Leo VI: A Voice in the Saeculum Obscurum
The Sixth of the Leos | Pope Leo VI (928 AD)
“My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?”
— Psalm 41:3, Douay-Rheims
If Leo V was a forgotten pope, then Leo VI was a silenced one.
He reigned for only seven months, from June 928 to early 929 AD, during one of the most chaotic and corrupt periods in the history of the papacy, the so-called Saeculum Obscurum, the “Dark Century,” when popes were made and unmade by Roman aristocrats, and the See of Peter was less a throne of grace than a pawn in violent noble feuds.
It is not that Leo VI failed. It is that he was never truly allowed to begin.
Rome Held Hostage
To understand Leo VI, one must understand his world. By 928, Rome was effectively ruled by the Theophylacti, a powerful noble family whose matriarch, Marozia, wielded enormous influence. She and her relatives controlled the papal elections, installed and deposed pontiffs at will, and governed Rome with a mixture of wealth, seduction, and violence.
Pope Leo VI was elevated to the papacy in the wake of the death of Pope John X, who had been imprisoned, almost certainly at Marozia’s command, and later strangled to death in Castel Sant’Angelo.
Leo VI likely owed his election to these same forces, though perhaps reluctantly. It is entirely possible that he was chosen not for his holiness, but for his pliability—a man whose silence could be bought, or whose voice would not protest.
Yet we do not know if he was complicit or captive. We only know he reigned and then was replaced.
What Did He Do?
No papal bulls survive.
No councils were called.
No reforms enacted.
He may have been a placeholder, a peace offering between warring factions, or a quiet pastor trying to hold the Church together while greater powers tore at her flesh. According to some sparse accounts, he may have issued minor decrees involving liturgical matters or the governance of clergy, but even these are uncertain.
And yet… he was Pope.
And even the silent shepherd bears the keys.
Dignity in Disappearance
There is a strange beauty in Leo VI’s obscurity. His life reminds us of those monks who spent their whole lives praying behind cloistered walls, their names unknown to the world, but inscribed in Heaven.
We often forget that the holiness of the papacy does not lie in visibility or triumph. It lies in the unbroken chain, the flickering lamp that refuses to go out, even when every earthly wind tries to snuff it.
Leo VI held the line.
He did not roar. He barely even whispered. But he stood between the past and the future, and he passed on the flame.
“Be still, and see that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.”
— Psalm 45:11, Douay-Rheims
Stillness is not absence. Sometimes it is the most profound form of witness.
The Lion Beneath the Ashes
It is tempting to judge Pope Leo VI as a weak figure, a footnote in a shameful century. But the Holy Spirit did not abandon the Church in the 10th century—He remained, even if hidden beneath layers of sin and scandal. The papacy of Leo VI, brief and voiceless as it may have been, is a reminder of this divine fidelity.
For even when the bark of Peter is battered and her captain forgotten, Christ does not sleep. And sometimes, it is enough simply to remain faithful—to keep vigil when the night is long and no one is watching.
Leo VI was one such watcher.