Results for all Popes 1 - 52 of 52. |
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Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born in Bavaria April 16th, 1927 on Holy Saturday. His childhood was spent near the Austrian border not far from Salzburg, an experience he defined as Mozartian. These youthful years were not ea... read more » |
2005-present |
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Blessed John Paul II was a man of tremendous prayerful holiness and great personal prestige who influenced a generation with his long pontificate and great magnetic appeal. He has been called, the Great, a term used only ... read more » |
1978-2005 |
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Albino Luciani was born in Belluno, Italy October 17th, 1912. He was the oldest of four children whose mother was a very devout Catholic and whose father was a socialist. In 1923, at the age of eleven, he entered the seminary... read more » |
1978 |
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The Pilgrim Pope Giovanni Battista Montini was born in Concesio near Brescia, September 26th, 1897. His father, a non-practicing lawyer, served three terms in Parliament and was a courageous supporter of the Catholic Social M... read more » |
1963-1978 |
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Angelo Roncalli was born in Sotto il Monte, Italy, November 25, 1881. He was the fourth of fourteen children born to a devout Catholic family of sharecroppers. His religious education came from his family and from the spiritu... read more » |
1958-1963 |
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Eugenio Pacelli was born in Rome on March 2nd, 1876 to an old aristocratic Roman family in service to the Vatican for generations. His grandfather, father and brother all held important positions. Most notably, his brother Fr... read more » |
1939-1958 |
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Achille Ratti was born May 31, 1857, near Milan, the son of a silk factory manager. He entered the seminary at the age of ten where his scholastic abilities were soon recognized. Ratti eventually earned doctorates in theology... read more » |
1922-1939 |
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Giacomo della Chiesa was born in Genoa in 1854, the sixth child of an old aristocratic family with familial ties to popes in the distant past. His desire to become a priest was initially thwarted by his father who insisted he... read more » |
1914-1922 |
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Giuseppe Sarto was born in Riese in 1835 into a large family of limited means. He studied in Castelfranco, displaying remarkable academic abilities while still very young. From 1850 – 1858, he studied at the seminary in... read more » |
1903-1914 |
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Gioacchino Pecci was born in 1810 in Carpineto, located about forty miles southeast of Rome, the sixth of seven children. His was a devoutly religious family originally from Siena. His intellectual brilliance was apparent in ... read more » |
1878-1903 |
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Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti was born in the coastal town of Senigallia in 1772, the fourth son of a count. He studied theology in Viterbo and Rome and in 1815, at the age of twenty-three, entered the Papal Noble Guard. He was di... read more » |
1846-1878 |
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Bartolomeo Cappellari was born in Belluno in 1765 to an aristocratic family where his father was an attorney. Against their wishes he entered a Camaldolese, that is, a strict Benedictine, monastery in Venice. He took the ... read more » |
1831-1846 |
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Francesco Xaverio Castiglione was born in Cingoli near Ancona in 1761 of a noble family. Cingoli is located about 280 kilometers north of Rome near the Adriatic Sea. He was educated at Osimo and later studied canon law in Bol... read more » |
1829-1830 |
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Annibale Sermattei della Genga was born in 1760 of noble parents near Spoleto, an ancient city located about seventy-eight miles from Rome in the province of Perugia. He was the fifth of eleven children and was educated in Ro... read more » |
1823-1829 |
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Luigi Chiramonte was born in the coastal city of Cesena of noble, but impoverished parents in 1742. Around the age of sixteen, he entered a Benedictine monastery, taking the name of Gregorio. He studied at Parma and Rome and ... read more » |
1800-1823 |
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Giovanni Angelo Braschi was born on Christmas day in 1717 to an aristocratic and impoverished Italian family from Cesena. In 1735, at the age of seventeen, he graduated in law from Cesena. His first assignments were with Card... read more » |
1775-1799 |
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Giovanni Vincenzo Ganganelli was born at Sant’ Arcangelo in 1705, the son of the village doctor who died when Giovanni was a child. He joined the Franciscans at seventeen years of age and took the name of his father, Lo... read more » |
1769-1774 |
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Carlo della Torre Rezzonico was born in Venice to an extremely wealthy family of merchants. His uncle was the patriarch of Venice. Rezzonico studied with the Jesuits in Bologna and graduated in 1713 from Padua with a law degr... read more » |
1758-1769 |
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Prospero Lambertini was born in Bologna in 1675 to noble but impoverished parents. His earliest education was with tutors. He proved to be a brilliant student, excelling in legal studies in Rome at the Collegio Clemantino... read more » |
1740-1758 |
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Lorenzo Corsini was born in Florence in 1652, the oldest son in an aristocratic family that had produced a cardinal of the Church in every generation for one hundred years. His earliest studies were in Florence followed by th... read more » |
1730-1740 |
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Pietro Francesco Orsini was born in 1649 to the aristocratic Orsini family that had two popes in its ancestry: Celestine III and Nicholas III. Despite great opposition from his relatives, he renounced his inheritance and join... read more » |
1724-1730 |
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Michaelangelo dei Conti was born in 1655 near Palestrina in Poli. The son of an illustrious Italian family, his ancestors included three 13th-century popes: Innocent III, Gregory IX and Alexander IV. Michaelangelo studied at ... read more » |
1721-1724 |
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Giovanni Francesco Albani was born in Urbino in 1649 to an aristocratic Umbrian family originally from Albania. He received a classical education, studying at the Academy of the deposed Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome. He r... read more » |
1700-1721 |
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Antonio Pignatelli was born at Spinazzola, currently Publia, to an aristocratic family of the Kingdom of Naples. His family was considered one of the most illustrious in Naples, traceable not only to the Crusades, but also to... read more » |
1691-1700 |
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Pietro Ottoboni was born of a noble Venetian family in 1610. Early success for him came as a student when he earned a law degree at seventeen years of age. Soon after, he entered the curial service. He served as governor in t... read more » |
1689-1691 |
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Benedetto Odescalchi was born in 1611 into an Italian family of wealthy merchants in Como, a town in the Lombardy region in the north of Italy. His early studies in human sciences were with the Jesuits at his local college. B... read more » |
1676-1689 |
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Emilio Altieri was born in Rome in 1590, the son of a noble Roman family. He received a doctorate in law from the Roman College in 1611 and worked for Giambattista Pamphili, the future Innocent X, in the Rota, the Supreme... read more » |
1670-1676 |
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Giulio Rospigliosi was born in 1600 to an aristocratic family in Pistoria. He studied liberal arts with the Jesuits and eventually earned doctorates in philosophy and theology at the University of Pisa where he also taught. B... read more » |
1667-1669 |
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Fabio Chigi was born at Siena in 1599, the son of a distinguished family of bankers. Due to poor health that began in infancy he was educated primarily at home, first by his mother and subsequently by tutors. His love of lear... read more » |
1655-1667 |
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Giambattista Pamphili was born in Rome in 1574, the son of a well-established family from Umbria. His uncle, Cardinal Girolamo Pamphili was his mentor and after graduating in law in 1597 from the Roman College, he began a car... read more » |
1644-1655 |
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Maffeo Barberini was born at Florence, in 1568, the son of wealthy merchants. He studied under the Jesuits there, was a student in Rome and graduated from Pisa in 1589 with a doctorate in law. He was twenty-one years of age. ... read more » |
1623-1644 |
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Ippolito Aldobrandini was born at Fano in 1536, the son of a distinguished Florentine barrister. Through the generosity of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, he studied law at Padua, Perugia and Bologna. B... read more » |
1592-1605 |
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Giovanni Fachinetti was born in Bologna in 1519 to a family of modest means. He received a doctorate in law there in 1544. He was twenty-five years of age. Fachinetti then joined the staff of Cardinal Farnese, the future Pope... read more » |
1591 |
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Niccolo Sfondrati was born near Milan on February 11, 1535, the son of a Milanese senator whose mother died in childbirth. Upon her death, the senator became a cardinal and was himself considered a possible choice for the pap... read more » |
1590-1591 |
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Felice Peretti, the son of a farm worker, was born in 1520 in Grottammare, a town on Italy’s Adriatic coast across the sea from Dalmatia in what is now Croatia/Montenegro. They had emigrated to avoid the persecution of ... read more » |
1585-1590 |
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Ugo Boncompagni was born in Bologna in 1502, the fourth son of a merchant and an aristocratic mother. He was educated at the University of Bologna, earning a doctorate in law. For the next eight years he remained there as a l... read more » |
1572-1585 |
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Antony Ghislieri was born to humble parents in 1504. As a child he had been a shepherd. He entered the Dominican order at age fourteen and his conduct there was exemplary, particularly his devotion to an ascetic life style. T... read more » |
1566-1572 |
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Gian Angelo Medici, born in 1499 in Milan to an impoverished family, received his initial education through charitable means. He studied medicine and received a doctoral degree in law at Bologna in 1525. Within two years, Med... read more » |
1559-1565 |
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Giovanni del Monte was born in Rome in 1487, the son of a brilliant lawyer. He studied law at Perugia and Siena and became the chamberlain to Pope Julius II (1503 – 1513). In 1511, at the age of twenty-four, he received... read more » |
1550-1555 |
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Alessandro Farnese, an Italian from near Viterbo, was the son of wealthy landowners. He was educated in the home of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence and at the University of Pavia. Until he was forty-five years old, papal... read more » |
1534-1549 |
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Giulio de’ Medici, the illegitimate son of Giuliano de’Medici, was born in 1479 shortly after the murder of his father in the cathedral of Florence. Raised by his uncle, “Lorenzo the Magnificent”, Giul... read more » |
1523-1534 |
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In 1453, Guiliano della Rovere was born to humble parents in Liguria. As the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (1471 – 1484) he, like other nephews of popes, received special treatment that paved the way for his ascension to the... read more » |
1503-1513 |
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Roderigo do Borja y Borja (Borgia) was born in 1431 near Valencia, Spain. As the nephew of the bishop of Valencia, who became Pope Callistus III in 1455, Roderigo enjoyed the benefits provided by him. He was educated in Bolog... read more » |
1492-1503 |
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Pope Sixtus IV (1471 – 1484) Francesco della Rovere, the son of wealthy merchants, was born in 1414 near Savona and educated in Bologna and Padua. He joined the Franciscan order in Savona and distinguished himself with ... read more » |
1471-1484 |
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Pietro Barbo, the son of wealthy Venetian merchants intended a career in business when his uncle became Pope Eugene IV (1431 to 1447). Pietro, born in 1418, was thirteen years old at the time and with the support of his mothe... read more » |
1464-1471 |
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Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini was born to an aristocratic, if impoverished, Italian family, the oldest of eighteen children. While studying canon law in Siena and Florence, he simultaneously steeped himself in humanist culture, ... read more » |
1458-1464 |
| Era: 1410-1415 | Prior to reading the biographical information about Antipope John XXIII, you may visit Ask the Expert on this website for additional information about antipopes. Baldassare Cossa was born around 1370 in the Kingdom of... read more » |
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Pope Gregory XI (1370 – 1378) Pierre Roger de Beaufort, an aristocratic Frenchman from the Limousin, was born in 1329 and was a nephew of Pope Clement VI (1342 – 1352). In such an atmosphere of privilege, one coul... read more » |
1370-1378 |
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Pope John XXII (1316 – 1334) Jacques d'Euse, a Frenchman from Cahors, was born about 1244 to a family of wealthy bourgeois. His early career was as a cardinal priest. He ascended the papacy with the clear intention to r... read more » |
1316-1334 |
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Pope Clement IV (1265 – 1268) Guy Foulques, a Frenchman from Provence, ascended the throne of the papacy in 1265 when he was seventy years old. A trusted confidant of (St.) Louis IX, king of France, Guy Foulques was a f... read more » |
1265-1268 |
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Pope Innocent III (1198 – 1216) Lotario de’ Conti was born about 1160 to an aristocratic Italian family. Over a period of 500 years, his family gave the Church thirteen popes, three anti popes, forty cardinals and... read more » |
1198-1216 |
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St. Deusdedit, whose birth date is unknown, was the son of a Roman subdeacon, Stephen, who was elected to succeed Pope Boniface IV in October, 615. Little is known about him other than he had already served as a priest for fo... read more » |
615-618 |
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