Showing posts with label Pope Hormisdas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Hormisdas. Show all posts

21 June 2026

Married Popes

Our discussion on clerical celibacy, and how Emperor Justinian decreed no bishop or higher position could be married, leads us to take a look at popes that were married.

The first, of course, was Peter, long before the mater of celibacy was ever raised in the early Church. Peter's mother-in-law gets mentioned in Mark 1:30, Luke 4:38, and Matthew 8:14–15 when Jesus enters the house where she is and heals her.

Pope Felix III (483 - 492) was the son of a priest and was married himself, though he was widowed before he became pope. He had two children, one of whom was a daughter whose son became Pope Gregory I (590 - 604).

Hormisdas was pope from 514 to 523. He was also widowed before becoming pope, but he had a son who became Pope Silverius I (536 - 537).

Pope John XVII (six months in 1003) was married (whether widowed  cannot find), and had three sons who became priests.

Pope Clement IV (1265 - 1268) was also widowed before he even entered the priesthood, inspired by his father who had done the same. Clement had two or three daughters, all of whom entered convents.

Pope Honorius IV (mentioned here) was also widowed before going into the priesthood, and had two sons.

But now we come to the pope who was married when he was pope. Adrian II was married to Stephania, a Roman noblewoman, before he entered Holy Orders. They had a daughter. Adrian was 75 when Pope Nicholas I died in November 867, and the cardinals chose the humble and devout Adrian as his successor. Adrian, out of humility and (likely) advanced age, tried to turn down the offer, which was wise.

Stephania and their daughter moved into the Lateran Palace with Adrian. Unfortunately, there were elements who did not want him to be pope. Stephania and their daughter were murdered in 868, and Adrian died on 14 December 872.

The story of Stephania's murder comes to us from a contemporary German account, the Annals of Saint Bertin. We'll see what we can find there next time.