Pope Leo II was the bishop of Rome from 17 August 682 to his death. He is one of the popes of the Byzantine Papacy. Described by a contemporary biographer as both just and learned, he is commemorated as a saint in the Roman Martyrology on 28 June.
Church dedicated to Pope St Leo II in Villanova del Sillaro, Lombardy.
The Byzantine Papacy was a period of Byzantine domination of the Roman Papacy from 537 to 752, when popes required the approval of the Byzantine Emperor for episcopal consecration, and many popes were chosen from the apocrisiarii or the inhabitants of Byzantine-ruled Greece, Syria, or Sicily. Justinian I reconquered the Italian peninsula in the Gothic War (535–554) and appointed the next three popes, a practice that would be continued by his successors and later be delegated to the Exarchate of Ravenna.
The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, consecrated in 547, combines Western and Byzantine elements.
The Column of Phocas, the only extant public monument erected in seventh-century Rome by the Byzantines
Pope Martin I was abducted by Constans II and died in exile.
Pope Zachary was the last pope of Greek extraction and the last to seek imperial confirmation of his election.
