Sergius II
Sergius · 844 – 847
Consecrated without waiting for imperial approval and saw Rome sacked by Saracen raiders who looted St. Peter's itself.
Sergius was a Roman nobleman who became pope in 844 without waiting for the Carolingian emperor's confirmation, a break with recent protocol. His pontificate was dominated by simony accusations and, most devastatingly, the Saracen raid on Rome in 846, when Muslim raiders sailed up the Tiber and looted the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul. Sergius, old and ill, was powerless to stop them. He died shortly after.
When Rome Burned
In 846, Saracen raiders reached Rome and looted St. Peter's Basilica. It was a catastrophe that shocked the Christian world. Sergius II, sick and aging, could do nothing. His successor Leo IV would build the walls that Sergius should have built. But the shock of that raid changed how Rome thought about its own defense permanently.