en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sexually_active_popes
2 corrections found
one of whom was subsequently the mother of Pope Gregory I, making the latter his grandson.
This gets Gregory the Great’s family relationship to Felix III wrong. Gregory’s father was Gordianus, and Felix III is commonly identified as Gregory’s great-great-grandfather, not his maternal grandfather.
Full reasoning
The claim misstates both the line of descent and the degree of relationship.
A standard Catholic reference biography of Pope Gregory the Great says:
- "His great-great-grandfather was Pope Felix III"
- "His father was named Gordianus"
That means Gregory was not Felix III’s grandson, and the relevant child in Gregory’s line was not Gregory’s mother. The article’s wording compresses several generations into one and changes the parent in the lineage.
So the statement is incorrect on two points at once:
- Felix III was not Gregory I’s grandfather.
- Gregory’s connection to Felix III did not run through "the mother of Pope Gregory I" as stated here.
1 source
- Pope Saint Gregory the Great - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online
His great-great-grandfather was Pope Felix III who reigned from 483 to 492. ... His father was named Gordianus, and he was a senator and a Prefect of Rome.
Eleutherius, brother of Anastasius Bibliothecarius
This misidentifies Eleutherius’s relationship to Anastasius Bibliothecarius. Reference works describe Anastasius as a nephew of Bishop Arsenius and Eleutherius as Arsenius’s son or a near relative, not Anastasius’s brother.
Full reasoning
The familial relationship here is misstated.
A New Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Anastasius the Librarian says that Anastasius was "the nephew of Arsenius" and that "Eleutherius, the son of Arsenius" abducted and later killed Adrian II’s daughter and wife. If Anastasius was Arsenius’s nephew and Eleutherius was Arsenius’s son, then Eleutherius was not Anastasius’s brother.
An older Catholic Encyclopedia entry is slightly less specific but still contradicts the article’s wording: it calls Eleutherius "a near relative" of Anastasius, not his brother.
So the article’s phrase "brother of Anastasius Bibliothecarius" is incorrect.
2 sources
- Anastasius the Librarian | Encyclopedia.com
By his own account he was the nephew of Arsenius, the influential bishop of Orte ... When Eleutherius, the son of Arsenius, shortly afterward ... ravished the daughter of Adrian II and a few months later killed her and her mother, Stephania
- CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Anastasius Bibliothecarius
He was a nephew of Bishop Arsenius of Orta ... in 868 a near relative of his named Eleutherius forcibly carried off the daughter of the pope, and soon after killed both her and her mother.