Pope-elect Stephen
Priest of Rome elected pope in March 752 · Italy · Religious Figures · Lived 700 to 752 · aged 52
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Something wrong?A Roman cardinal who died three days after his election in 752, before he could be consecrated - making him forever a pope-elect, not a pope, and one of only two men in Church history to hold that liminal title.
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About this person
Stephen was a cardinal-priest in 8th-century Rome when the Church selected him on 23 March 752 to succeed Pope Zachary. Three days later, on 26 March, he died - still unconsecrated. Canon law draws a hard line: without episcopal consecration, there is no papacy. The Church struck him from the official roster, and for centuries he was counted as Stephen II until 1961, when historians finally reclassified him. He shares his peculiar status with only one other figure, Pope-elect Celestine II, both men caught in the narrow window between election and legitimacy.
Religious Figures from Italy 6
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