![[photograph of Pope Leo XIII]](pope0256b.jpg "photograph of Pope Leo XIII, date unknown, photographer unknown; please do not write to ask about the image")
Leo’s election changed the course of the papacy. He was a modern man of his times, and he worked, by preaching and writing, to bring Catholic attitudes into the modern world without losing it's core. He managed to end Kulturkampf in 1887. He tried to bring French Catholics to support the republic. His 1885 encyclical Immortale Dei explained the position of Catholics as citizens in modern secular, democratic states. He refuted the French royalists' claim that they were exceptional Catholics, and the French anti-Catholics contention that the Church was politically reactionary; overall he supported and vindicated Catholic democrats He opposed the anti-Catholic government of Italy. In Rerum novarum in 1891, Leo explained the sad deficiencies of Marxism and gave an early warning of the misery it would inflict on the world. He countered intellectual attacks on Christianity by advancing Thomism, with its insistence that there is no conflict between science and faith; he wrote Aeterni Patris in 1879 in which he declared the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas official, and required its study. He founded the institute of Thomistic philosophy at the University of Louvain. He opened the Vatican secret archives to scholars, and reminded Catholic historians that nothing but the whole truth must be found in their work. He encouraged Bible study, set up the permanent Biblical Commission in 1902, and sponsored the Catholic University at Washington, DC, USA. First pope to have his voice recorded. The length of his reign, over 25 years, allowed him to stock the college of cardinals with many excellent men; he created 147 of them.
elected 20 February 1878;
crowned on 3 March 1878
20 July 1903 in Vatican City of natural causes buried in Saint Peter's basilica re-interred in Saint John Lateran basilica on 22 October 1924
1881: Blessed Bertrand of Garrigue 1886: Blessed John Shert 1886: Blessed Richard Thirkeld 1886: Blessed Robert Johnson 1886: Saint Edmund Campion 1886: Saint Richard Reynolds 1888: Saint Giles Mary of Saint Joseph 1889: Saint John Gabriel Perboyre 1893: Blessed Falco 1893: Saint Gerard Majella 1893: Saint John Alcober 1893: Saint Peter Sanz 1894: Saint John of Avila 1895: Blessed Adrian Forescue 1895: Blessed Jane of Toulouse 1895: Blessed John Rugg 1895: Blessed John Beche 1899: Blessed Raymond of Capua 1900: Blessed Mary Margaret Martinego 1900: Saint Ignatius Delgado
1881: Saint Benedict Joseph Labre 1881: Saint Clare of Montefalco 1881: Saint John Baptist de Rossi 1881: Saint Lawrence of Brindisi 1883: Saint Charles the Good 1887: Saint Alexis Falconeri 1887: Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez 1888: Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order 1888: Saint John Berchmans 1888: Saint Peter Claver 1890: Saint Lydwina of Schiedam 1897: Saint Anthony M Zaccaria 1897: Saint Peter Fourier of Our Lady 1899: Saint Bede 1900: Saint John Baptist de La Salle 1900: Saint Rita of Cascia
1902: Saint Eurosia Gallery of images of [9 images, 117 kb] portrait of City University of New York portrait portrait painting, by Fülop Elek László marble bust, by Ernesto Gazzeri photograph of his tomb statuary statue, by Ettore Ferrari portrait portrait at AEIOU encyclopedia postage stamp photograph medallion Wikipedia Columbia Encyclopedia Catholic-Hierarchy.Org Popes Through The Ages, by Father Joseph Brusher Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, by Salvador Miranda Google Directory: Pope Leo Google Directory: Works Online Ducal House of Maxalla Catholic Encyclopedia, by U Benigni Vatican New Catholic Dictionary