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 Pope Pius XI Conciliation Issue, Scott 8-13 (1929) February 10 marks the anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XI. Elected pope on February 6, 1922, he died on February 10, 1939, a papacy of just over seventeen years. Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, Pope Pius XI (r. 1922-1939), died on 10 February 1939. He was born in 1857 in Desio, a province of Milan, and ordained priest in 1879. Ratti earned three doctorates (philosophy, canon law, theology), and worked full-time in the Ambrosian Library in Milan from 1888-1911. He was an outstanding paleographer, a student of ancient and medieval church manuscripts. Ratti was also an expert mountaineer. From 1918 to 1921 he served as papal representative to Poland until he was expelled due to the aftermath of conflicts between Poland and the Soviet Union. He was created cardinal in 1921 and was appointed as Archbishop of Milan. Ratti succeeded Pope Benedict XV, elected on the fourteenth ballot at the conclave that followed Benedict’s death 22 January, 1922. After his election he presented his Urbi et Orbi address facing St. Peter’s Square, signaling an opening to the outside world. This was the first step toward reconciliation with the Italian state, in the aftermath of Italian Unification and the end of the Papal States in 1870. This public act eventually encouraged negotiation with Mussolini’s government, which agreed to the Lateran Pacts that established the Vatican City State in 1929. Theologically, Pius XI rejected modernism but encouraged scholarship within the traditional teachings of the Church. He established the Pontifical Academy of Science in 1936 and took the initial steps to pursue cautious and preliminary ecumenical relationships with the Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Churches. In the aftermath of World War I, Europe faced the threats of communism and fascism, and Pius XI issued denunciations of both. He encouraged the development of concordats with European governments such as Nazi Germany and Austria, much of which was the work of Cardinal Pacelli, later his successor as Pius XII (1939-1958). Pope Pius XI appears on many Vatican City stamps, starting with the Conciliation Issue of 1929--the first stamps issued by the Vatican. Additional stamps related to him include: Philatelic Links to Pope Pius XI: REFERENCES: |
