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Pope Benedict XV

Pope Benedict XV

1854 CE1922 CE · Modern · Genoa

Born Giacomo della Chiesa into Genoese nobility, Benedict XV was elected weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, which dominated his pontificate. A trained diplomat, he maintained strict Vatican neutrality, denounced the conflict as 'the suicide of civilized Europe,' and in 1917 issued a seven-point peace note that belligerents largely ignored. He devoted Church resources to relief work, prisoner exchanges, and aid to refugees and children. He completed the 1917 Code of Canon Law begun under Pius X and worked to ease anti-Modernist tensions within the Church. Often overlooked, his humanitarian diplomacy earned wide respect.

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Stop 0 of 41854–1875Born

Genoa

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Genoa

Genoa, a port city and capital of Liguria, northwestern Italy. A major maritime republic in the Middle Ages, it was the birthplace or family seat of several popes (including the della Rovere and Cybo lines) and an important archiepiscopal see.

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Benedict XV’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Pope St. Pius X, Pope Pius XII

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope Benedict XV’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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