Pope John XVII ( la, Ioannes XVII; died 6 November 1003), born John Sicco, was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States for about seven months in 1003. He was one of the popes chosen and eclipsed by the patrician

John Crescentius John Crescentius ( it, Giovanni Crescenzio) also John II Crescentius or Crescentius III (d. 1012) was the son of Crescentius the Younger (Crescentius II). He succeeded to his father's title of consul and patrician of Rome in 1002 and held it to h ...

Family

John Sicco was the son of another John Sicco, and was born in the region of Rome then referred to as Biveretica. Before entering the priesthood, Sicco had been married and had three sons who also entered holy orders: John,

bishop of Praeneste The Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina ( la, Diocesis Praenestina) is a Roman Catholic suburbicarian diocese centered on the comune of Palestrina in Italy. The current bishop of Palestrina is Domenico Sigalini, who from 3 Novembe ...

; Peter, a deacon; and Andrew, a secundicerius.

Pontificate

John XVII succeeded Silvester II as pope on 16 May 1003. He was nominated to the papacy by

, a Roman noble who held power in the city in opposition to Emperor Otto III. John XVII approved of a mission led by Bruno of Querfurt to Eastern Europe. Bruno also requested John XVII to authorize his companion Benedict to evangelize among the

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

. John died on 6 November 1003 and was buried in the Lateran Basilica between the two doors of the principal façade. According to John the Deacon, his epitaph began by stating that "here is the tomb of the supreme John, who is said to be pope, for so he was called." John XVII's successor,

John XVIII Pope John XVIII ( la, Ioannes XVIII; died June or July 1009) was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from January 1004 (25 December 1003 NS) to his abdication in July 1009. He wielded little temporal power, ruling during th ...

, was also selected by Crescentius.

Footnotes

References

* * Attribution: *

Literature

* * John N. D. Kelly: ''Reclams Lexikon der Päpste.'' 2nd edition, Reclam, Stuttgart, 2005 , sub voce. * .

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:John 17 Popes Italian popes 11th-century archbishops 1003 deaths Year of birth unknown 11th-century popes Married Roman Catholic bishops