Pope Pius IX (Italian: Pio IX, Pio Nono; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican Council in 1868 and for permanently losing control of the Papal States in 1870 to the Kingdom of Italy. Thereafter, he refused to leave Vatican City, declaring himself a "prisoner in the Vatican".
At the time of his election, he was seen as a champion of liberalism and reform, but the Revolutions of 1848 decisively reversed his policies. Upon the assassination of his Prime Minister Rossi, Pius escaped Rome and excommunicated all participants in the short-lived Roman Republic. After its suppression by the French army and his return in 1850, his policies and doctrinal pronouncements became increasingly conservative, seeking to stem the revolutionary tide.
In his 1849 encyclical Ubi primum, he emphasized Mary's role in salvation. In 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. His 1864 Syllabus of Errors was a strong condemnation against liberalism, modernism, moral relativism, secularization, separation of church and state, and other Enlightenment ideas. Pius definitively reaffirmed Catholic teaching in favor of the establishment of the Catholic faith as the state religion where possible. His appeal for financial support resulted in the successful revival of donations known as Peter's Pence. He centralized power in the church in the Holy See and Roman Curia, while also clearly defining the Pope's doctrinal authority. His chief legacy is the dogma of papal infallibility. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2000.
Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti was born on 13 May 1792 in Senigallia. He was the ninth child born into the noble family of Girolamo dei Conti Ferretti (1750–1833) and Caterina Antonia Maddalena Solazzei di Fano (1764–1842). He was baptized on the day of his birth with the names Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro. He was educated at the Piarist College in Volterra and in Rome. As a young man in the Guardia Nobile the young Count Mastai was engaged to be married to an Irishwoman, Miss Foster (the daughter of the Bishop of Kilmore William Foster), and arrangements were made for the wedding to take place in the Church of San Luigi Dei Francesi. Mastai's parents opposed the marriage, and he did not appear at the church on the appointed day.
Illustration showing Mastai-Ferretti at his first Holy Mass in 1819
In 1814, as a theology student in his hometown of Sinigaglia, he met Pope Pius VII, who had returned from French captivity. In 1815, he entered the Papal Noble Guard but was soon dismissed after an epileptic seizure. He threw himself on the mercy of Pius VII, who elevated him and supported his continued theological studies.
The pope originally insisted that another priest should assist Mastai during Holy Mass, a stipulation rescinded after the seizure attacks became less frequent. Mastai was ordained a priest on 10 April 1819. He initially worked as the rector of the Tata Giovanni Institute in Rome.
Shortly before his death, Pius VII – following Chilean leader Bernardo O'Higgins' wish to have the Pope reorganize the Catholic Church of the new republic – named him Auditor to assist the Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignore Giovanni Muzi in the first mission to post-revolutionary South America. The mission had the objective to map out the role of the Catholic Church in Chile and its relationship with the state, but when it finally arrived in Santiago in March 1824, O'Higgins had been overthrown and replaced by General Freire, who was less well-disposed toward the Church and had already taken hostile measures such as the seizure of Church property. Having ended in failure, the mission returned to Europe. Nevertheless, Mastai had been the first future pope ever to have been in America. Upon his return to Rome, the successor of Pius VII, Pope Leo XII, appointed him head of the hospital of San Michele in Rome (1825–1827) and canon of Santa Maria in Via Lata.
Pope Leo XII appointed the 35-year-old Mastai Ferretti Archbishop of Spoleto in 1827. In 1831, the abortive revolution that had begun in Parma and Modena spread to Spoleto; the Archbishop obtained a general pardon after it was suppressed, gaining him a reputation for being liberal. During an earthquake, he made a reputation as an efficient organizer of relief and great charity. The following year he was moved to the more prestigious diocese of Imola, was made a cardinal in pectore in 1839, and in 1840 was publicly announced as Cardinal-Priest of Santi Marcellino e Pietro. As in Spoleto, his episcopal priorities were the formation of priests through improved education and charities. He became known for visiting prisoners in jail and for programs for street children. Cardinal Mastai Ferretti was considered a liberal during his episcopate in Spoleto and Imola because he supported administrative changes in the Papal States and sympathized with the nationalist movement in Italy.
Cardinal Mastai Ferretti entered the papacy in 1846, amidst widespread expectations that he would be a champion of reform and modernization in the Papal States, which he ruled directly, and in the entire Catholic Church. Admirers wanted him to lead the battle for Italian independence. His later turn toward profound conservatism shocked and dismayed his original supporters, while surprising and delighting the conservative old guard.