Pope Lando

Lando was born in the Sabina to a wealthy Lombard count named Taino. He became pope sometime in 913 — the exact month is lost to history — almost certainly as the candidate of Count Theophylact I and Senatrix Theodora, the couple who controlled Rome's militia, Senate, and papal purse strings. His pontificate lasted somewhere between four and six months. During that sliver of time, Arab raiders operating from the Garigliano river destroyed the cathedral of San Salvatore in his home diocese. The only recorded act of his reign: a large personal donation to rebuild that same cathedral so the displ…