ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL Saints celebrated on the 2nd of April WELCOME! JOHN XVI ⬅️ Saintly Popes - Index (John XVII.) Antipope from 997 to 998; he died probably in 1013. After the death of John XV, Bruno, a relative of Otto III and his chaplain, was raised through the royal influence to the papal throne as Gregory V, and crowned on May 3, 996. On May 21 the new pope placed the imperial crown on the young King Otto III in Rome. After Otto's departure the patricius Crescentius and his followers rose against the pope, and in September, 996, drove him out of the city. In the following May (997) Archbishop John Philagathus of Piacenza, who had returned shortly before from a mission to Constantinople whither he had been sent by Otto III, was made antipope by Crescentius. John was a native of Rossano in Calabria, at that time a part of the Byzantine Empire. He became a monk and was closely connected with Empress Theophano, through whose influence he received the...