Pope Pius IX

Pope of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878

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Fame74.2
Momentum10.8
Italy rank#131
Religious Figures rank#17
Wikipedia124K

Lived 1792–1878, aged 86Italy

Italy Religious Figures

Wikipedia
95 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Italy
#131
Religious Figures
Era
1792–1878
Aged 86

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

The longest-reigning pope in verified history spent his final eight years refusing to leave the Vatican, calling himself a prisoner after Italian forces seized Rome. He convened the council that defined papal infallibility, then watched his temporal kingdom collapse.

Biography

About

Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti became Pope Pius IX on 16 June 1846 as a liberal reformer who eased Jewish restrictions and pardoned revolutionaries. The Revolutions of 1848 shattered that course: his prime minister was assassinated, he fled Rome after being held prisoner in his own palace, and he excommunicated the participants in the Roman Republic that briefly replaced him. After French troops restored him in 1850, his policies hardened sharply — the 1864 Syllabus of Errors condemned liberalism, secularization, and Enlightenment thought outright. He convoked the First Vatican Council in 1868, whic…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX

said21 Nov 1873

Some of you may perchance wonder that the war against the Catholic Church extends so widely.

— Encyclical Etsi multa, 21 November 1873, St. Peter's Basilica, and also readable on the Holy See website

Pope Pius IX

said17 Mar 1856

Certainly the Church does not condemn the efforts of those who want to know the truth, since it is God who made it the nature of man to be most eager to grasp truth.

— Encyclical Singulari Quidem, 17 March 1856, St. Peter's Basilica

Pope Pius IX

saidundated