Life
A Roman by birth, he was unanimously chosen to succeed Sergius II. When he was elected, on 10 April 847, he was cardinal of Santi Quattro Coronati and had been subdeacon of Gregory IV and archpriest under his predecessor. His pontificate was chiefly distinguished by his efforts to repair the damage done by the Saracens during the reign of his predecessor to various churches of the city, especially those of St Peter and St Paul.
The Saracens were besieging Gaeta, which led to Leo's order that the walls of the city be restored and strengthened between 848 and 849. When the Muslims approached Portus, he summoned the Repubbliche Marinare (or mariner cities of Italy) – Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi – to form a league. The command of the unified fleet was given to Cesarius, son of Duke Sergius I of Naples. The subsequent Battle of Ostia was one of the most famous in history of the papacy of the Middle Ages and is celebrated in a famous fresco by Raphael and his pupils in his Rooms of the Vatican Palace in the Vatican City. Another episode of Leo's life celebrated by the Urbinate in his series of frescoes for the Incendio di Borgo is the burning of the Anglo-Saxon district of Rome (the "Borgo"), which, according to the legend, was stopped by Leo simply making the sign of the cross.
In order to counter the Saracen menace definitively, Leo ordered a new line of walls encompassing the suburb on the right bank of the Tiber to be built, including St. Peter's Basilica, which had been undefended until this time. The district enclosed by the walls is still known as the Leonine City. He also restored and embellished the damaged Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura and St. Peter's: the latter's altar again received its gold covering (after being stolen), which weighed 206 lb. and was studded with precious gems.
Leo held three synods, one in 850 that was distinguished by the presence of Holy Roman Emperor Louis II, but the other two of little importance. The history of the papal struggle with Hincmar of Reims, which began during Leo's pontificate, belongs properly to that of Nicholas I.
Leo died on 17 July 855 and was buried in St. Peter's Basilica. Benedict III was Leo's immediate successor. A medieval tradition claimed that a woman, Pope Joan, succeeded him, disguising herself as a man, but Joan is generally believed to be fictitious.
Read more about this topic: Pope Leo IV
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)