Pope Clement XII

Financially shrewd pontiff used papal cash for building projects

Pope Clement XII commission many
architectural works in Rome and Ancona

Lorenzo Corsini, who during his time as Pope Clement XII substantially built up the wealth of the Vatican, was born on this day in 1740 in Florence.

While he was pontiff, Clement XII began the construction of the Trevi Fountain, established the Capitoline Museums in Rome, and carried out extensive public building works in the Papal States.

Corsini was the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano, and Elisabetta Strozzi, who was from an old Florentine noble family. He was a nephew of Cardinal Neri Corsini and a distant relative of Saint Andrew Corsini.

After studying at the Jesuit College in Rome, he went to the University of Pisa where he achieved a doctorate in both civil law and canon law.

He practised law under his uncle, Cardinal Corsini, but after the death of both his uncle and father, he renounced his right to become head of his family.

Instead, he purchased from Pope Innocent XI, for 30,000 scudi, a position as a prelate. He subsequently devoted his time and his money to the enlargement of the library bequeathed to him by his uncle.  His home in Piazza Navona went on to become the centre of Rome’s scholarly and artistic life.

In 1690, Corsini was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and he was chosen as nuncio to Vienna, receiving a dispensation from Pope Alexander VIII because he had not yet been ordained as a priest. He did not proceed to the imperial court, because Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, declared that he had the right to select the nuncio from a list of three names furnished by the pope.

Corsini was appointed as governor general of the Castel Sant’Angelo in 1696. Under Pope Clement XI, his talents were used as a courtier and in 1706 he was named as Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna, and he was also retained as papal treasurer.

Pope Benedict XIII made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and he was also appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli and Cardinal Bishop of Frascati.

Luigi Vanvitelli was Pope
Clement XII's architect of choice

Under Benedict XIII the finances of the Papal States had been drained by the cardinal who had been looking after them. After Pope Benedict’s death, the College of Cardinals selected Corsini as his successor, who was by then aged 78.

After he became Pope in 1730, Corsini took the papal name Clement in honour of Pope Clement XI, who had made him a cardinal.

He restored the Papal finances, demanding restitution from the people who had abused the trust of his predecessor. Soon money was pouring into his treasury, enabling him to undertake extensive building programmes in Rome and the Papal States.

Clement XII restored the Arch of Constantine, paved the streets of Rome, and widened Via del Corso.

As part of his aim to improve the wellbeing of his subjects through economic development, Clement XII granted Ancona in Le Marche freeport status and commissioned the architect Luigi Vanvitelli to redesign the ancient port.

He also commissioned Vanvitelli to build the Lazzaretto of Ancona as a quarantine station for the port.

After Clement XII’s death in 1740 his remains were transferred to a tomb in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, for which he had commissioned the building of a new facade after organising a competition, won by Alessandro Galilei, who completed it in 1735.

The Arch of Clementine with the
Arch of Trajan in the foreground

Travel tip:

The architect Luigi Vanvitelli  worked extensively in Ancona in the 1730s under Pope Clement XII, who commissioned him to modernize and expand Ancona’s maritime infrastructure, which had fallen into decline. His contributions included redesigning the port layout, building the Molo Nuovo (New Pier) and most notably the Lazzaretto, also known as the Mole Vanvitelliana, a striking pentagonal complex built on an artificial island, which originally served as a quarantine station for travelers and goods. He also built the Chiesa del Gesù and Casa degli Esercizi spirituali - a church and adjoining spiritual retreat house facing the port, and the Arch of Clementine, which he built just a few metres away from the Arch of Trajan, built 1600 years earlier by the Senate and people of Rome in honour of the Emperor Trajan, who expanded the port of the city out of his own pocket, improving the docks and the fortifications.

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The statue of Pope Clement XII in
front of the San Domenico church

Travel tip:

Also in Ancona, in front of the Chiesa di San Domenico and looking out across the rectangular Piazza del Plebescito, is a statue of Pope Clement XII, the work of the sculptor Agostino Cornacchini, which was erected in 1738. It was originally destined for the portico of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, where it remained for just under a year before being moved to Ancona at the suggestion of the pope’s nephew, Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, in recognition of the work he had commissioned to modernise the port and the city.  Piazza del Plebiscito is also known locally as Piazza del Papa. The Chiesa di San Domenico, at the top of the square’s incline, is a Baroque church built by Carlo Marchionni and completed in 1778. The interior is notable for two outstanding paintings, the Annunciation by Guercino in the first chapel on the left, and Titian’s altarpiece, The Crucifixion. 

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More reading:

How the election of Antipope Clement VII sparked a split in Catholic Church

Pope Innocent XII, the pontiff who ended the practice of nepotism in the papal appointments

The flamboyant pope who helped make books available to ordinary people

Also on this day:

1763: The birth of musician Domenico Dragonetti 

1794: The birth of opera singer Giovanni Battista Rubini

1883: The birth of painter and mosaicist Gino Severini

1906: Vesuvius eruption kills more than 200

1973: The birth of footballer Marco Delvecchio

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Benedict the Moor – Saint

Devout son of slaves was canonised by a Pope

Benedict the Moor was recognised for his
compassion towards the poor and his forbearance

An Afro-Sicilian Franciscan friar known as Benedict the Moor, who was made a saint nearly 300 years after his birth, was born on this day in 1526 in San Fratello in Sicily.

Benedict was the son of African slaves who had been captured and taken to work in San Fratello, which is a small town in the province of Messina.

His parents were given Italian names, Cristoforo and Diana Massaneri, and were converted to Christianity. They were granted freedom for their son before his birth because of what was then described as their loyal service to their master.

Benedict is also sometimes referred to as Benedict of Palermo, Benedict the Black, or Benedict the African. He worked as a shepherd during his youth and often gave the money he had earned to the poor.

Although Benedict did not attend school and was illiterate, he became well known for his charity.

As an adult he was publicly insulted because of his colour and his forbearance at the time was noticed by the leader of an independent group of hermits. They were living on Monte Pellegrino, an isolated rocky promontory on the northern coast of Palermo, following rules that had been written by St Francis of Assisi.

Benedict was invited to join the community and he gave up all his earthly possessions. He worked as the cook for the community and went on to become their leader when he had reached the age of 28.

A statue of Benedict the Moor at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art 

In 1564, Pope Pius IV disbanded all independent groups of hermits, ordering them to join established religious orders. Benedict was assigned to the Franciscan Friary of St Mary of Jesus in Palermo.

He started as a cook, but was soon appointed as a master of novices and later as a guardian of the community, although he was a lay brother rather than a priest. He helped the order to adopt a stricter version of Franciscan rule and became respected for his intuitive knowledge of theology and scripture.

It is claimed that he kept seven 40-day fasts throughout the year and slept for only a few hours each night. 

He was often sought after for counselling and developed a reputation for being able to heal the sick.

When Benedict died at the age of 65 it was claimed he had passed away at the very hour, and on the very day, that he had himself predicted. 

At the entrance to his cell in the Franciscan friary there is a plaque inscribed with the words: ‘This is the cell where Saint Benedict lived,’ which gives the dates of his birth and death.

After his death, King Philip III of Spain ordered a magnificent tomb to be built to house Benedict’s remains in the friary church in Palermo.

Benedict was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1743 and canonised by Pope Pius VII in 1807. It is claimed his body was found incorrupt upon exhumation at the time. His major shrine was in Palermo, but the church and his relics were almost completely destroyed during wildfires in 2023.

He is remembered for his patience and understanding when confronted with racial abuse and taunts and, because of this, he has been declared a patron saint of African Americans. Several Catholic parishes in the United States are named after him.

San Fratello sits on a spectacular rocky outcrop in
countryside from which many emigrated to the US

Travel tip:

San Fratello, where Saint Benedict was born, is a municipality in the Nebrodi mountains in the northeast corner of Sicily. It was founded by the Normans in the 11th century. Their Gallo-Italic dialect is still spoken in the area. Situated about 110km (68 miles) east of Palermo and about 90km (56 miles) west of Messina, it takes its name from three pious brothers: Alfio, Cirino and Filadelfo, in whose honour a festival is held annually on May 10. It is said that the village sits on the site of the ancient Greek city of Apollonia, exactly on the summit of Monte Vecchio where the ruins are visible. The area has become increasingly prone to landslides, with more than one third of the population forced to evacuate the village in 2010, when extensive damage occurred. The village currently has just under 4,000 inhabitants but was once home to more than 10,000, its numbers diminishing in the early part of the 20th century when many residents left the area to emigrate, especially to the United States, where it is estimated there are 5,000 people who can trace their roots back to San Fratello. These include the ancestors of the American actor Al Pacino, whose father, Salvatore, returned to visit the area in 2002.

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The Monte Pellegrino promontory seen across
the harbour at Palermo in western Sicily

Travel tip:

Monte Pellegrino, where Saint Benedict once lived with other hermits,  is an isolated carbonate rock promontory on the northern coast of Palermo. It is 606 meters above sea level, making it the highest peak in the area, and it has become one of Palermo’s most  frequently represented symbols. It was described by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German writer and polymath, as the most beautiful promontory in the world and is seen by many Palermitani as giving protection to their city. The mountain is home to the Sanctuary of Santa Rosalia, a pilgrim hermitage named in honour of Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo.  Called Monti Piddirinu in Sicilian dialect, the mountain range is characterised by steep slopes over whose surfaces the water does not flow, but instead filters through numerous cracks and crevices.

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More reading:

Saint Rosalia, the Norman noblewoman credited with saving Palermo from plague

Why hundreds of thousands take to the streets of Catania to celebrate Saint Agatha

The Caravaggio masterpiece depicting the burial of Santa Lucia

Also on this day:

1752: The birth of composer Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli

1951: The birth of singer-songwriter Francesco De Gregori

1960: The birth of businesswoman Daniela Riccardi

1963: The birth of journalist and politician Irene Pivetti

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