condemnation against Saint Athanasius.

Saint Boniface ( c 680 – 750 ), Pope Gregory I ( c 540 – 604, r. 590 – 604 ), Adalbert of Egmond ( 8th century ), and priest Jeroen van Noordwijk, depicted in a 1529 painting by Jan Joostsz van Hillegom, currently on display at the Frans Hals Museum.

The canonization of Saint Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, by Pope John XV in 999 is the first undoubted example of a papal canonization of a saint from outside Rome ( Some historians maintain that the first such canonization was that of Saint Swibert by Pope Leo III in 804 ).

The procedure initiated by the text of Alexander III, confirmed by a bull of Pope Innocent III in the year 1200, issued on the occasion of the canonization of Saint Cunegunde, led to increasingly elaborate inquiries.

For example, Saint Hermann Joseph had his veneration confirmed by Pope Pius XII.

On May 5, 1940 Pope Pius XII named her a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi.

Pope Paul VI gave her the title of Doctor of the Church in 1970 along with Saint Teresa of Ávila making them the first women to receive this honour.

The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark.

The Ecumenical Council of Nicea AD 325 was convened by Constantine under the presidency of Saint Hosius of Cordova and Pope Saint Alexander I of Alexandria to resolve the dispute and eventually led to the formulation of the Symbol of Faith, also known as the Nicene Creed.

The Creed, which is now recited throughout the Christian world, was based largely on the teaching put forth by a man who eventually would become Pope Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, the chief opponent of Arius.

When reports of this reached the Apostolic Throne of Saint Mark, Pope Saint Cyril I of Alexandria acted quickly to correct this breach with orthodoxy, requesting that Nestorius repent.

Pope Cyril I of Alexandria, supported by the entire See, sent a letter to Nestorius known as " The Third Epistle of Saint Cyril to Nestorius.

The most recent Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark was Pope Shenouda III, who died on March 17, 2012, for whom a successor has not yet been chosen.

Both the Patriarchate of Addis Ababa and all Ethiopia, and the Patriarchate of Asmara and all Eritrea do acknowledge the supremacy of honor and dignity of the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria on the basis that both Patriarchates were established by the Throne of Alexandria and that they have their roots in the Apostolic Church of Alexandria, and acknowledge that Saint Mark the Apostle is the founder of their Churches through the heritage and Apostolic evangelization of the Fathers of Alexandria.

However, during the schism between Pope Alexander III and Antipope Victor IV, Absalon stayed loyal to Valdemar even as he joined the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barberossa in supporting Victor IV.

( Philosophumena, VII, xxiii ) The belief was declared heretical by Pope Victor I.

* Pope Victor III ( c 1026 – 87, r. 1086 – 87 )

The Pope had been forced out of Rome as part of the Revolutions of 1848, and Louis Napoleon sent a 14, 000 man expeditionary force of troops to the Papal State under General Nicolas Charles Victor Oudinot to restore him.

In 190 or 191, he was influential in influencing Pope Victor I not to excommunicate the Christian communities of Asia Minor which persevered in the practice of the Quartodeciman celebration of Easter.

Duchesne attributes all biographies from Pope Gregory VII to Urban II to Pandulf, while earlier historians like Giesebrecht and Watterich attributed the biographies of Gregory VII, Victor III, and Urban II to Petrus Pisanus, and the subsequent biographies to Pandulf.

Henry soon died and the council which was held under the direction of Pope Victor II at Cologne formally restored Godfrey to imperial favour.

French scholar Victor Saxer dates the identification of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, and as Mary of Bethany, to a sermon by Pope Gregory the Great on September 21, 591 A. D., where he seemed to combine the actions of three women mentioned in the New Testament and also identified an unnamed woman as Mary Magdalene.

In Rome there were many who claimed to be the rightful bishop though again Irenaeus stressed the validity of one line of bishops from the time of St. Peter up to his contemporary Pope Victor I and listed them.

The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree ( typically conservative, all papal " bulls " were on papyrus until 1022 ), under Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document.

Rosemary and Darroll Pardoe, authors of The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan, theorize that if a female pope did exist, a more plausible time frame is 1086 and 1108, when there were several Antipopes ; during this time the reign of the legitimate Popes Victor III, Urban II, and Paschal II was not always established in Rome, since the city was occupied by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and later sacked by the Normans.

Pope Victor III, in his third book of Dialogues, referred to " his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts.

At this time his health was so weakened that his fellow Christians sent him to Antium to recuperate and he was given a pension by Pope Victor I.

Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino was first chosen pope as Victor III when Gregory VII died in 1085, but after Victor's short reign, Otho was elected Pope Urban II by acclamation ( March 1088 ) at a small meeting of cardinals and other prelates held in Terracina in March 1088.

Five days after the death of Pope Victor II ( who had made him cardinal-priest and abbot of Monte Cassino ) he was chosen to succeed him as Pope Stephen IX.

Pope Victor I was the first bishop of Rome born in the Roman Province of Africa: probably he was born in Leptis Magna ( or Tripolitania ).

His feast day is celebrated on 28 July as " St Victor I, Pope and Martyr ".

Pope Victor changed the language to Latin, which was used in his native North Africa.

Pope Victor II ( c. 1018 – 28 July 1057 ), born Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollenstein, and Hirschberg, was Pope from 1055 to 1057.

** Pope Celestine I ( Roman Catholic Church )

** Pope Sixtus I

This use of the title is said to have originated in the right conceded to the king of France, by the concordat between Pope Leo X and Francis I ( 1516 ), to appoint abbés commendataires to most of the abbeys in France.

** Pope Stephen I

Pope Gregory I repeats the concept, articulated over a century earlier by Gregory of Nyssa that the saved suffer purification after death, in connection with which he wrote of " purgatorial flames ".

The same word in adjectival form ( purgatorius-a-um, cleansing ), which appears also in non-religious writing, was already used by Christians such as Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory I to refer to an after-death cleansing.

Angilbert delivered the document on Iconoclasm from the Frankish Synod of Frankfurt to Pope Adrian I, and was later sent on three important embassies to the pope, in 792, 794 and 796.

# REDIRECT Pope Adrian I

* Pope Adrian I ( c. 700-795 )

* Pope Alexander I, Pope from 106 to 115

Pope Leo I requests Genseric not destroy the ancient city or murder its citizens.

Hippolytus of Rome ( d. 235 ) is commonly considered to be the earliest antipope, as he headed a separate group within the Church in Rome against Pope Callixtus I. Hippolytus was reconciled to Callixtus's second successor, Pope Pontian, and both he and Pontian are honoured as saints by the Roman Catholic Church with a shared feast day on 13 August.

The commentary itself was written during the papacy of Pope Damasus I, that is, between 366 and 384, and is considered an important document of the Latin text of Paul before the Vulgate of Jerome, and of the interpretation of Paul prior to Augustine of Hippo.

* Pope Anastasius I ( died 401 ), pope from November 27, 399 to 401

* Pope Anastasius I – Pope 399 – 401

The Angles are the subject of a legend about Pope Gregory I, who happened to see a group of Angle children from Deira for sale as slaves in the Roman market.

John XXIII was acknowledged as pope by France, England, Bohemia, Prussia, Portugal, parts of the Holy Roman Empire, and numerous Northern Italian city states, including Florence and Venice ; however, the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII was regarded as pope by the Kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Scotland and Gregory XII was still favored by Ladislaus of Naples, Carlo I Malatesta, the princes of Bavaria, Louis III, Elector Palatine, and parts of Germany and Poland.

During the English Reformation the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, at first temporarily under Henry VIII and Edward VI and later permanently during the reign of Elizabeth I.

The first Archbishop of Canterbury was St Augustine ( not to be confused with St Augustine of Hippo ), who arrived in Kent in 597 AD, having been sent by Pope Gregory I on a mission to the English.

According to this account, Athanasius composed it during his exile in Rome, and presented it to Pope Julius I as a witness to his orthodoxy.

In Spain, Adoptionism was opposed by Beatus of Liebana, and in the Carolingian territories, the Adoptionist position was condemned by Pope Hadrian I, Alcuin of York, Agobard, and officially in Carolingian territory by the Council of Frankfurt ( 794 ).