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The popes · No. 255 of 267

Blessed Pius IX

The longest reign in papal history, a dogma, a council, and the loss of Rome.

Pope 1846 to 78

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A photograph of Pope Pius IX in 1875, seated in white cassock and cape.

Adolphe Braun, 1875. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The popes / Blessed Pius IX

Rome, 8 December 1854

In St Peter’s, Pius IX solemnly defines that Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her conception.1

Sixteen years later Italian troops will enter Rome and the Papal States will be gone.2

He reigned for thirty-two years, the longest of any pope after Peter, through the end of a world.

01Blessed Pius IX

Exile and return

Elected in 1846 as a hoped-for reformer, Pius fled Rome in disguise during the revolution of 1848.2

He returned in 1850, and governed the Church through decades of conflict with the new Italian state.2

02Blessed Pius IX

The First Vatican Council

In 1869 he opened the First Vatican Council, which defined the infallibility of the pope when he teaches solemnly on faith and morals.2

The Church teaches that this infallibility is a charism for the faithful guarding of revelation, not a personal gift of sinlessness.3

Vatican-assemblee-1870-119120 2
The First Vatican Council in session in St Peter’s Basilica, 1869 to 1870, in a contemporary print. Unknown author, 1870. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

When Rome fell in 1870, Pius considered himself a prisoner in the Vatican.2

He lost a kingdom. The papacy he left behind was poorer, freer and listened to across the whole world.

His successor would write about factory workers.

Notes

  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 491. vatican.va
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Pope Pius IX”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 891. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.