Stuff I learned while researching other stuff.
I always do some research for the blogs, and occasionally I find something of interest (to me anyway) that I like to share with our readers. Below are lists of Popes of the Roman Catholic Church with the longest and the shortest reigns:
Popes with the longest reigns
The 10 longest-reigning popes whose reign lengths can be determined from contemporary historical data are the following:
1. Pius IX (1846–1878): 31 years, 7 months and 23 days (11,560 days)
2. John Paul II (1978–2005): 26 years, 5 months and 17 days (9,665 days)
3. Leo XIII (1878–1903): 25 years, 5 months and 1 day (9,281 days)
4. Pius VI (1775–1799): 24 years, 6 months and 15 days (8,962 days)
5. Adrian I (772–795): 23 years, 10 months and 25 days (8,729 days)
6. Pius VII (1800–1823): 23 years, 5 months and 7 days (8,560 days)
7. Alexander III (1159–1181): 21 years, 11 months and 24 days (8,029 days)
8. St. Sylvester I (314–335): 21 years, 11 months and 1 day (8,005 days)
9. St. Leo I (440–461): 21 years, 1 month, and 13 days. (7,713 days)
10. Urban VIII (1623–1644): 20 years, 11 months and 24 days (7,664 days)
Popes with the shortest reigns
This is a list of the 11 shortest-reigning popes:
1. Urban VII (15–27 September 1590): 13 days (died before coronation)
2. Boniface VI (April, 896): 16 days
3. Celestine IV (25 October – 10 November 1241): 17 days (died before consecration)
4. Theodore II (December 897): 20 days
5. Sisinnius (15 January – 4 February 708): 21 days
6. Marcellus II (9 April – 1 May 1555): 22 days
7. Damasus II (17 July – 9 August 1048): 24 days
8. Pius III (22 September – 18 October 1503): 27 days
9. Leo XI (1–27 April 1605): 27 days
10. Benedict V (22 May – 23 June 964): 33 days
11. John Paul I (26 August – 28 September 1978): 34 days
