Theodore II was the son of Photius. He was ordained as a priest by Pope Stephen VI; also his brother Theotius was a bishop. He was pope for twenty days during December 897 before he died. He reinstated the clerics who had been forced from office by Pope Stephen VII, recognizing the validity of the ordinations of Pope Formosus. He had the body of Formosus, which had been thrown in the Tiber and recovered near Porto, reburied in St. Peter's.