Pope Pius IX

Pontiff who regarded himself as a prisoner

Pope Pius IX's reign was the longest in
history but ended in controversy

Pope Pius IX, who died on this day in 1878 in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City in Rome, had the longest verified papal reign in history, having been head of the Catholic Church since 1846.

He is also remembered for permanently losing control of the Papal States, which became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. Afterwards he refused to leave Vatican City and often referred to himself as ‘a prisoner of the Vatican’.

Pius IX was born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti in 1792 in Senigallia in Le Marche which was then part of the Papal States.

While studying theology, Mastai Ferretti met Pope Pius VII when he was visiting his hometown and afterwards, he entered the Papal Noble Guard. He was dismissed after he suffered an epileptic seizure, but Pius VII supported him continuing with his theological studies and he was ordained a priest in 1819.

Pope Leo X chose him to support the Apostolic Nunzio on a mission to Chile and although it ended in failure the Pope gave him new roles and appointed him Archbishop of Spoleto in 1827, where he gained the reputation of being both efficient and liberal.

Mastai Ferretti became Cardinal Priest of Santi Marcellino e Pietro, where he was known for visiting prisoners, devising programmes to help street children and sympathising with the nationalist movement in Italy.

The murder of Pellegrino Rossi sparked an 
angry uprising against the papal government

After he was elected Pope in 1846, Mastai Ferretti chose the name Pius IX to honour Pope Pius VII, who had helped him at the beginning of his career. Pius IX was a popular choice at the time, because he was expected to be a reforming liberal who supported the movement to unify Italy.

But after the revolutions of 1848, Pius IX changed his position. He had appointed Pellegrino Rossi, an economist and politician as his Interior Minister and put him in charge of a programme of unpopular reforms. He also withdrew the support of the Papal Army from the First Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Empire.

On November 15 1848, when Rossi arrived at the Palazzo della Cancelleria to present his plans for a new constitutional order, he was stabbed in the neck while climbing the stairs to the assembly hall.

The murder of Rossi encouraged an uprising against the papal government and Pius IX was besieged inside the Palazzo del Quirinale by an unruly mob. Pius IX was forced to negotiate with the revolutionaries and to appoint a more liberal ministry.

Victor Emanuel II was
excommunicated by Pius IX

However, on the evening of 24 November, helped by his close allies, he was able to escape from the palace disguised as an ordinary priest and flee to Gaeta, in the Kingdom of Naples, where the King of the Two Sicilies had promised him refuge.

A Roman Republic was declared in February 1849 and Pius IX responded form his exile by excommunicating all those taking part.

When the Pope returned to Rome in 1850, he decided to move from the Quirinale to the Vatican, where popes have resided ever since.

After defeating the papal army in 1860, Victor Emanuel II of Sardinia seized all the papal territories and took the title King of Italy. Pius IX refused to recognise the new Italian kingdom and excommunicated all the leaders, including the King.

Pius IX absolved Victor Emanuel II of all excommunications and punishments before the King died in January 1878 and gave permission for him to be buried in the Pantheon. The Pope died himself one month later on 7 February, aged 85. Although tradition holds that Saint Peter was Pope for 37 years, this can’t be verified, so Pius IX is on record as having had the longest, verified papal reign, at almost 32 years.

He was originally buried in St Peter’s grotto, but his body was moved in a night procession in 1881 to the Basilica of St Lawrence outside the Walls. As the procession approached the river, soldiers had to prevent a group of protesting Romans from throwing the coffin into the Tiber.

Pius IX was beatified in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, who gave him a more elaborate tomb in the Basilica rather than the simple grave where he was originally laid to rest. The annual liturgical commemoration for Pius IX was declared to be 7 February, the date of his death.

The 1930s Liberty-style Rotonda a Mare is 
an attraction of modern-day Senigallia

Travel tip:

Senigallia, where Pope Pius IX was born, is a port town on the Adriatic coast in the province of Ancona in Le Marche. Senigallia was captured and recaptured many times by opposing sides in the Guelph and Ghibelline wars. In 1503, Cesare Borgia carried out a raid on Senigallia to punish some of his disloyal supporters. The port was then ruled by the Della Rovere family and Medici family in turn before being annexed to the papal states. The town was damaged during World War I, by a powerful earthquake in 1930, and during World War II. It is now a popular summer holiday destination.

Gaeta is built on a promontory jutting
out into the Gulf of Gaeta

Travel tip:

Gaeta, where Pope Pius IX fled after being besieged in Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, is a city in the province of Latina in Lazio, 120 km (75 miles) south of Rome, set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta. Today it is a fishing and oil seaport and a popular resort with tourists. It has a huge Aragonese-Angevine Castle, which dates back to the sixth century and the Cathedral of Assunta e Sant’Erasmo, which was built over a more ancient church and consecrated by Pope Paschal II in 1106. 

Also on this day:

1497: The Bonfire of the Vanities

1622: The birth of Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

1909: The birth of army horseman Amedeo Guillet

1941: The birth of pop singer Little Tony

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The murder of Pellegrino Rossi

Political assassination opened way to creation of Roman Republic

A magazine illustration depicting the murder of
Pellegrino Rossi at the Palazzo della Cancelleria

One of the key events during the revolutionary upheaval of 1848 in Italy took place on this day in that year when the politician Count Pellegrino Rossi was murdered at the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the seat of the government of the Papal States in Rome.

The event precipitated turmoil in Rome and led eventually to the formation of the short-lived Roman Republic.

Rossi was the Minister of the Interior in the government of Pope Pius IX and as such was responsible for a programme of unpopular reforms, underpinned by his conservative liberal stance, which gave only the well-off the right to vote and did nothing to address the economic and social disruption created by industrialisation.

Street violence, stirred up by secret societies such as Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Italy movement, had been going on for weeks in Rome and Rossi had been declared an enemy of the people in meetings as far away as Turin and Florence.

Rossi's reforms had failed to address the social
and economic problems besetting Rome

There was also anger in Rome at Pius IX’s decision to withdraw the support of the Papal Army from the First Italian War of Independence, being fought between the the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and the Austrian Empire.

On November 15, 1848, Rossi arrived at the Palazzo della Cancelleria to present his plan for a new constitutional order to the legislative assembly. He was warned ahead of the meeting that an attempt would be made on his life but he defied the threat with the words: “I defend the cause of the pope, and the cause of the pope is the cause of God. I must and will go.”

However, as he climbed the stairs leading to the assembly hall, an individual stepped forward and struck him with a cane. Rossi turned towards his attacker and as he did so was set upon by another assailant, who drove a dagger into his neck.

The murderer was said to be Luigi Brunetti, the elder son of Angelo Brunetti, a fervent democrat, acting on the instigation of Pietro Sterbini, a journalist and revolutionary who was a friend of Mazzini. Though members of the Civic Guard were in the courtyard when the attack took place, no one attempted to arrest the count’s killer and when crowds gathered later at the house of Rossi's widow, they chanted ‘Blessed is the hand that stabbed Rossi’.

Giuseppe Mazzini was one of the
leaders of the Roman Republic

The murder spurred the secret societies to foment an uprising against the papal government. The following day, Pius IX was besieged inside the Palazzo del Quirinale by an unruly mob. The pope’s Swiss Guard was able to hold back the mob for a time but when it seemed the crowd was about to disperse, up to 1,000 members of the Civic Guard, the police, and other soldiers marched into the palace’s piazza and opened fire on the palace, including with cannons. Knowing resistance was useless, Pius IX agreed to negotiate with revolutionaries.

Demands were made for a democratic government, social reforms and a declaration of war against the Empire of Austria.  Pius IX had little option but to appoint a liberal ministry, but he refused to abdicate and forbade the government to pass any laws in his name.

In the event, on the evening of November 24, with the help of close allies and his personal attendant, Pius IX escaped from the Palazzo del Quirinale disguised as an ordinary priest, slipping through one of the gates of the city and boarding a carriage that was to take him to Gaeta, a city 120km (75 miles) south of Rome, where the King of the Two Sicilies had promised him a refuge.

Rossi was commemorated with a statue
in his native Carrara in Tuscany

It meant that, for the first time in history, Rome was without a government. Into the void stepped Mazzini, his supporter Aurelio Saffi and the popular Roman activist Carlo Armellini, who formed a triumvirate at the head of a Roman Republic, which was declared officially on February 9, 1849.

The republic put forward some progressive ideas, including religious tolerance and an end to capital punishment, but in the event it was a short-lived revolution. Ironically, it was crushed by a former ally, Napoleon III of France, who had once participated in an uprising against the Papal States but who now, under pressure from the Catholic Church in France, felt compelled to send an army to restore Pius XI to power.

The Romans put up a fight, aided by a Republican army led by Garibaldi, but the city fell in late June and with it the Republic.

The Palazzo della Cancelleria, built between 1489 and
1513, is thought to be the oldest Renaissance palace in Rome

Travel tip:

The Palazzo della Cancelleria, which is situated between Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Campo de' Fiori, is a Renaissance palace, probably the earliest Renaissance palace to be built in Rome. It is the work of the architect Donato Bramante between 1489 and 1513, initially as a residence for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who was the Camerlengo - treasurer - of the Holy Roman Church under Pope Sixtus V. It evolved as the seat of the Chancellery of the Papal States.  The Roman Republic used it as their parliament building.

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The Palazzo del Quirinale has been the residence in Rome
of 30 popes, four kings and 12 presidents

Travel tip:

The Palazzo del Quirinale was built in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII as a summer residence and served both as a papal residence and the offices responsible for the civil government of the Papal States until 1870. When, in 1871, Rome became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy, the palace became the official residence of the kings of Italy, although some monarchs, notably King Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), lived in a private residence elsewhere. When the monarchy was abolished in 1946, the Palazzo del Quirinale became the official residence and workplace for the presidents of the Italian Republic. So far, it has housed 30 popes, four kings and 12 presidents.

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More reading:

Why Mazzini was seen as the hero of the Risorgimento

Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand

How Aurelio Saffi became Mazzini's trusted ally

Also on this day:

1905: The birth of band leader Mantovani

1922: The birth of neorealist film director Francesco Rosi

1940: The birth of fashion designer Roberto Cavalli



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