Pius IX reigned during a tumultuous time in European history, from the years preceding the 1848 rebelllions, through the Wars of Italian Unification, and the loss of the temporal domains of the pope. He was greatly loved by Catholics the world over for his courageous leadership in the struggle against atheistic nationalism and resistance to modernist errors, but despised by Liberals who scoffed at the "infallibility" of Church teachings and traditions. Show All     Download:     PDF       EPUB

HIS HOLINESS POPE PIUS IX.

Preface

There is not a Catholic family in which the little ones do not recognize the portrait of our Holy Father, Pope Pius IX, and look upon it with affection and reverence. The war which the world has waged upon him so unrelentingly as Pope and Prince has drawn all faithful hearts to him, while his piety, charity, patience, and gentleness endear him personally to every Catholic.

There are, unfortunately, few lives of this great Pope in the hands of the people. In time, elaborate works will come rich in documents and illustrations, for those whose leisure permits them to study thoroughly the history of our century: our aim is a modest one: it is simply to give the general reader as vivid a picture as we can in brief of what our loved and venerated Pope has done and suffered and accomplished; to picture his character so as to make it as well known among us as his countenance, and thus rivet more firmly the loyalty and attachment which bind the faithful to the See of Peter and to the two hundred and fifty-eighth of the Sovereign Pontiffs, who began with the Prince of the Apostles.

Catholic princes and governments have ceased to exist: the Church addresses herself to the Catholic hearts of her people: Pope Pius IX looks to them for the moral support which, under heaven, is to sustain him in his trials, and to these devoted adherents of our beloved Pope we offer our brief sketch.