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Really Inappropriate Deaths in History

Khalid Elhassan December 19, 2020 32 min

35. The Two Time Pope Who Died During Fornication

Pope Leo VIII (915 – 965) was Holy Father – or at least asserted himself as Holy Father – twice. Once from 963 to 964, and then again from June 964 until his death the following March. The Catholic Church considers him to have been an antipope during that first 963 to 964 stretch, but to have been a legitimate pope the second time around, from 964 to 965.

Understandably, he did not accomplish that much during his brief stints as pope to make him a figure of much historic significance. He is better known not for what he did in life, but for how he shuffled off the mortal coil: Pope Leo VIII died while getting it on.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.