St. Adrian III

Little is known of Adrian III or his pontificate and why he is venerated as a saint, though it is known he worked to mitigate the rigors of a famine in Rome. Of Roman descent, he was elected Pope probably on May 17, 884, opposed the aristocratic faction in Rome led by Formosus, Bishop of Porto, had George of the Aventine, a member of the Formosun group and notorious for several murders he committed, tried, condemned, and blinded, and had a widow of one of the opposing nobility whipped naked through the streets of Rome. He died early in September or on July 8 near Modena while on the way to a diet in Worms, Germany, at the invitation of Emperor Charles the Fat, probably to settle the question of Charles' succession.