Pius IX (1792-1878), pope (1846-78), whose pontificate, the longest in history, encompassed the First Vatican Council, the promulgation of several important dogmas, and the loss of the Papal States.
Born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, May 13, 1792, in Senigallia, Italy, Pius was ordained in 1819, became archbishop of Spoleto in 1827, and was created cardinal in 1840 by Pope Gregory XVI, whom he succeeded. The first years of his pontificate were marked by liberalism and political reforms in the administration of the Papal States; the constitution granted by Pius in 1848 merely satisfied demands for popular representation, however, and did not quiet the nationalism rising throughout Italy. The revolution of 1848 caused the pope to flee in exile to Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples. Two years later, after the newly established Roman Republic had been dissolved by the intervention of France, Pius returned to the Vatican and thereafter devoted himself to opposing all liberalism, both ecclesiastical and political.
Pius affirmed church control of science, education, and culture in the Papal States and adamantly resisted demands for constitutional government and the unification of Italy. He supported Ultramontanism, a doctrine asserting papal authority in the international church. The triumph of this doctrine at the First Vatican Council resulted in the proclamation of the infallibility of the pope. In a bull published in 1854 he proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In 1864 he issued a syllabus condemning 80 errors, among them the belief that the pope should reconcile himself to “progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.” The temporal power of the papacy had already been greatly diminished when, in 1860, the new Italian Kingdom absorbed all the territory of the Papal States except for Rome. It was ended altogether in 1870, when the French troops protecting papal rule were withdrawn and Rome itself became the capital of a united Italy. Pius, refusing to accept the parliamentary act of 1871 defining the relations between the papacy and the Italian government, retired voluntarily to the Vatican. He remained there until his death, on February 7, 1878, regarding himself a prisoner within its confines, as did his successors until the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty in 1929. In the first step toward sainthood, Pius IX was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the year 2000.
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