Pius XI

Biography

Achille Ratti was born in 1857 in Desio, near Milan, the son of a silk factory owner. Ordained in 1879 and holding three doctorates from the Gregorian University, he spent most of his career as a scholar-librarian: he headed Milan's Ambrosian Library from 1907 and became prefect of the Vatican Library. He was also a serious mountaineer who climbed Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn and the Dufourspitze.

In 1918 Benedict XV sent him to the newly restored Poland, first as apostolic visitor and then as nuncio, a mission that ended with his departure in 1921. He was made archbishop of Milan and a cardinal that June, and in February 1922 the conclave elected him pope on the fourteenth ballot.

As Pius XI he concluded a record number of concordats, including the 1933 Reichskonkordat with Germany, and settled the dispute with the Italian state through the Lateran Treaty of 1929, which created Vatican City. His encyclicals addressed social justice, marriage and the feast of Christ the King, and he promoted lay Catholic Action and founded Vatican Radio.

In his last years he spoke out against Fascism and Nazism, condemning Nazi violations of the concordat in Mit brennender Sorge in 1937. He died in the Apostolic Palace in February 1939.