Adrian III of Rome

Adrian III of Rome was bishop of Rome from 17 May 884 to 8 July 885. He shepherded the Church for little more than a year, in a time of famine and war, and strove to ease the suffering of the people of Italy. Few sources survive about him.

He was born in Rome and was elected after Marinus I. He is known to have sent Theodosius, bishop of Brindisi and Oria, to Constantinople with a synodal letter about the faith and the Filioque, addressed to Patriarch Photius.

In 885 Emperor Charles the Fat summoned him to an imperial assembly at Worms, where the succession and the defence against the Saracens were to be discussed. Adrian set out but died on the way, at San Cesario sul Panaro near Modena.

He was buried at the abbey of Nonantola, where his tomb became a place of pilgrimage and his relics lie near the high altar. Tradition says he was honoured as a saint for his generosity to the poor of Rome; his cult was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, and the Church of Rome keeps his feast on 8 July. One source gives 8 and 30 July as Orthodox dates, but we found no Orthodox calendar that remembers him. He is honoured as a saint in the West.