Leo IX, St (1002–1054)

Pope 1049–54, successor to Damasus II. With the aid of his chief minister Hildebrand (later Pope Gregory VII), he undertook important judicial and administrative reforms to combat corruption in the Vatican. He also tried in vain to prevent the schism between eastern Orthodoxy and western Catholicism, which finally occurred in 1054. Taken prisoner by the Normans at Benevento when they invaded southern Italy in 1052, he died shortly after his release.

Leo IX was a friend of the English king Edward the Confessor, and was visited by Macbeth.