Ayear of three popes is a year when theCollege of Cardinals of theCatholic Church is required to elect two newpopes within the same calendar year, in particular the last instance in 1978.^[1][2] Such a year has historically occurred when a newly elected pope dies very early into his papacy. This results in the Catholic Church being led by three different popes during the same calendar year.^[3] In one instance, in 1276, there was a year of four popes.^[4]

There have been twelve instances in which exactly three popes have held office in a given calendar year.

• 827:Eugene II^[5] —Valentine^[6] —Gregory IV^[7] (Valentine was Pope for just 41 days when he died.)
• 896:Formosus^[8] —Boniface VI^[9] —Stephen VI^[10] (After a pontificate of fifteen days, Boniface is said by some to have died of the gout or been forcibly ejected)
• 897:Stephen VI^[10] —Romanus^[11] —Theodore II^[12] (Pontificate of Romanus ended when he was deposed and confined to a monastery.)
• 964:Leo VIII^[13] —Benedict V^[14] —John XIII^[15] (First Leo was overthrown, then Benedict himself was overthrown)
• 1003:Sylvester II^[16] —John XVII^[17] —John XVIII^[18] (John XVII died less than six months after taking office)
• 1045:Sylvester III^[19][a] —Benedict IX (second reign)^[20] —Gregory VI^[21][a] (Benedict gave up the papacy to his godfather after a month in exchange for money)
• 1187:Urban III^[22] —Gregory VIII^[23] —Clement III^[24] (Gregory VIII died of fever after 57 days in office)
• 1503:Alexander VI^[25] —Pius III^[26] —Julius II^[27] (Pius III died of a septiculcer on his leg after 26 days in office)
• 1555:Julius III^[28] —Marcellus II^[29] —Paul IV^[30] (Marcellus died of astroke after 22 days in office)
• 1590:Sixtus V^[31] —Urban VII^[32] —Gregory XIV^[33] (Urban died ofmalaria after 12 days in office, making him the shortest serving pope)
• 1605:Clement VIII^[34] —Leo XI^[35] —Paul V^[36] (Leo died of fever after 27 days in office)
• 1978:Paul VI —John Paul I —John Paul II (John Paul I died, likely from a heart attack, after 33 days in office)^[2]

There was also a year in which the Roman Catholic Church was led by four popes, called theYear of Four Popes:

• 1276:Gregory X^[37] —Innocent V^[38] —Adrian V^[39] —John XXI^[40] (Innocent died after five months in office, then Adrian died after one month)^[4]

• List of popes by length of reign
• Western Schism, which from 1409 to 1414 saw three simultaneous claimants to the Papacy
• Year of the Three Kings
• Year of the Three Emperors
• Year of three prime ministers

• History of the papacy

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2014