Pope Benedict II

Benedict II became bishop of Rome on 26 June 684, stepping into a role that had by then consolidated significant religious authority across the Christian West. His papacy unfolded quietly through the summer and autumn, then through winter and into the following spring. On 8 May 685, less than eleven months after his election, he died. The Church assigned his feast day to 7 May, the day before his death, where it remains in the liturgical calendar—a slim memorial to a brief tenure.