Pope Pius XI
1857 CE–1939 CE · Modern · Milan
Born Achille Ratti, a scholar and former Vatican librarian, Pius XI guided the Church through the turbulent interwar years. In 1929 he signed the Lateran Treaty with Mussolini's Italy, resolving the Roman Question and creating the sovereign Vatican City State. He concluded concordats with several states, including Germany in 1933, but later sharply criticized totalitarianism: his 1937 encyclicals condemned Nazi racial ideology (Mit brennender Sorge) and atheistic communism (Divini Redemptoris). He promoted Catholic Action, the missions, and devotion to Christ the King. His pontificate balanced pragmatic diplomacy with growing moral resistance to fascist and Nazi regimes.
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MilanItaly
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About Milan
Milan, in the Po plain of northern Italy, is the capital of Lombardy and the country's economic centre. As Roman Mediolanum it served as a capital of the Western Roman Empire from the late third century until 402, and in 313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan there, granting toleration to Christians and others. Its bishop Ambrose (374-397), the city's patron saint, baptised Augustine. Under the Visconti and Sforza dukes it became a leading Renaissance city, where Leonardo da Vinci worked at court and painted the Last Supper; Spanish and then Austrian rule followed. Jews were expelled in the sixteenth century, but a community re-formed in the nineteenth and opened the city's central synagogue in 1892.
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