Blessed Pope Innocent XI
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- Also known as
- Benedetto Odescalchi
- Memorial
- 12 August
- Profile
- Born to a pious patrician family; his brother became bishop of Novara, Italy.
Benedetto felt an early call to the priesthood.
Educated by Jesuits at ComoComo, Italy.
Apprentice at his family's bank in Genoa, Italy when he was fifteen.
Studied law at Rome and Naples, and received his Doctor of law degree in 1639.
Protonotary apostolic to Pope Urban VIII.
President of the Apostolic Chamber.
Commissary at Ancona, Italy.
Papal administrator of Macerata.
Papal financial commissary in the Marches.
Governor of Picena.
Cardinal-deacon of Santi Cosma e Damiano on 6 March 1645.
Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature of Grace on 22 January 1647.
Cardinal-priest of Sant' Onofrio.
Papal legate to Ferrara to oversee famine relief on 15 June 1648.
Bishop from Novara on 4 April 1650 to 6 March 1656.
Noted for spending all the revenues of his see in charity to the poor and sick.
Part of the conclave of 1655 that chose Pope Alexander VII.
Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals from 12 January 1660 to 24 January 1661.
Papal legate to Ferrara in 1666.
Part of the conclave of 1667 that chose Pope Clement IX.
Part of the conclave of 1669 - 1670 that chose Pope Clement X; was nearly elected himself.
Chosen 240th pope on 21 September 1676 after a two month inter-regnum, taking the name Innocent XI.
Stood against the meddling in Church affairs by King Louis XIV of France; Louis tried to get back in papal favour by persecuting Protestants, but Innocent immediately pleaded for a halt to the abuse.
Fought nepotism in Church bureaucracy, worked to reduce the expenses of the Curia.
Encouraged catechetical instruction.
He disapproved of James II's method of attempting to restore Catholicism in England, but it is not true that he supported William of Orange against the king.
Fought Jansenism, Quietism, and the heresies promoted by Molinos.
He encouraged daily Communion, insisted on a high standard of education in the seminaries, condemned immodesty in dress, gambling, and laxism in moral theology.
Noted for his simple, pious life both before and after his ascension to the papacy.
- Born
- 19 May 1611 at Como, Italy as Benedetto Odescalchi
- Papal Ascension
-
elected unanimously on 21 September 1676
installed on 4 October 1676
- Died
-
12 August 1689 at Rome, Italy of natural causes
buried in a mausoleum under the altar of San Sebastiano in Saint Peter's basilica, Vatican City
- Beatified
- 7 October 1956 by Venerable Pope Pius XII
- Canonized
- pending
- Images
-
mausoleum statuary
profile on a medal
- Additional Information
-
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic-Hierarchy.Org
New Catholic Dictionary
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
Wikipedia
- Beatifications
-
1677: Blessed Amadeus IX of Savoy
1678: Saint Julia Falconieri
1679: Saint Turibius of Mogroveio
1683: Saint Peter Regulatus
1685: Blessed Simon of Lipnicza
1686: Blessed Peter Armengol
1687: Blessed Anthony of Stroncone
- Canonizations
- none
- Writings
-
Sollicitudo Pastoralis: Fostering and Preserving the Orders of Men Religious, 20 November 1679
Coelestis Pastor: Condemning the Errors of Miguel de Molinos, 20 November 1687
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