Born Mastai Ferretti in Senigallia of
Italian nobility on May 13, 1792, Pope Pius IX
was epileptic until age 30.
Ordained a priest in 1819, he managed an
orphanage, was a judge with the papal legate in Chile, and managed a hospice
in Rome. Pope Pius IX was
Archbishop of Spoleto and Imola becoming a cardinal in 1840 and pope on July
21, 1846.
Pope Pius IX
was intensely pius and profoundly religious. He proclaimed the Dogma
of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854, that the Blessed
Mother was conceived without Original Sin.
During the papacy of Pope
Pius IX, on December 8, 1869, Vatican I Council
reaffirmed the doctrine of the primacy and infallibility of the pope.
Although Pope
Pius IX was apolitical, he denounced pantheism, naturalism,
rationalism, socialism, communism, and liberalism. There was much political
upheaval in Italy during Pope Pius IX's papacy including the end of Papal
Rome.
Pope Pius IX
died February 7, 1878.
