Blessed Pius IX

piusix

  • By Roberto de Mattei

    • Release Date: September 01, 2004
    Publisher: Gracewing
    Pages: 224pp.

    The solemn beatification of Pope Pius IX in 2000 was a celebration of the heroic virtue of one of the most influential figures of the 19th century. This book is the story of his pontificate, the longest after St Peter’s, which unfolded against the historical background of turmoil and revolution in Italy and Europe. To the English reader, Pius IX is best known for the restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy, the convening of the First Vatican Council, and for the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and of Papal Infallibility. He played a central role in the drama of the Risorgimento that led to Italy’s unification. He was quick to identify the threat posed not just to the Church, but also to the foundations of society and morality, by the anti-Christian revolutionary masonic movement, and his steadfast defence of the Papacy, of the social sovereignty of Christ and the truth of Catholic doctrine preserved both Church and Papacy through decades of revolution, exile, occupation and persecution.

    “For the depths of its documentation, the rigour of its analytical discussion, and its doctrinal exactitude, this is a work no serious student of Catholic or European history should do without.” – Sunday Times