Pope Leo XI (Alessandro dei Medici) was born in 1535. He became Archbishop of his native Florence and then Cardinal. He was elected Pope on April 1, 1605. But he died only 26 days later, on April 27, just over 400 years ago. He lies buried in the Vatican Basilica in a beautiful monument by Alessandro Algardi.

Other Popes who also reigned for a very short time include Blessed Innocent V, Hadrian V, John XXI, Blessed Benedict XI, Marcellus II and John Paul I.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.