Leo IV of Rome

Leo IV of Rome was bishop of Rome from 847 to 855. He is remembered for the care with which he restored the churches plundered by the Saracens and for defending Rome against new attacks. He is honoured as a saint in the Church of Rome, which keeps his feast on 17 July; we found no Orthodox calendar that remembers him.

He was born in Rome, of Lombard stock, the son of Radoald, and was educated in the monastery of Saint Martin near Saint Peter's, where he became a monk. Pope Gregory IV made him a subdeacon, and Pope Sergius II made him priest of the church of the Four Crowned Saints. In April 847 he was chosen unanimously as bishop of Rome and was consecrated in haste, without waiting for the emperor's consent, since the Romans feared the Saracens who had attacked the city in 846.

He restored the churches of Saint Paul outside the walls and of Saint Peter, which the Saracens had plundered, and repaired the walls of Rome, rebuilding fifteen towers. With help from the emperor and the cities of the duchy he enclosed the Vatican hill with a wall, a work of about four years; the district so enclosed is still called the Leonine City. In 849 he gathered a league of the maritime cities of Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi, whose united fleet destroyed the Saracen ships at the battle of Ostia.

The Liber Pontificalis relates that, when a fire threatened the Borgo district and Saint Peter's, Leo put it out with the sign of the Cross. He held three synods, received on pilgrimage King Aethelwulf of Wessex and his sons, among them Alfred the Great, and reposed on 17 July 855. He was buried in Saint Peter's.