When the council had lasted three days, Victor became seriously ill and retired to Monte Cassino to die. He had himself carried into the chapter-house, issued various decrees for the benefit of the abbey, appointed with the consent of the monks the prior, Cardinal Oderisius, to succeed him in the abbacy, just as he himself had been appointed by Stephen IX, and proposed Odo of Ostia to the assembled cardinals and bishops as the next pope. He died on 16 September 1087 and was buried in the tomb he had prepared for himself in the abbey's chapter-house. Odo was duly elected his successor as Pope Urban II.