Formosus
Formosus · 891 – 896
A capable pope whose corpse was infamously exhumed and put on trial by his successor in the gruesome Cadaver Synod.
Formosus was bishop of Porto before becoming pope in 891. He was an experienced missionary who had evangelized the Bulgarians. As pope, he crowned two different men as Holy Roman Emperor and navigated complex Italian politics. He died in 896, but his story did not end there. His successor Stephen VI had Formosus's corpse exhumed, dressed in papal vestments, and put on trial in the notorious Cadaver Synod — one of the most bizarre events in Church history.
Why He Matters
Formosus is mostly remembered for what happened after he died, which is unfair. He was a skilled diplomat and missionary. But the Cadaver Synod remains one of the strangest episodes in papal history — and a reminder that the ninth century was a wild time for the Church.