Benedict I

Benedict · 575 – 579

Led Rome through famine and Lombard siege, waiting four months for Constantinople to confirm his election.

Benedict was a Roman. His election had to be confirmed by the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, a process that took four months while Rome starved. The Lombards were at the gates, grain shipments from Egypt were unreliable, and the city's population was shrinking from hunger and plague. Benedict did what he could, distributing whatever food was available, but he died during a Lombard siege of the city. His entire pontificate was an exercise in holding on.

Hungry Rome

Benedict became pope while Romans were starving. Grain from Egypt arrived sporadically, the Lombards controlled the countryside, and the Byzantine government in Constantinople was slow to help. Benedict shared what little there was and died before things got better. Sometimes the job of a pope is simply not to abandon his people.