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Pope Pius XI 
Conciliation Issue, Scott 8-13 (1929)</center>
 
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 was born in 1857 in Desio, 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 to1911. He was an outstanding paleographer (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 in 1922, he presented his Urbi et Orbi address facing St. Peter’s Square, signaling an opening to the outside world and a 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 his Secretary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who would be 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--shown at the top of this article. Additional stamps related to him include:
 
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Gardens & Medallions Issue (Scott 28-31, 1933)
 
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Provisional Set of 1934 (Scott 35-40)
 
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Interregnum: Sede Vacante (Scott 61-67, 1939)
 
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25th Anniversary of the Vatican Pacts (Scott 174-175, 1954)
 
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30th Anniversary of the Vatican Pacts (Scott 254-255, 1959)
 
<img height='225px' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/657.jpg' >
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Vatican City 50th Anniversary (Scott 657-658, 1979)
 
<img height='225px' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1403.jpg' > 
Vatican City 80th Anniversary (Scott 1403, 2009)
 
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Vatican City 90th Anniversary (Scott 1709, 2019)</center>
 
REFERENCES:<br.
<li><li>Greg Pirozzi, Vatican Notes, Volume 66, Number 376, p. 2, 2018, <a href='http://vaticanstamps.org/vaticannotes/idisplay.php?p=66-376-02-03&r=0'>Notable Postcard: A Visit With Pope Pius XI</a> 
<li>Anonymous, Vatican Notes, Volume 61, Number 355, p. 48, 2013, <a href='http://vaticanstamps.org/vaticannotes/idisplay.php?p=61-355-48-99&r=0'>Registered Letters To Pius XI</a> 
<li>Anonymous, Vatican Notes, Volume 27, Number 1, pp. 2-4, 1968, <a href='http://vaticanstamps.org/vaticannotes/idisplay2.php?p=099-02&r=0'>The Coat Of Arms Of Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti)</a>
<li>Vatican Philatelic Society, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search

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